HCR 84: REquesting the Auditor to conduct an audit of the MONEYS appropriated to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Pursuant to Act 279, Session laws of hawaii 2022.

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REquesting the Auditor to conduct an audit of the MONEYS appropriated to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Pursuant to Act 279, Session laws of hawaii 2022.

WHEREAS, Act 279, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022 ("Act 279"), as amended by Act 125, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024, appropriated $600,000,000 to eliminate the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waitlist by providing land and housing to native Hawaiians; and

     WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands was authorized to use the appropriated moneys to develop residential lots and housing units, purchase land, provide financial assistance to the waitlisted applicants, and other necessary services; and

     WHEREAS, Act 279 mandates that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands establish a strategic plan that aligns with the beneficiaries' preferences, as identified in the 2020 Beneficiaries Study Applicant Report, with seventy-six percent of beneficiaries preferring a single-family home or a vacant lot for home construction, and sixteen percent preferring rental or rent-to-own options for single-family homes, duplexes, apartments, or townhouses; and

WHEREAS, as of 2022, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waitlist included over 28,700 native Hawaiian beneficiaries, a number that remains relatively unchanged by late 2024 despite the intent of Act 279; and

WHEREAS, On January 17, 2024, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands submitted its required Annual Activity Report which stated that the Department encumbered and expended approximately $193.7 million, with the projected total of 1,489 applicants on the waiting list having been assisted; and

WHEREAS, the entire appropriation of $600,000,000 was reportedly attached to projects by early 2025, targeting over seven thousand five hundred homes and lots over the next five years; and

     WHEREAS, as of March 5, 2025, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has not submitted its Annual Activity Report to the Legislature, as required by Act 279, to account for the expenditures made for the purposes of Act 279 in the previous fiscal year, and to account for the number of applicants on the waiting list that have been assisted; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Thirty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2025, the Senate concurring, that the Auditor is requested to conduct an audit on the Department of the Hawaiian Home Lands as related to the moneys allocated to it pursuant to Act 279 and the 2020 Beneficiaries Study Applicant Report; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor and the Chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission.

Report Title: 

Department of Hawaiian Home Lands; Auditor; Audit; Act 279, Session Laws of 2022; Act 125, Session Laws of Hawaii 2024