by Andrew Walden
Somebody should tell OHA Trustee Keoni Souza the State Auditor’s report on HomeAid reveals a scandal, not a business plan.
Chairing the October 7, 2026 OHA Investment and Land Management (ILM) Committee, Souza pushed through approval of $5.7M for what could become OHA's third round of fake Kakaako Makai ‘planning’.
Souza’s idea, agendized as ILM #26-11, is to funnel millions to a non-profit that does not actually yet exist so OHA can violate procurement code to pay insiders to write up a useless plan for development of property OHA does not own. Underlying the scheme, a “Native Hawaiian Cultural Center Feasibility Study and Business Model” prepared by AEA Consulting, August 10, 2026, but withheld from the ILM meeting packet as ‘confidential.’ (See pg 96)
Souza’s plan, if approved by the full Board of Trustees, would authorize the waste of beneficiary money to develop plans for a ‘cultural center’ on the Look Lab site—a Point Panic property with a decaying metal building owned by the City and County of Honolulu, not OHA. September 3, nearly a month after the AEA report was delivered, Souza told media OHA and the City were ‘in exploratory discussions’ about the lab site. He has been milking it for campaign season TV time ever since.
Does the AEA report even mention the Look Lab site? In an April, 2026 Ka Wai Ola article, OHA’s Bill Brennan explains the AEA study “supports OHA’s long-term vision of revitalizing its 29 acres of Kakaʻako Makai property awarded to OHA in 2012” adding, “The proposed cultural center is an opportunity to transform vacant land….” There is no mention of acquiring an additional Kakaako Makai property with a pre-existing building on it.
In a transparent move to illegally evade state procurement code, OHA would create a so-called ‘independent’ non-profit to receive the $5.7M. Under HRS §10-17, OHA cannot legally write grants to a non-profit that is neither registered with DCCA nor determined to be ‘501c3’ exempt from federal income taxation by the IRS.
The non-profit, entirely ‘dependent’ on OHA for funding, would handle the usual nebulous deliverables:
- Recruitment and hiring of an executive director and project manager.
- Legal and site due diligence.
- Conceptual design and preliminary cost estimates.
- Fundraising preparation.
- Community and cultural engagement.
As always, OHA insiders would get plum salaries and contacts. Three years hence, OHA beneficiaries will be out $5.7M for another worthless OHA Kakaako Makai development study gathering dust on a shelf. Not a shovelful of dirt will turn.
OHA has done this before:
2016: Ethics Complaint: OHA Insiders Take Kickbacks from Kakaako Makai Projects
2023: Dead Bodies, Convicted Felons and Kakaako Makai: Meet the new Gang at OHA
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
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KWO April, 2026: Feasibility Study Underway for Kakaʻako Makai Cultural Center (pg 5)