ハワイ旅行･ホテル･ショッピング･グルメ･求人

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) has announced that it will be working with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) to provide up to $90 million over 30 years to Hawaiian Home Lands programs to cover the interest payments on bonds to build housing projects for Native Hawaiians. Created in 1920 by the US Congress, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands set aside roughly 200,000 acres to be leased to anyone with 50 percent or more Hawaiian blood for $1 a year. Due to a lack of funding, however, the DHHL has delivered only 5,941 lots in the last 82 years.

The deal comes as DHHL’s state funding is set to expire in 2015. DHHL operating budget has received funding from the legislature because of a land settlement case against the state back in 1994. In that case, the state legislature was forced to pay out $30 million a year to fund the department until 2015 for land used by the state. DHHL has also sought revenue by leasing land for commercial use on the Big Island and Oahu.

The new agreement with OHA will allow DHHL to borrow $41 million in the form of revenue bonds sold to private investors later this year. The money will allow DHHL to build roads, water lines and sewer systems on land slated for development. It also means that DHHL will be able to build around 500 new homes around the Islands this year. In each of the past two years, the department has produced about 1,000 lots for lease around the state.