Senate Standing Committee on Hawaiian Affairs

Okay. Calling to order the Joint Committee on Ways and Means and Hawaiian Affairs. So this morning we'll hear from the Department of Hawaiian Homelands who will present their biennial budget requests. Good morning. Happy New Year.

Happy New Year. Honorable Chairs Della Cruz and Richards and Vice Chairs Moriwaki and Favela and distinguished members of the committees, aloha.

Aloha.

My name is Kali Watson. I'm here along with staff today on behalf of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, respectfully to request funding for critical projects, repair and maintenance efforts, as well as operational expenses to support the health, safety, and welfare of the Native Hawaiian beneficiaries throughout the State of Hawaii.

I've submitted written testimony along with attached tables that go into details as to all the things that we've been doing. As you know, the department plays an essential role in fulfilling the state's commitment to Native Hawaiians by administering the Hawaiian Homes Lands Trust.

As we all know, this trust was established by the federal government way back in 1920, 21, and provided land and resources--well limited resources to the Native Hawaiians to secure self-sufficiency as well as perpetuate the Hawaiian culture and way of life.

The state took on this responsibility as part of the condition to statehood, but also incorporates that in our state constitution pursuant to Article 12, Section 1, as well as lays out the four purposes under that particular section. I would like to also acknowledge the committee's role in supporting the Hawaiian beneficiaries.

You play a very, very crucial role in making sufficient sums available for the purposes of lots, developments, loans, rehabilitation projects, as well as our administration and operating budget.

I'd have to also acknowledge the prior act of this, Act 279 of this body, and really allowing the program to pivot and move forward on developing and getting people off the waitlist. Without that funding, you know, let's face it, we would just perpetuate the poor operational end results of the Trust Program.

You know, in the over 100 years that the program has been in existence, we've only done on average about 100 lots per year, which is very, you know, not only reflective of the land inventory that we had to deal with, which were in primarily the rural islands as well as in very isolated in areas where there was no infrastructure, as well as the fact that over or close to 60% of our lands are unusable.

And so as a result of that, with your flexibility in passing Act 279, we've been able to acquire new lands, good lands, and we continue that process as we speak in looking and identifying additional lands that not only the state has, but also lands in the private sector that we might be able to develop in a more, I guess, viable financial way, but more importantly, a more desirable way for our beneficiaries.

We currently have about, well, actually, 47,297 applications involving 29,543 Native Hawaiians. We have close to 208,000 lands, and as I mentioned, in rural areas in the neighborhood with far from existing infrastructure. With respect to my testimony, I would just note the attachment one kind of lays out the use of the Act 279, gets into specifics as to what projects have developed in the use of the funds.

We have approximately 28 projects that are in place, and of the 28 projects, five are expected to have their first units occupied by 2025, eight by 2026, and three by 2027, and another two by 2028 and two more by 2029.

By the end of calendar year 2030, ten of the 28 projects are anticipated to be fully completed, delivering approximately 1,800 units. So with respect to the 600 million, about 471 million has been encumbered, and the lapse fix involving about 129 million involving ten projects will be resolved prior to the June 30, 2026 deadline.

And as I mentioned, unless there's any particular questions, we've laid out the particular projects that we're looking at. We do have a slide presentation that we wanted to use, with your permission, to kind of highlight some of the projects that we're moving forward on?

You want to introduce your team, too?

Oh, sure. This is Kalani Fronda and Jackie--Katie--excuse me--Katie Lambert, my Deputy Director. And Kalani Fronda, I have to really compliment him in coming to the department. He's been, you know, a real catalyst for moving forward on our various projects.

He's brought not only his skill set, but has been an active recruiter of a lot of new people with the department, including myself, and Katie has taken on the task of trying to, I guess, make changes to our personnel situation. We've increased quite a bit from the 40% vacancy. We've reduced it to about 20%. And she can kind of go into that if you desire, but with that, we may--I'd like to kind of--

What about--you want to introduce your division heads?

Oh, sure. Let's see. Well, we have quite a few. Maybe when--if you want me to call them up and actually show their faces--

Or they can just--

Would you guys stand up, all the division head?

And then just state your name and what division.

Why don't you start, Dave?

David Hoke. I'm the Administrator for the Enforcement Unit.

Morning, Chair. Juan Garcia, Homeland Services Division Administrator. Aloha.

Good morning.

Morning.

Hi. Linda Donalds, Information and Community Relations Office.

Thank you. Okay, go ahead.

Thank you. Yes, as I was mentioning, as is shown on the first slide, we do have about 18 projects already encumbered pre the June 2024 and then the remaining lapse fix amount of under 29 million. We have about ten proxy projects signed up to move forward on, which would result in approximately a little over 6,000 units.

And let me just also add, you know, these numbers, while approved by the Hawaiian Homes Commission, they may be subject to change as we've been moving forward.

In some cases we've identified projects that are more, I guess, shovel ready so we can move forward on them versus others that might have some EA or preliminary development issues that we have to address before we move forward. So our whole approach has been to move as quickly as possible in the development process.

And as a result of that, what we've also done is we've kind of accelerated our awards program to conduct our paper leases initiative, and so even as we sit here in January, we had our Pu'uhona orientation which will result in the balance of the 161 units being awarded.

February is really our coming-out period in which we will really accelerate our program in the form of getting leases out. So for the West Oahu project, the Kahului Kahe, we have about 700 units that we're cranking out as well as the Kaupea, which is 60 units.

So all of those, we're going to go through the orientation process. In the following month, March, we're going to actually make lease awards. Now let me just also say that the actual construction and awarding of these specific parcels within the project won't take place until certain steps are satisfied by our beneficiaries that get a paper lease.

For example, if, you know--we've had some issues with our low-income housing tax credit projects with the option of purchase, lack of understanding, very complex, and I think that requires an orientation workshop so that before they make that selection and choice, they understand the requirements.

There's a restriction on who can be in your household, your annual inspections, you've got to pay rent, and if you violate that you may lose the lease. So with respect to that process, we got to do a workshop so that they can make an informed decision. Especially when you're dealing with individuals that are 60% AMI and below, there's a certain amount of education involved.

With our Habitat Program, there too, also, you know, there's a sweat equity that's involved, certain income restrictions. The turnkey. We have a whole ton of different loan products. The 184A, the 247, various direct loan programs involving loans.

Now, there too, it's a matter of educating the beneficiaries as to choices, which loan product best fits their needs and moving forward with that. But until that's satisfied and they qualify for loan, they're not really in a position--as well as to protect the developer--to move forward on the selection of a specific lot.

Then lastly, those that want to do an owner-builder where they just get the finished lot, they do their own house construction as well as acquire a loan for that. That too is certain steps that have to be taken because that's one thing we don't want to see repeated, where we have lots awarded and they sit there for quite a few years unused.

And that is going--we're going to kind of change that approach where they have to satisfy certain requirements before they are also able to move forward on their owner-builder approach.

Do you have a breakdown of the 18 and the ten projects that you can share with us later? Was that part of the PowerPoint?

That is part of the--Attachment A shows all the different projects. If you go through your--

Okay, no, it's just that you were going over them, so I was going to try to see if anyone could reference it as you were reading it.

Sure. We're just going to--on the PowerPoint, we're just going to highlight some of them, not all of them, but we did want to give you all the projects which are reflected in the matrix which is attached as Attachment One.

So moving forward, you know, one of the things that I think is important to recognize is that we have over 29,000 on our waitlist, and while 600 million seems like a lot of money, we need six billion dollars to eliminate our waitlist, and that only covers infrastructure costs.

That doesn't cover, you know, the vertical construction of the houses. And so as a result of that, we've got the 28 projects, but in some of the projects we've kind of phased it. For example, in the Kahului Kahe project, we're going to do 450 in the first phase.

There's another phase, 2C, involving 250, involving 68 million. So that's going to be part of our request this session for your consideration. And so as you can see, all of these different projects are kind of laid out.

There's a little bit of a change on page 14 of our testimony, the dollar amount--excuse me--page 15, where on the lot development, we actually had more indicated on our request, while in doing a better analysis of what we--as well as the projects, we've actually reduced that significantly. Close to one hundred million.

So the ask is broken down per jurisdiction for the various legislators of that district to consider, which in this particular case will result in close to 2,000 additional units. So if we tack on the 6,000 moving forward with the 600 million as well as the 2,000, we're looking at close to 8,000 coming off of our waitlist, which is significant, as I mentioned.

Okay. Some members asked which page it's on. So it's on page 18?

Page 15 is the original.

No, no, not that one. 18 is the list of projects, and they wanted to know which island. So that starts on 18.

Yeah. If you look at Attachment One, it has it by island as well as by unit.

But it's not part of the documents?

Yeah, it's not part of this one.

I said this earlier. This is just what he put in his testimony.

Right. The breakdown is shown in our Attachment One. So you can go to specific island, look at the--specifically what amounts are set aside under Act 279, as well as the lot development that we're looking at.

Can we get an idea for the island, like Honolulu? What percentage of the people on the waitlist? Honolulu versus Hawaii and Kauai? Because I noticed the amounts and I know possibly the land availability could be a problem, but the amounts, I would imagine more of them are on Honolulu on the waitlist, but it seems like Honolulu's--

Budget request seems lower.

Yes, that's correct. Oahu has the largest. Hawaii Island is second.

But what percentage is it on the waitlist from Honolulu? Oahu?

Sorry, could you repeat that one more time?

What percentage of beneficiaries on the waitlist is from Oahu? Like, is it 50%, 60%, 70% of the people on the waitlist is residing in Oahu?

Roughly about...

Yeah. If you look on page four, there's a table, Exhibit Two, that lays out, by island, the waitlist, as well as a breakout between agricultural, pastoral, and residential. And that gives you a total per island. And it's pretty detailed by island. Okay? Okay, next slide.

Wait, can you go back now?

Oh, sure.

So what was the rationale then? Because if the majority of the waitlist is Oahu, why did Oahu receive one of the lower amounts?

Yeah, I guess--and again--that's part of a reflection of our land inventory. If you look at the 207,000 acres for Oahu, a very small percentage of that land base is on Oahu. And so as a result of that, there's less land to develop. The biggest land base is on the Big Island with over 110,000 acres.

Yeah, but part of your strategy was also land acquisition.

So why did you--why--did you prioritize that for Oahu, too?

Exactly.

Yeah. Well, we tried the Kunia, but our commission felt that the purchase price, as well as, you know, the transferring of funds from other projects to that was not something they would support. So we pulled back on that. It's not to say that like, for example, Kauai--we're acquiring close to 300 acres.

And with that, the price on that one, as well as the fact that it's Ag lands, allowed us to, for a little over 22 million, to purchase 300 acres at about 60,000 per acre. And so as a result of that, we're also going to do 1,100 residential--combination residential and subsistence Ag lot.

Now, Oahu, as we all know, is probably the most expensive real estate in the state, so it's very difficult to justify, especially when there's very little lands to be developed on Oahu, to go after these expenses. Like the Kunia, we would have to spend over 40 million for that acquisition.

The commission, and I think appropriately so, thought that that was too much to use in order to move forward on that particular development. So we've tried to look across the state for lands that make a lot more sense. For example, you know--

Is that with the mindset that it's only going to be a single-family lot?

No, not actually. Like right now, we did the Bowl-o-Drome just recently. That was a 155 million dollar project. That's going to result in a 23-story high-rise that would generate about 278 units. Now granted they're rental units, but we're looking at making adjustments to that.

So on the back end, and the developers' support of a Sanford car where they have the option to purchase, that one is pending HUD approval as well as making sure the syndicators aren't scared away with that thought. They do have a 15-year compliance as well as involvement in burning off the tax credits, but beyond that, you know, I think they would be--they wouldn't object to the fact of us converting that to homeownership.

So right across the street we're in the acquisition mode for, you know, a small piece of parcel we already have, which, partly through your support, was acquired, and that's close to two acres. We're looking at doing another high-rise, again, in this Moiliili, a great location for, you know, rentals with option to purchase. We look to do another high-rise.

So that's a reflection of us moving away--not moving away, but expanding in an innovative approach, other options for our beneficiaries, especially for the urban Honolulu where land is so expensive; the Bowl-o-Drome, we're using a little less than two acres. You know, if we had built a single-family, we would have done maybe eight units. By doing it this way we can do 278 units. So the idea is more density, granted, it's not as maybe attractive to other people, but some people I think would be supportive of condo living.

Question? Chair, just a short question regarding Kunia.

Go ahead.

Thanks for the answer. Just following up on the Chair's question, does the decision on the acquisition cost also account for future maintenance? And I ask that because, obviously, when you build out single-family neighborhoods, residential areas, especially if they're farther from urban core generally, the cost over time just multiplies exponentially in addition to the initial acquisition plus investment cost.

And so now, I mean, even in this budget, I think you guys are coming in for about 110 million just for maintenance for various infrastructure, and are these decisions looking forward that far because eventually ten years, 20 years from now, there's going to be, presumably, the department sitting here before the Legislature asking for additional maintenance costs based on those decisions that are being made right now.

Yeah, you know, maintenance especially, you know, we recently had a Firewise symposium. It was about 180,000 acres of our lands are unused and it's just sitting there similar to a lot of the large landowners, and that has become a real issue, especially with the Maui Fire. We've had about eight wildfires in the last couple years.

So not only did we do the symposium, but we're coming into the Legislature asking money for that maintenance, if you want to call it that, which to me is obviously very, very important. We are going after federal funds.

You know, maintenance, whether it's Bishop Estate or, you know, DLNR or DHHL, is always going to be an expense, which in our case is growing significantly. Now, you're correct. As we acquire new lands, that will become an issue, but I think what's nice about acquiring urban lands that are not as large, the maintenance goes down significantly.

But you know, the isolated areas like Moloa'a and Kekaha and some of the outer island areas, especially on the Big Island, it's a big problem. Kahikinui, we've had a wildfire there. Anahola, we've had fires there. And so what we've been trying to do is working with other organizations.

You know, we have this one nonprofit out of Waimea that actually fashions a Firewise plan for us. They go after funding. They also work with the community associations. We brought in about 41 at our symposium. And, you know, what we did was, I think about six of them were certified, but they are educated as to the need for them to get involved in that because the department can't manage everything, guys.

I guess what I was getting is, is there a calculation somewhere, probably not in this presentation, but somewhere that you could share or that you guys do that looks at cost per unit, plus the long-term infrastructure, maintenance, all that stuff, and look at what the portion is, like how many units are you building in the urban core? The Bowl-o-Dromes and that versus Greenfield stuff kind of further out?

Well, we can attempt to get that information, but I think more importantly is what we're actually doing. We've been very active in, rather than retaining our inventory, whether it's Humu'ula or South Point or Kahikinui, is getting people on the lands. I think that's the best way, without a doubt, to obviate or eliminate exposure with wildfires.

We're also working with some of the other trusts to try and consolidate some of our lands and collectively manage as well as look for uses of those lands that will mitigate that risk. So, you know, I think the cost of us maintaining obviously will go down as we distribute the lands to our beneficiary.

And that's one of the things that I've always felt is, the department shouldn't have all this inventory--you know, it shouldn't--as well as the inventory of lands that we can't use with the cliffs and stuff. So I'd like to transfer some of that back to--or not back--but to DLNR for management and oversight.

And so we're looking at ways to minimize the maintenance cost, but I think more importantly, we're trying to move the program along, is by making awards, by getting people on the land so that they can manage as well as take care of them.

Thanks, and I appreciate that. I think one thought in the back of my head is making sure that as we go forward with this process and you guys do the important work that you're doing, that we're not ultimately setting ourselves up so that ten, 20 years down the road, the cost to maintenance and infrastructure and all that prohibits you from investing what would have been money saved in new units at that point for new families.

And at the same time, all those folks are also using state highways and everything else, and the cost gets passed to the state for infrastructure more broadly, the more distributed it is, and ultimately the cost of the families, if they're having to take on that burden themselves while they get a homestead on the front end, if they can't afford to actually have an affordable cost of living because they've got to spend way more money on transportation or whatever else, that's something that is really a critical part of the cost of living that we're all collectively trying to address. So, anyway, thank you very much. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Kali and Chair, I think you're familiar with Kunia. Part of Kunia, if I remember, OHA has a lot of land in--not in Kunia or somewhere near--in Wahiawa, and I think I remember visiting and the site is very large. My question then is the mission for OHA and DHHL are the same.

And so with OHA's land, if they're not going to use, why don't we try to get an eel and give it back to give it to you guys for your expansion of land ownership on Oahu? That's just my comments, because if there's land sitting out there--

Well, the 500 acres had a covenant from the military. When they added their contribution, they said no housing because part of it is a buffer between around the military base--

The district.

Around the military bases, so they said no housing. So that land cannot have housing.

And it's sitting--how many acres, you remember? 500. Yeah, it's so sad. Okay, thank you.

Oh, Chair, I just want to go back--he said Table Two I would find that information. It's not. Table two gives me department wide totals on Hawaiian Homeland. So can you find the correct table and let me know in my previous question.

It's on page four of the testimony, Exhibit Two.

Oh, Exhibit Two, not Table Two.

Yeah, Exhibit. I'm sorry, exhibit.

And then to answer your question, Senator Kim, it's 13%. So this, Chair, is actually an ask on top of Act 279. That is the reason why the numbers do differ based on the area. So to Senator Kim's question, it's 13% is Hawaii because these are residential, 10% is Kauai, 12% is Maui, and 2% is Honolulu based on the ask for the supplemental budget. Now, the Act 279 is--I mean, I'm sorry. For the--for the new budget, for the biennium.

But that wasn't my question. My question was how many people on--the percentage of people on the waitlist for each of those areas.

Yeah, so that's the, the percentage I gave you.

But there's only 2% of people on the waitlist--

Just for this ask.

No, no, I mean overall.

Oh, overall, yeah.

Oh, okay. The entire waitlist. What's the percentage of Oahu people on the waitlist?

Oh, sorry.

Yeah. You can get back to me.

Okay. That is Exhibit Two on page four that gives not necessarily percentage, but the actual specific numbers per island as well as broken down into the three categories, pastoral, Ag, and residential.

Thank you, Chair. I appreciate your acquisition of property, but going back to the 180 acres that you have that you own, what have you done in terms of land management and looking at that and what you have and what you can sell or what you can do something with?

And you know, that was one of the criticisms regarding the Kunia acquisition that I thought was appropriate that, you know, what about the lands you have? Why don't you develop them? So some of the slides that I'm going to show you actually highlight the development of some of our existing lands, especially on the Big Island. Let me go through?

Why don't we go through that, then we can go back to the question if it's not answered.

Okay, sure. Yeah, on the Big Island, La'i 'Opua, you know, we're looking at doing 580 additional units, and one of the things that I as a developer have come to recognize that as a developer, your costs go down per unit count as you do the bigger projects, rather than doing it piecemeal, like how the department was doing it, as well as separating the infrastructure from the vertical construction.

So this is the project that we went to visit, right?

Yeah, I think so. Yeah. This is one of them.

Okay, so, but part of the question back at the site visit was trying to understand the overall plan that includes mixed use.

I'm sorry, what was the last part?

Mixed use. The commercial part.

Yeah, this one is in mixed use. It's just straight up residential. On this one.

No, yeah, when we went there, I think it was--was it? Who gave us the presentation?

Well, there was a kindergarten use. There's a--there's a house or a medical facility on that site as well as a resource center. That is, right, and there's some lands that we've given to the community association to develop commercial.

For commercial. Yeah, that makes use.

Yeah, so that's part of what we've been doing with like the Nanakuli Homestead Association as well as the Kapule CDC is giving lands out to the various communities so that they can do the mixed-use development to generate money for their programs. And so we've been somewhat successful on that.

But how do you reconcile that with the earlier question from Senator Lee about generating funds, hopefully, for the long-term maintenance?

Oh, we also have our own--we have about 20 projects that we're moving forward on, lands that have just been sitting there. Like in Kalaeloa we're doing a raceway park on the--

We're just asking specifically in this project.

That's different.

Yeah. So when you--you're giving the land or you're leasing the land to the Association, the commercial lands, for how much?

Well, usually it's nominal because we want them to generate and keep and retain the profits. So if we charge them high rents, that doesn't make sense, so--

Is DHHL getting some revenue back from that so that they can do some of the things that he's talking about?

Yeah, that's why we're developing other types of projects on other lands.

But in those specific parcels--

That's more for the homesteads.

You're not getting anything?

Not really, because it's a nominal rent, which is allowed by our act as well as under Chapter 171. We can negotiate it.

I'm not saying it's not allowed. I'm just trying to understand your strategy of--

The strategy is to empower the communities so in those instances where they approach the department, and this goes way back to when I was the director when we did the Big Island Shopping Center, and so we leased that out to a Native Hawaiian organization that partnered with private development.

Okay. So when the association develops a plan, who approves the plan of what kind--

We have to approve it. Right.

Meaning the board?

Well, what we do is we issue a general lease that specifically lays out milestones that have to accomplish in order to continue the development, and in that it requires not only a business plan, but also compliance with, you know, federal EAs and all these other things as well as show what they're going to be developing, but that's restricted by the uses allowed in the developer agreement or the general lease that we issue to that nonprofit Homestead Association.

Okay. Part of the discussion at the site visit was if we're going to be building homes in the area, how do we ensure live, work, play and that commercial use should hopefully be a little more aligned with the kind of jobs so that people can either walk or pedestrian use or short drives.

Yeah, exactly. That's very, very important. That's why when you look at our Kailua Kahai project, we're really moving forward on that one because you got the TOD station, you got the UH West O'ahu, you got the Ka Makana Ali'i--

Okay, it sounds like we're on the same page with that, I'm just trying to figure out how do you know if that's what the community is also doing?

Oh, we have community consultations.

But you're leasing, you're giving them the land to lease.

Well, they are the lessee and we typically are required to lease it to a nonprofit. So they usually do an independent developer agreement with a developer to assist.

So how do you know it meets your goals? How do you know it meets those same goals that we just discussed, though?

Well, you look at the use that's being generated, like the Nanakuli Village Center; we put in some medical clinics, we put in, you know, a housing project in the back.

So is it building by building that you guys are going to approve or is it the whole plan that you approve? How does that--I don't understand.

Well, you know, like in the Nanakuli Village Center we had actually five different parcels generated by a CPR. In the back we had a LIHTEC 48-unit development which the Homestead Association partnered with urban housing communities for $14.5 million, so they got the 48 units--

I'm just trying to figure out the approach of it being reactive so people apply for use or is it going to be proactive where it's almost form-based zoning where you're going to say we need medical here, we need jobs here--

No, we're not going to, we're not going to dictate--

How would you know we are going to achieve the goals we've talked about?

We'll find generic uses. For example, in Waimea, they followed that Nanakuli Village Center model and Mike Hodgson is putting in a medical clinic. He's putting in, you know, a resource center. He's working with the DOD. We've partnered up and he's gotten significant funding for that.

So it's a hope and pray model? Senator Lee?

Thanks. Thanks, just following up on that, so it's on the community, essentially, or whoever the lessee is to figure out what the development plan plan is and then actually go through the process with some sort of probably contract partner to figure that all out and handle it? Is that kind of how?

Well, you know, we're not going to just--it depends on the applicant. You know, we have quite a few applicants saying, 'you know, we can do this, we can do that,' and then we, the commission vet the applicant and to see whether they're capable. And part of it is who they're partnering with, what the use--land use is, also the viability of the market for the uses you're talking about.

So to that point, because a lot of this stuff is enormously complicated and there's a lot of goals that collectively we have, not only for the homesteads that are being created and the families and everything else, but also the broader communities there and the state, and it takes a lot of, as you know, coordination and everything.

What do you guys think about partnering with another maybe state agency that can help take our shared goals and really come up with plans and help be an assisting kind of development arm for that kind of commercial job center in that kind of case?

Oh, yeah. That's a--we actually are doing that. We've had some discussions with OHA, we've had discussions with CNHA, we've had discussions with Native Hawaiian organizations that generate money from federal contracts and they have funds that they have to contribute to Native Hawaiians.

So there's a collection as well as Ali'i trusts that we are working with to, you know, I can go through in detail all the different projects we're working on if you want, but--

No, no, no. But I think just in the line of, you know, as we build out communities--for example, we're looking at urban core redevelopment kind of broadly, right, and you have, to the Senator's point, live, work, play, which kind of makes things a lot cheaper for everybody, including on the front end as we build this stuff.

But if there's a way that we have like a state agency that can, that knows the process, right, knows what levers to pull much more efficiently than somebody in the community trying to figure it out, who can partner with you guys and the community to find out what the community wants and build that into the plan, of course, but ultimately be able to execute and just get stuff kind of rolled out so that it's not something that festers for like 15 years before there's actually something done that might align with the original vision for the community, but also, you know, totally might not at that point.

So if there was like a, I don't want to say HCBA, but you know, somebody who has the expertise, who can lay it out and be a partner to handhold to that process, would that be something you guys would be open to?

Well, you know that, a good example of exactly what you're talking about is the Nanakuli Village Center. Myself and two other developers went in and I was personally approached by the Nanakuli Homestead Community Association to help them develop this village center, and it was a 20-year process.

And part of the challenge was when you're dealing with the Homestead Association, they may have the lease, but they don't have any resources, so the lending institutions are very challenged with going with that, and in that particular case, we went through five different banks and they all literally laughed at even the idea of trying to develop it through a Homestead Association.

So the developers, including myself, stepped up and we provided certain guarantees, but we also partnered--and the Nanakuli Homestead Association partnered with entities that specialize in certain things for like urban housing community. They specialize in a tax credit development. That's how we were able to receive more than the 3 million we initially got.

But they showed us how to use tax credits, the Rental Housing Revolving Fund; we used home funds to finance this 14.5 million dollar project. Now, American Savings banks, through their entity that was involved with the new market tax credits, we raised a whole bunch of money to put in the infrastructure for all three projects: the housing, the cultural learning center, and the commercial and medical clinics in front, through applying and working with American Savings because they had an allotment from the IRS for the new market tax credit.

We also went after CDBG funds, and so that also helped put in the infrastructure. Then why not COMP? They used their expertise to go after RD funding as well as grants as well as loan products. Then you had the commercial side that, you know, we had CVS, we had, what do you call it, some of the commercial tenants that had their own funding sources. So it was a collection of funding for all the different things to create this Nanakuli Village Center, which if you go out there, you'll see it.

I guess what I'm getting at is--which is awesome--but how do we make sure that that kind of thing is more the norm rather than kind of the one-off model, and especially where there's overlap? You know, on the state side, we have resources. We invest in every community for stuff that benefits everyone--libraries and whatnot. DBED has community-based economic development programs.

Yeah, we're looking at that.

So if you can kind of combine all that stuff together, there's probably a lot of overlap where you could basically, you know, amplify the effectiveness and the speed because the state can help guide a little bit and get through some of these hurdles that the community itself or a private entity might have some trouble with.

Yeah, the reality is, you know, a lot of our 51 homesteaders, they don't have that expertise. So that's why it's important that especially with my experience and involvement in the Nanakuli Village Center, it would, you know, it was a horrendous challenge, but we got it done and I learned a lot.

And Mike Hodgson took that precedent or pilot project and learned from that, and so he's moving forward with the Department of Health. That's the other thing. The department has to be very active in helping these homestead associations. Typically, it's a backbone infrastructure that will kill development.

So if we can go in and put in the backbone in conjunction with the residential housing we're doing and have stub out so they can attach--like Lalamilo, that's what we're doing; there's some commercial right on the main road--that is going to stub out and access some of the infrastructure we're putting in.

So again, it's really an understanding of the challenges that the homesteads are facing, but also the resources that are--there are developers out there that are willing to step up, and, you know, like, for us, we still haven't gotten a developer fee on the Nanakuli Village Center, but that's not a big thing for us.

And, you know, it's more the product that was created where, you know, there's a commitment to trying to improve the communities, and so that's what it's about, and there are developers out there that are willing to do that.

So how do you--how many local businesses from Nanakuli-Waianae are in that specific project?

You know, we have a kiosk program, so we're trying to activate that. We have the communities that have the open market. We also have a surf shop that three Nanakuli residents put together and that's still in existence. They're actually expanding into the area adjacent to put in a poke bowl facility--

Because it goes back to what you said earlier with the financial literacy component of potential--

Lessees. Do you have an entrepreneurship program for these type of commercial areas so that you can help community members learn entrepreneurship, business skills so that they can be the tenants of these areas? Similar approach, but I don't--instead of just having a developer figure it out and then, you know, building capacity.

Right. I think that--and that's why we're reaching out to CNHA as well as OHA. I focus more on the development, the vertical, getting people off the waitlist. This community development is wonderful, but that's not my--

No, but Section 207, about the licenses for public purpose and mercantile establishments, that's also part of your mission.

It is, it is.

And so there's been very little put to that.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. We need to do more of that.

And so here you are, you're giving these pockets, but you're totally leaving out this section of building capacity, of entrepreneurship for beneficiaries.

No, you're correct in that it's been, I guess, deficient. We're trying to move forward.

So whose division is--who runs this?

Well, part of it is our land management division working with our planning office, and so we do have part of the--if you look at our repair and maintenance as well as operationals, we generate a whole list of different community projects that are being requested to be funded.

I hate to say, but the Legislature has not typically funded those. So one of the things we want to do is work with associations, identify these critical projects that are key to community development, but we're also tying in on our development for use of the 600 million.

Yeah, so, if you guys can come back to us and just explain how you're going to include Section 207 in the commercial components of all the different projects that you have throughout the state.

Okay, well, that I'd have to do another presentation. This one is more focused on--

Yeah, yeah. You don't have to do that now, but--because I feel like that's also an important part: live, work, play, building capacity, Hawaiian business ownership.

I think it says here it authorizes the department to grant licenses for hospitals, public schools, post offices and other improvements for public purposes, as well as theaters, service stations, markets, stores, and other mercantile establishments. So there's broad powers that--

Sure. No, it's very flexible.

--has in helping small business in Hawaiian communities, but I haven't really seen that. I hear about the shopping center, I hear about the developer, but I don't hear about capacity buildings--

You're right. We need to do more of that. Without a doubt.

So you can build wealth for the beneficiaries.

But, you know, I'd also like to tap into the resources of some of the other organizations. I mean, right now, we tapped out on the 600.

That's fine. That's fine. It doesn't say you cannot partner. I just think that this is important, though.

That's actually what we're doing. I'm looking forward to the OHA's involvement as well as KS, and we've identified lands that we might be able to work together with as well as--you know, one of the things that we're doing is we have this one developer that has been willing to donate lands for commercial development in conjunction with Kupuna housing adjacent to a medical hospital.

And so that's where part of our entitlements that when lands are conveyed into our inventory, it expedites the entitlement process. And that's very attractive to developers that are wanting to do development in a timely fashion, so we're getting active in that. You know, OHA has certain lands that I think we could do some development too--mixed use like you're talking about.

Thank you, Kelly. I watched some of this in my room in between appointments. My question is, basically--and I thank you for the--for encumbering 471 million out of the 600 million and I think you did a really good job of doing it as fast as you can--my questions are regarding--I noticed on your informational--in your written testimony that there wasn't any mention of the DHS modular homes over in Lahaina.

Any monies being used for that? Basically, I know you folks have an agreement with DHS that after the, I guess, the emergency is over, you folks take over, but then there's still going to be need for prep, right? I mean, DHS put in the infrastructure.

Right.

But the--are you folks expecting more monies to be put in after DHS goes out? Do you have an agreement with DHS regarding the modular homes that's on there?

Yeah. On the Ka La'i Ola Project, the 450 units, we do have an agreement in that the priority is given to Native Hawaiians on the waitlist regarding the rental units, because the idea is to--although that's not technically our lands, the intent is to transfer the lands to DHHL for homesteading use; that actually will be our phase three of our leolii program or homesteading program.

And so the idea is to not only recycle those transitional houses, because if we can--sort of like what we did in Waianae with the Weinberg homeless shelters, we recycled and stuck them together and we made three bedrooms at very nominal cost to our beneficiaries that we're able to move in--similarly, we want to do that with the Ka La'i Ola Project, we're also looking at the FEMA project right down the road to go after that also, because they also have recyclable units there. That one HHFDC wants to retain.

Hopefully they reconsider that because we would like to expand and also get that into our homesteading programs. But with respect to the infrastructure, you know, we're paying about 376,000 per unit on the 182 units we put in in phase two for Leiali'i. That's just for the infrastructure.

So obviously with the blue rock and the cost and the slopes, it's very, very expensive to pay for that infrastructure. And so when this opportunity came up where DHS would do this Ka La'i Ola Project, pay for the infrastructure, as well as make the the transitional housing available to us for recycling, we jumped at the chance, and that's in the agreement. HHFBC agrees to it as well as DHS.

So you projected 18,000 units. Does that include the 450 that you--

No, 8,000. Not 18. Yeah, 8,000. Yeah.

1,800.

Oh yeah. Sure.

Only 1,800 of those 400--so does that include the 450 potential units in Lahaina?

Well, that one is a five-year program. They're going to use it for five years. So that's kind of a ways off.

Okay, what about the CNHA units down the road over in Lahaina? That's a 1,800--

That's not on our land. We're not looking at those.

Okay, that was the Department of Transportation. Okay, and what about Stadium Bowl-o-Drome? Is that 1,800 that you're--I'm really interested in housing, okay? I want you folks to house as many Hawaiians as can.

I do too.

So, okay, that's the reason I'm asking because to me 1,800 seems kind of manini out of the 471 million, you know--

That is manini. We got 29,000. So if you guys give us more money, we can build more.

Give us a good plan, though. You gotta give us a good plan.

I can explain the plan and then see if you guys can get behind it--

Okay, but the Stadium Bowl-o-Drome, how many units you expect after that one is completed?

Well, there's seven townhouses, two-story, three bedrooms that are adjacent to the stadium park, and then the 23-story high-rise is 271units, primarily two bedrooms, and there's about 4,500 square feet of commercial space that can be used for social services as well as, you know, maybe a 711 or something.

And then we have another piece of property right across the street that we recently acquired. We're finishing up--acquiring a smaller piece that will kind of square up the parcel so we can do another high-rise.

Is that part of the 471 million that you have? Because it doesn't look like it.

No, not yet. We're still in negotiation.

Okay. The 271 units, I heard--and this is all--that you folks aren't gonna just leave it for Hawaiians, that you're going to open it up for everyone else? Is that true?

No one else. No, that's not true.

That's not true?

And I don't think that's legal.

I didn't think so either. That's why--but okay, but the 271 units does not count towards the 1,800?

No, it doesn't. Not at this point.

That's an addition.

Yeah. Again--

Okay, you know what? Why don't we--we have two more questions and then we should finish this in the PowerPoint because there's about 50 more slides and then we can have more Q&A, and if we run out of time, give your questions to the Committee Clerk and then we're going to submit it in a follow-up memo.

Yeah, we'd be glad to answer them, whatever questions you folks have. We'd also be willing to meet with individual legislators to clarify whatever questions you have.

It's great that you're doing all of these little projects, but I'm following up on Senator Lee's point, is that maybe you should look at master planning, especially the ones where you own the land, and as in La'i Opua, that you really look at the master plan and what does it do in terms of the outcome of capacity building as well as reducing the waitlist.

No, I agree. On the master plan communities, that has been our focus: La'i Opua, Le'ale, as well as Kapolei. So we've focused on the--

Can we see what that master plan is and what the timeline is and what the business reduction and capacity building is?

Yeah, we do have a timeline on moving forward which I mentioned earlier in our testimony regarding the awards as well as developments.

Yeah. Okay. Senator DeCorte.

Thank you. I think we all have the common goal here of housing Hawaiians. I just wanted to ensure that Act 279 was put in place to reduce waitlisters. So as long as we're continuing to bring the waitlist down--and I'm looking forward to hearing your plan on how you're planning on doing that--with the commercial leases, I--with regards to Nanakuli Village, currently there is one beneficiary that is renting a commercial lease.

He's paying market rent. I would like you folks to consider possibly allowing our beneficiaries or those that are on the waitlist to have a reduced rent, possibly a dollar a year because it's important that we want to stimulate our economy, but if we can put our beneficiaries in those positions to generate that revenue, I think that that would be a good opportunity.

I know Nanakuli Village does have some vacancies, so I would like you to consider possibly having a reduced rent for beneficiaries which right now at this time there is only one Native Hawaiian holding a place of business in Nanakuli Village surrounding by corporate businesses and outside businesses as well. So please, if you could consider that.

Sure.

Senator Fevella.

I just wanted to go back to what previous Chair and my colleague saying over here, when we talk to best-use practices for the land, you talked about briefly about the racetrack in Barber's Point Kalaeloa, is if that's the partial property we're talking about--and I just wanted to get on figure--right now Porsche pays how much to us? The property that the last time I looked is worth 500, almost $500 million. We're going to give a lease to a Formula One race car track that doesn't necessarily does anything for the local racers in Hawaii.

To what is the benefit of any of the mercantile stuff? Because you're saying we had land that we cannot develop. We can't do businesses on them. And if you cannot, the land is worth 500 million, some of the money that you need.

So why are we not trying to sell it, trade it, or do something with it so that it can be best-use practice going forward? This is something that came up before, Kali, long time ago, and you know me and you talked about it. I don't think that's the best-use practice to have a mainland company come and build a mainland racetrack for mainland millionaires to come race on it and not going to benefit our people at all.

You just said to our chair that you cannot charge high prices for the lease because nobody going to take them from us. But we're not worrying about them ripping us off by having these cheap. These shopping centers and all of them, they make a lot of money; put little back into the economy.

Same what Senator DeCorte just said, right? What she just said. One Native Hawaiian over there surrounded by all the rest of the stores. How much is the benefit of the community in Nanakuli actually making because the homestead for Nanakuli only have five individuals.

You cannot join the homestead, you cannot be a part of the homestead, you cannot be invited to the homestead because it's locked down with five to six individuals. So the homestead, when you say Nanakuli Homestead, you got to represent all the people of Nanakuli, not five individuals that continue to call themselves Nanakuli Homestead because they represent none of the rest of the people over there.

That's the reason why when it comes to best-use practice, that we got to continue to go on, and you know me and you talk about other properties like Prince Kuhio Mall and all of these other places that not benefiting the Hawaiian people. Prince Kuhio Mall is the most ugliest rundown mall I ever saw.

People that is the lease for that land should be ashamed of themselves, never put no money, grass growing through the sidewalks, building is falling apart. That's not best-use practice. So when we're going to change what Senator Lee said going forward and how we're going to make sure that we don't have fixing up all of these things that is falling apart and broken. That's the thing.

You know we're going to be catering to other people and worrying what you just told Senator Dela Cruz, the chair, that we worry about if we lease them in charge of too much money then Dela can lease them. What about the individual in Nanakuli that's a Hawaiian homestead that paying fair market value for his property that he can barely probably pay? So that's not fair to what you try to present here.

I understand we need to put Hawaiians on homes, but when it comes to our land, you said it's very valuable on Oahu and we should put that value to what it's worth because it's not fair. That's a 500 million dollar property, Kali, and I would want to see something better moving forward on that parcel.

I know you guys have put out one bid, you guys getting here. How much of you guys over here own a Formula One car? How much Hawaiians you know own a Formula One car or your private jet? It's not for us, Kali. So please if you can just go look into that and I'll save my questions for another time.

Okay. Why don't we finish the PowerPoint and then we can have questions.

Thank you, Senator.

The members can just hold your questions till the PowerPoint is complete.

Okay, and I'll go through these fairly quickly. These are some of the projects that are related to the additional ask as well as projects that we're kind of moving forward on. Lalamilo on the Big Island, you know, we're asking for about 34 million so we can do 151 lots. Increments one and two, one is partially done, the infrastructure, so that money would go to putting infrastructure as well as the--you know, we got to put in a sewer treatment plant too.

Next. Honoka'a: this is a new site acquisition lands in a great area. Honoka'a--I don't know any of you familiar with, but there's a lot of amenities, schools, parks, everything. So one of the things we're trying to do is locate it in areas that make a lot of sense. The pricing was great for this acquisition. We have additional lands, Mauka, as well as KS as well as down the road, so this one ask is 10 million to do 71 lots.

Next. This one we had a great response on Honomu. This is a subsistence Ag lots next to 'Akaka Falls. I mean, that was tremendous demand for this particular area, so we need to extend the road and put in some additional infrastructure to expand to another 50 lots for that particular site.

Next. Pi'ihonua--that's close to existing lands, and this is our land, so with the 7 million, we can crank out 48 new homestead lots. Next. This is Keaukaha, Pana'ewa. The comment was about developing our existing lands. This again is existing lands. For a little--about 1.5 mil, we can crank out another ten lots. Next.

This is kind of a major development for us involving 600 new homestead lots--again, existing land--in a good location in East Hawaii. Again, with 75 million, we can do about 300 lots, and that would be for phase one. Phase two would involve another 300 for a total of 600 total cost.

So we're asking for half the cost up front, 75 million. Next. This one has already been awarded. This is under construction, Hanapepe. The developer is very familiar with LIHTC, has submitted successfully an application for tax credits involving 30 units of the 82. So this one is under construction, and this is phase two.

So we have a total of 82 lots when this is completed, phase two. Next. Lihu'e: this is one I was mentioning, new land acquisitions. We anticipate--we've already acquired the land. This one is in Lihu'e, close to a lot of amenities: hospital, the airport, the county buildings. It's just a great location.

So rather than some of the other areas in the outer island or outer areas of Kauai, we felt this would be a better location. There is sewer and water that is available, so this one--with the first phase, we're looking at doing 250 units, part residential and part subsistence Ag lot.

So this first phase is about 120 million, and that's the purple area on the right. Next. Wailua: this is, you know, some of the lands that we want to retain a green belt on Kuhio Avenue or highway, and so we out to consultation on this one. Originally this was supposed to be a combination residential and subsistence Ag lot.

With the acquisition of the Lihu'e property, this one becomes more, I guess, viable and I think a better use regarding subsistence Ag lots. These we've recently put an emphasis on the subsistence Ag lots, one to two acres. The idea there is consistent with what Prince Kuhio was talking about, getting the beneficiaries onto the A'ina again.

And by getting them on the 'Aina, we're also working with CTAHR providing counseling. They have the option of putting a house. So with a subsistence Ag lot, they can grow their own crops to feed their families as well as neighbors. They can also raise livestock.

So it's, you know, it's contrary to our original approach like we used to do on the--on Molokai where give these large ag lots out and the majority of the land remains vacant. So we're combining the subsistence Ag lot, and in the Maku'u award, we did some five acres, regular farm lots rather than 15.

And on that one, again, working with CTAHR, the recipient, who also has the option of putting a house on the Ag farm lot, but also more importantly, they are required to put in a business plan, a farming plan, to cultivate two-thirds of the lands before they get the award. So unless they go through that process, meet those thresholds, they don't get the award.

When you, Kali, when you talked about Maku'u, you're talking about Hawaii County now?

Yeah, Hawaii County. Maku'u.

Okay. So now we're talking about Kauai.

Excuse me. This is Kauai, yeah. This one is there for. Next. Kamalani: again, a new acquisition, this from A and B. The first phase for their development went through, is in place. We're kind of took over. There's water, utilities, and it's in a great location, as you can see, close to existing residential.

This one with the request, we're asking for 40 million in order to do the first phase involving 250 lots. Next. The Maui County Keokea-Waiohuli Phase Two, again, a $14 million request to do 46 lots in phase two. So part of the 14 million will go to a well construction. Water is a big thing.

We're short of water so we always have to do developments involving water. So this one involves that. Next. This is the one that's our major project in a great location next to the Teoli station in Kapolei called Ka'uluokaha'i. The first phase, we've dedicated 140 million of our 600 million to the development of 450 units.

Phase two involving unit 2D of 250 will require 68 million, and again that's part of our new ask independent of the Act 279 funds. Next. This one, again, looking for desirable location, this particular project is in Hawaii Kai. We acquired it from Kamehameha Schools.

It's right across from the post office and similar to the housing surrounding this particular parcel, we're looking at doing multi-units. Again, rather than just all single-family, again, if we were to do single-family we wouldn't be able to put as many units. As you can see, we have five structures with the infrastructure at the center and we're excited about this one. There's tremendous demand for this particular location. Next. And I'll let Kalani talk about this.

So in regards to this next slide, this will support all of our work statewide, engineering studies that are required for us to be able to not only utilize for our Purpose One, but also for our protection of firebreak areas as well.

And then our awards program, as you heard, Chair, we will be moving forward with accelerating our lease program, and so this would assist us in being able to do that. We have some monies that we will request for individual assistance as well as pre-development monies, and then the last is scattered lots.

We have about 107 lots that are scattered throughout the state that are kind of like infill; they haven't been developed or haven't been occupied. So we're going through, prepping them for it to be awarded. Some of it may be owner-build and some of it may be with houses on it, and that concludes our Purpose One.

I'm going to jump to Purpose Four and just kind of capture this and give a summary of it, and this will kind of speak to Senator Lee's question, and it is, when we go through and develop all of these lots for lot development, we are also preparing the new ones so we can be up to par.

So we can actually MOA over--have an MOA with the counties so they can take over streets, street lights, sewers, water, etcetera, and those are some of the additional maintenance that we may need for these types of public facilities. For this particular ask, the reason for the purpose for request for the budget is because we are--some of these properties that we have with the 10,000 lessees, we have aging facilities and so we need to bring it up to par so we can actually turn it over to the counties so they can manage it just like how they manage their DFM.

Like the one up here?

Yes, exactly. So it includes upgrading our sewers, roadway improvements, drainage improvements, vegetation management. So, you know, with those public facilities, we want to bring it up to par so we can move that over because as you guys know, carrying capacity for this gets difficult. Our plan is to bring down the cost of the repair.

This is not going to work for everyone. That's why Katie was trying to work with UH, right, and Department of Health on other options for sewer.

Yes. This actually helps us, not--so I think the stuff that work, we're doing a number of different things. One is working with EPA, working with the counties, etcetera, to go in and join joint development. And part of--but these are actually existing infrastructure that we have that we got to bring it up to par in order for them to talk story with us.

But in the case when we went to Kauai, that's an existing community, but EPA is going to crack down, they're too close to the shore, there's no way you're going to put in infrastructure, and so these alternatives to correct cesspool and septic tank--I don't know. Do you guys--is that part of your budget request or no?

Not on this one.

No, but the overall budget request. Is that part of it?

Do we--did we include the--I know that we have budget requests for overall cesspool assessments, but I don't know specifically, because we were in Kekaha, right, Kauai, so I'm not sure if that was specific.

Yeah, Senator, with the Wailua sewer treatment plant that you're talking about, yeah, we've had discussions with the sewer department, along with the county council, including the mayor, regarding the relocation of that sewer plant such that it would be on our lands, but we would use effluent from this new sewer plant to irrigate our agricultural lands in Wailua.

We would also, you know, be able to address the needs of our 1,100 units that we're going to be developing in Lihu'e because there's an interaction between the existing as well as the Lihu'e--

But that's two different areas, right?

But it has an impact.

No, it's--because this one, EPA won't allow.

Yeah, no, no, you're right, and that's why we're in the process of helping the county and working in conjunction with them to relocate that sewer plant. We're also looking and working with FEMA because there's federal funds that we might be able to access and use to pay in part for the new sewer plant, which will directly benefit us, allow the development of our Wailua properties, as well as irrigate it, as well as take some of the burden off the Lihu'e sewer plant and then opens our ability to use some of the sewer for--

But in this case, when we went to listen to you at the--I guess, was it the Homestead Community Center--and it was just supposed to be a WAM meeting and you guys, and then almost the whole community showed up because nobody really knew what the plan was to convert from cesspool and they were really afraid of the costs and the impacts. So in that case, I don't think it's going--is that going to get--they're not going to get connected, right?

No, and one of the things that we are--DHHL is a little dependent on--is the fact that there are alternative methods that UH was trying to basically assess and get approved so that DOH would basically allow for it. So that was the issue in that case. I don't believe in our budget they specifically have monies to address that.

So what's going to happen with that community then? Because if EPA, you're having to balance trying to upgrade or provide alternatives to the cesspool by a certain time, but there's a lot of things you got to coordinate with: UH, DOH, and then the funding.

Yes, and I know that we actually had a statewide cesspool assessments. I think at the time when we went out last year, Kauai had been done. I think we were moving on to different islands, and I'm just not sure if we probably have to talk in house about a coordinated effort to address those zone one--

But it's been about a year and a half and it doesn't sound like there has been any progress since we met.

We've hired a consultant to do an assessment in which we've discovered in our finalizing the specific locations of the cesspool. There's about 2,500 existing cesspools on Hawaiian Homeland properties throughout the state. So we're trying to, you know, across the board, address the needs for the conversion. You know, Keaukaha, we have a certain issue. We've got that sewer plant over there. So we're working with the county and trying to fix that.

But is there going to be other legislation? Because last year, there was some legislation we passed to allow for more alternatives or to pursue more alternatives to cesspools, but I don't think that that trickled down to UH actually identifying them or developing them and going to the DOH getting approved, and then now you gotta finance the retrofit.

Okay, so we'll--I will definitely follow up on that then. Yeah, I--

Because if not, all we did since then and now a year and a half is hire the consultant, knowing we already agree the plan--what the plan is. UH to identify alternatives, DOH has to have--hopefully can approve something, and then you got to start financing these things. So I don't know why we need the consultant. We just got to get these things going.

Yes, Senator. I apologize. I'll follow up on that particular issue. Thank you.

Because I know they're scared. I mean, that's why they showed up. I mean, we were all kind of taken when we saw, like, what, 100 people--all of us? We weren't sure what was going to happen, and so that's why we just want to follow up on that.

Yeah, I think a lot of the people that were concerned are existing users that were going to be, I guess, impacted by the--you're talking about the Lehu'i situation or the Wailua?

Where were we, Katie?

Keaukaha.

Oh, Keaukaha. Yeah. Yeah, we're familiar with that.

And it was really close to the shoreline. That's part of the problem.

Yeah. Puhi Bay is being polluted by that source. Yeah, we're kind of working with--part of the problem is our beneficiaries were being charged fees that weren't even hooked up to the sewer system and had cesspools, but they were being charged fees anyway, so--which is totally inappropriate.

Yeah, so did that part get reconciled at least?

Yeah, we're working with the county, and we're kind of asserting our rights on that. So it's an ongoing process, but more importantly, we're trying to work with the county to find a permanent solution. On the Pana'ewa and the Maku'u development, we're actually looking at packaged plants on a temporary basis because we can't wait.

I mean, you know, it's--I don't know when the county's gonna get their situation resolved, but we wanna do development. So in part of our ask, we're looking at doing sewer treatment package plants.

Yeah. I just don't wanna mix the two of new development and trying to build this, and we're still having to fix the problems of it or the challenges of the existing homesteads. And the retrofit of a cesspool or replacement of a cesspool has to--that actually has a timeline, because if not--

Yeah, 2050. Act 125.

Yeah, and the part that's going to be--the reason why we need the long runway is the financing.

Yeah.

This was your last slide?

Yeah, that is.

Okay. Why don't we start this way and go this way? Actually.

Oh, just, just real quick. First of all, thanks for this. Could you go back to the slide? I forget which project it was. The one that had like 600 homes you referenced.

Yeah, I was just curious. You know, as we think about trying to maximize number of homes and stuff, there are other things that come into play too, of course. But for example, like where do families with kids--where do the kids play? Oh, there's a park?

Yeah, there's a big park at Panaewa.

Oh, never mind then. In that case, that's great. How do they get to the park?

It's not like one acre lots in Puna. It's smaller lots.

Okay. Great, great, great. Well, that's good to know.

But, yeah, but with that, I mean the first time it was, it predated you. But the Panaewa DHHL residents had problems with the developer. Yeah.

Oh, is that right?

They had major lawsuits. I'm hoping that when this comes around, you folks have a different developer.

You know who the developer was? We'll make sure not to hire him.

Yeah, yeah. Well, go, go talk to the Panaewa homeowners.

I can respond to that.

I don't know if we want to start seeing names in the Committee, so why don't we...

And the developer, the developer was charged because of the longevity of the buildings. The termites already got to it, so at the early phase.

I wanted to follow up on your multi-family units. Are they rentals or are they ownership?

Are you talking about the Bowl-o-Drome? Those are rentals for now.

Those are rentals. Are you doing condos where they buy?

That's the back end. That's what we're going to try and do. Convert to condos.

Okay. Because then it becomes a question on the maintenance fees.

Yeah, it all is part of the--that's a requirement that comes with the deal.

But you don't have that worked out yet?

We have draft agreement. We hired a law firm to draft all that stuff up.

Of what the fee might be what it covers.

Not necessarily the fee. It depends on the cost. You know, it's ongoing.

That's what I'm asking. Financing.

Are you folks going to subsidize these maintenance fees down the road when people have maintenance fees and the roof got to get repaired, you know, fires?

You're talking about the condo?

I'm talking about any condo. Multifamily ones for ownership.

Yeah, for sure. Our Waipouli project in Kapa'a and Kauai. Yeah. They are maintenance fees.

But you don't know what the maintenance fee would be currently for this project?

No, it's something, you know, you got to look at the insurance, staff personnel costs, you know, what kind of landscaping, repairs and maintenance costs. It all adds up. Yeah. And those would be subject to, you know, review by the tenants if they disagree with it. We're not hiding anything.

Yeah, well, they'll agree now, but 10 years from now, when it goes up, they might not agree. Finally, the last question is how many more new applicants of beneficiaries are coming on each year as you're, as you're taking people off, the list continues to grow.

Yeah, it's going to grow.

What's the percentage of new applicants coming on board? Because we'll never get to the end, right? I mean, we'll never deplete it.

Yeah. Wow. How many new applicants we got?

We have about 50 a month.

Maybe you can get that information.

So we're taking off. Maybe you can get back to us. We're taking off so much a month that we're getting 50 a month.

Yeah, it's actually going to go up. When I was a chair the first time around, we had 3,100. Excuse me, about 3,600. We took 3,100 off the list. We ended up with when I left over 7,000 on the list. So we anticipated to grow, which is good. I like people coming back on the mainland and getting people that are qualified on our homesteads. Yeah, that's the ones we got priority for.

So I hope we're cleaning up on how we put people on the list and when they refuse, whether they go back at the back of the list. That's always been an issue. So I don't want you to go into it right now.

Yeah, we actually, what do you call it, have set aside about 2.7 million to upgrade our processing, especially retention of digital information. We're implementing the Salesforce program through the district office as well as locally. And so that's moving along and we kind of in a good position regarding processing applications as well as leases.

Thanks, Chair. Kali, thanks for the presentation. Looking at your numbers, your infrastructure cost is running around 200 to 300,000 per lot, more or less, some of them a little bit higher than that. Talking specifically about Lalamilo area, you have the wastewater development, I would call it, down at the bottom. And this echoes off some of my colleagues'.

You're looking and talking story with the county I assume because we're going to have to tie some of this in. These infrastructure costs, obviously in the more rural areas, the cost per lot goes up because we have a lot more ground to cover.

In that area, Lalamilo, I know we ran into a problem that things been sitting idle for what, 20 years or something like that. There are supposedly some unexploded ordinance issues there. Is that all cleared now? Are we done with that?

Most of the area. So there are crevices, there are stream beds, so we did not get clearance for that. But the area that we would develop was cleared and what happened is that DOH did issue land use controls.

So when we do go and grub or do any kind of ground disturbing activities, there's a list of things that we would have to comply with. And U.S. Army Corps has actually been very helpful in helping us meet those types of compliance issues to make sure that there's we're doing whatever we need to do in order to move forward. But to the extent that we can develop and that is no longer an issue with regard to UXO, that's been settled.

So that's behind us and we have the path forward to get this stuff done. Okay. All right. And then I've got some other questions but I know we're short on time here so I'll submit these in the post closing question.

You have a question? We're just going down the list. Nobody? Okay, go ahead, go ahead.

Chair, good to see you. So you know I guess my underlying question went back to the overall budgetary task, you know I think I was asking you what is the list and at least you gave us this presentation. So that begs the question you're asking for 441 plus another 50. So what did the Governor put in his budget currently?

Let's see. Well there's different funding sources in his budget. He did put in money with the HHFTC that we're going to go after and then qualify for that.

But that's not the 441 though. Okay, so how much did--we're looking at of the 441 and the 50? How much? What's in your budget request?

We're working with what we have now.

So, nothing.

Well, like I said we can or access other funding sources that he has put in the budget with HHFDC. Those are funds that we can access also.

Right, but everyone else has to access that as well. So I'm just trying to get clear what's in the budget of your 441 plus the 50?

What we show. That's our budget. That's it was approved by our Commission.

But not through the governor's office.

Not through the governor's office.

So coming down, the budget is zero with the CIP projects.

Well, he did put in 20 million per fiscal year for operational costs and then he also recently authorized another 2 million for personnel. So the 19 authorized but unfunded positions, he's now authorized us to go after the person funding for that, including I believe 16 additional personnel that we wanted to put in.

Okay, so just to make clear, the ask of the Legislature is you want us to put in the 441 plus the 50.

Well, I want the legislators from the different districts pertaining to the specific projects and the requests that we've shown, including what's shown in our testimony, to consider, you know, helping us do the phase two of our development.

I think that's a good thing. I think at least we know, but I think, you know, a lot of time was spent in making sure that you wouldn't lapse money. Right. I think we were watching you making sure that you got the encumbrances going.

But I think at this juncture in my mind and what I didn't see in any of the documents is how are you actually spending the encumbrances? Right, you got them encumbered. But what are the actuals. Because you're coming in for a phase two or additional phases, but we don't know how you're doing with the actual encumbrances.

Right. You could have the full amount still left in the encumbrance and then you're asking for more money. But we don't know how you're doing on that first phase because some of these projects, not all of them, some of them are brand new projects, but the ones that are continuations of things that we gave to you for Act 279 monies. We just don't know what the progress is. Right.

I think you're giving us progress reports, but I think the key is we need to know what the actual money is before we can then justify saying, okay, let's throw more money at it and how much more money is it and are we coming in on projections?

Because my biggest fear is we're not really sure we're putting these into contracts. We're not really sure what the end cost is actually going to be. We have best guess, yeah, there should be rising costs, right. Because what I would assume you have, you have PLAs, right? Do we do public labor agreement?

Yeah, we do.

So on the project. So wages are going to increase, material costs are going to increase. Right? Right. But that's not factored into the encumbrance costs, right? As best as we could.

Because that's why sometimes we have to come in for additional. Just like any development, just like, you know, in the 20 years I've been a developer, that's kind of standard, costs go up.

Right. So we need to take that into consideration. And in phase two, potentially when you come back, we need to factor all that in. So I think, to me, we need to get a better handle of where we are on the actual 279 monies because we haven't, we technically haven't encumbered at all. Right?

You still have the hundred plus million that we still have to fully encumber before the end of this. We have the projects. But I think that's really got to be the focus right now. Right?

I think part of the focus though is when we look at all these different projects, especially the initial projects. When we first started this thing, I mean our Commission identified specific projects, didn't include any new lands. So we've pivoted, we made adjustments, we've identified better lands, we've identified projects that are shovel ready, so to speak.

And we've made adjustments and we've gone into and have gotten approval from our Commission. We've also gone out, put out three RFPs to identify something like 50, 60 potential projects that make sense for the Department.

And we've acquired, and you've seen of the 28, some of those are from the process we went through, which I think is needed now. It's an ongoing process. I'm not going to tell you that the 28 you're looking at, that's it. We may identify better projects or we may like in the Waihu Mauka, that's 10 years off.

We're going to unencumber a portion of that and use that portion for projects that are more timely being able to be developed. I mean, that's something we're doing just as a developer. We're not going to let our money sit for 10 years, but we're going to make changes where appropriate.

Right. So I think a part of that conversation, you're talking about moving monies. I think we, that was a conversation we had offline, but I think we all need to know what, how you're going to do that. I think I asked for that document.

Maybe you can actually send us that on how exactly you're going to unencumber and move the money. Because I think from our understanding, from the AG, that might be a complicated process that we weren't sure that you can actually do. But I think part of it is also moving forward.

We have to decide if we're actually going to give you more lump sums or we're just going to give you line item for projects. And I think that's a consideration we're going to have to figure out as well.

But I think it gives us a little bit more comfort if we know what the status of all this is. Right. Because I think all we need really at this juncture is some wins. Once we show people that you're building houses, getting people in there, I think they'll buy in.

But I think we get a little bit nervous. You have 20 plus projects, 28 projects, and I don't know, we hope your success rate is 100%, but I think the reality is you're probably going to have some that are going to drop off.

You need to make sure you factor that risk in and you keep us informed of what projects we're just going to abandon at some point because it just doesn't make financial sense. Yeah.

And we've abandoned some because it just didn't make sense. And then it was also a reflection of the inadequacy of the developer. He wasn't able to put in his 201h for his portion as well as funding for the sewage treatment plant. So we abandoned, said, we're not going to wait for you to get your act together. We're going to move on to a different project. So we did that funding and we moved it to another one. Right. It depends on the situation.

Right. And so last point, I think to Chair's point, I think we also have to be very careful. I think I like your thought process of going quickly on some of these projects, but I think some of the negotiations are very, very sensitive, especially with the counties. Right.

Because I think when I'm hearing you talk about, oh, we're going to install wastewater package plants, great, it saves us time. But I think the challenge of the last administration was that they're coming to us asking for issues of turning over infrastructure to the counties.

But if we're not building up to their standards and not giving them what they want, all that infrastructure is going to be on us. And so I think what we don't want to compromise is we don't want to compromise necessarily, and it's a balance.

We want to go fast, but we need to make sure that the counties will take over the infrastructure because we don't want to be stuck with it forever and ever and continue these situations where we have to maintain them for years and years to come.

Right. You're absolutely right. And that's why even though we're expediting the permitting process, especially on the vertical construction and some site work, we're not foregoing the review and approval of the utility process.

We would submit the plans, get their sign off or comments and make changes where appropriate so that what we do build is acceptable to them and they will take it over per the law, which they require that meets their standard. So we're definitely sensitive to that. And like I said, we're not doing the development independent of that review and approval with respect to utility.

Right. Well, I appreciate all your work. I think there's a lot more work ahead of us. There's a lot of oversight and. But you know, we want to see you have some success and that's fair.

We'll keep you informed.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. The Department is spending a lot of money on land acquisitions. $35 million was encumbered to go towards Voice of America in my district, Waianae Maili, to be example. To be exact, 280 lots were supposed to come out of that, yet the plans had changed. That money is no longer going towards this project.

So right now, currently my district holds the largest native Hawaiian homestead population. And as of right now, the Department has no plans on building one home. That a waitlister who lives in our district, plays in our district, works in our district, can continue to live in our district. So you can come back to me later.

I know you had said publicly that that law, that land was no longer found to be usable. I'm assuming that you made that comment based on some kind of study, survey, engineering report. So maybe you can come back to us and let us know why that land particularly is not building any more homes for beneficiaries.

I'm sorry, excuse me, for wait-listers. And then my last comment that I'll make is again, and I will continue to say this over and over again, Act 279 was put in place to reduce wait-listers, to get wait-listers off of the waitlist and into their homes.

So next time you guys come, can you please let us know exactly how many wait-listers you are planning to remove off of the waitlist and into their homes. I'm not talking about rentals, I'm not talking about commercial leases. I'm not talking about raceway parks.

I'm talking about actually taking the wait-listers off of the waitlist and into their homes. So if you could come next time with that, I would really appreciate that. But thank you very much for the presentation.

Okay. I know Members have other questions but if--oh, go ahead.

This on the Iroquois. You know my Iroquois plane, I'm landing on Fault Weaver Road Tsunami Center.

I understand you guys had issues with the sea level rising and I know back there came to a couple of my town hall meetings. The problem with the sea level rise in my community, for let's go for the last 50 years, water never did come up that high and all the houses that is built on Ewa Beach Road and I don't know why we are considering always building homes with cement and that kind of infrastructure that costs a lot of construction costs.

You know, on Ewa Beach Road and majority of the Ewa Beach community, you said you wanted to go to similar of the homes that we have across the street from the tsunami center. Homes that you guys are showing us and developing is not similar. Homes across the street is.

They call it Posen Pier which off the ground, no cement, just easy to access, easy to maintain, plumbing, infrastructure, electrical, all of that is much easier to install. Why are we not considering not just here, but other areas that you're having issues with infrastructure? Digging like you said. Blue rock costs a lot of money.

Why are we not thinking about above the ground homes and building those homes that would be much cheaper than building these package homes that we're getting from Gentry going forward because we're having a lot of problems in the Kapolei and the Ewa Beach homestead with foundation issues on the cement cracking, poor doors kind of closed, we're getting leakage, all kinds of stuff that is happening.

Why we don't go back to the concept that is more feasible for the person that's purchasing the home in the maintenance ones going forward?

Yeah, I guess to a certain extent depends on the site. Especially if you have adobe soil versus a sloped area. I mean we're looking at some property in Kalaheo that the county wants, city and county wants to give us. So that's a big issue.

So regarding how we approach it, obviously we're going to have to rely on our consultants, our civil engineers regarding the approaches. You're right. There's different ways you get the post and piers, you got slab on grade, you got a variety of approaches. So we're not stuck on any one approach.

It really is tailored towards the site we're dealing with. So if there's a potential sea level rise, obviously the permitting might even require post and pier. So to address that issue, the EWA project, you know, we have to a certain extent rely on our consultants. And they're saying this is a concern regarding sea level rise.

So we're trying to make adjustments to address that. And we're just trying to be diligent and make sure our homesteaders are protected.

The only reason why I bring that up is I said we had at the town hall meeting the longest, probably the longest one of the longest family, maybe 34 generations live on Ewa Beach Road when the access was just from the ocean.

Never have road. In all the years that their grandmother and their great grandmother moved there, we never have this. Again, I just want to try to hit this on the head. Sea level rising. Climate change is about tax and money. It's not about protecting anybody. Because again, 200 million for climate change.

Now we're going to go into 400 million. Climate change, the climate change every day from Wahiawa to Ewa Beach every day. I don't know how we can combat that by putting more taxpayers money that can go into infrastructure and build more homes in that area than we listening to a consultant. Is this consultant local, colleague?

Yeah, local.

Okay. Because they need to talk to the people in the area because again, you guys talking about sea level rise again, high tides, whatever tides never did in a hundred years never did have that water ever break over that park area by Pololu. Never coming to the shore.

We're talking about less homes, less infrastructure, less homes for Hawaiians being put on the homes. Those are the things that we got to really look into because again, we're getting way less homes. And then you want to make the other side look like the townhouses that we have on that side.

And again, that was going to take away from actually regular homes being built. I mean, I'm not against it. And another one that I'd like you to look into. I still never give an answer from your Department. I wrote a few letters over and over. It wasn't your time, but I know you know about it.

The Verona Valley parcel that keep on catching on fire. A long time ago, Micah Kane and I guess at that time with the city was Buffy Hannam and them swapped the land for the the rail station that is now over there by Leeward Community College for the Verona Village to give to Hawaiian homes.

I don't know how the Department of Interior whatever would take place. But the rail station is done. But there is no homes on the Verona area. That is a turnkey for commercial like Chair said for opportunities for our homesteaders to have businesses there.

But it's a beautiful parcel of land that again if you keep on catching fire, keep on make putting in danger to people over there. So I just like know what is and where are we on that parcel? Because I'm getting you guys saying that's not you guys' parcel.

Who's going to continue to maintain it? I mean it was okay that the fire wouldn't burn everything, but there's still yet stuff that is still there that needs to be taken care of. So. Yeah, let me know what you guys going to do with that property.

We've done the appraisals that were required.

Maybe this sounds like. Yeah. And then on top of that, maybe we can add some of those questions into the memo. So you can put it in writing because then that way we won't have you know, he said, she said. And we know that somebody actually responded. Okay.

I just wanted to ask one last question. You mentioned that there was a consultant for which?

For Ewa.

Was it Kekaha? No?

Well, it's not specific to Kekaha. It was a statewide assessment.

Okay. I'm looking at table 14. I'm trying to figure out which contract that is. Okay. Because I know I see lots of contracts for, you know, legal, specific housing. I don't see any statewide.

Yeah, yeah, we'll get that to you.

Yeah. The consulting one that you was talking about was the one that we envisaged. That's the one he said they just got one consulted for, right?

No, no, our guys were for specifically for that project. Right?

Well, we're doing a statewide assessment also with them. I'm not sure. We'll get that info to you.

Okay, we have OHA in about five minutes. So we'll adjourn and then we'll convene at 12:30. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Senators.

Okay. Calling to order the Joint Committee on Ways and Means and Hawaiian Affairs. Next we'll hear from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs who will be presenting their biannual budget. Good afternoon. Happy New Year. Aloha.

Aloha, Senator Dela Cruz and Senator Richard, Vice Chair Moriwaki, Members of the Ways and Means and the Hawaiian Affairs Committee. My name is Kaiali'I Kahele. I'm the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Joining us today is Vice Chair Keoni Souza, of the board, as well as Trustee Keli'i Akina.

And joining us soon will be Trustee Luana Alapa. At this time, I will introduce Stacy Ferreira, Chief Executive Officer and Ka Pouhana of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for her team's introduction.

Aloha, Chair Dela Cruz, Vice Chair Moriwaki, and Members of the Committee. We have a large-- Kalamai and Chair Richards of Hawaiian Affairs. We have a large contingent. And if it's okay, if we could just have them stand instead of going individually. Or you want individually?

Well, at least a division for branch chiefs so that we know who's who.

Perfect. Okay. So we'll start with Keha.

Hi. Aloha, Kakou. I'm Keha Pu'u. I'm the Chief Operating Officer.

We've captured everybody. Mahalo. Well, it's nice to be back home. It's been a while. It's been 12 months since I was last here, although I've been able to see a few of you here and there out in community.

And I'm excited to be here, and I'm excited to share about the good work of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

You know, when I was at Ways and Means working with this Committee, specifically under the guide and mentorship of Chair Dela Cruz, there were a lot of things that I learned that I've taken to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs with me, and three of those lessons that you're going to see in my presentation, the first one is, what does the statute say?

And this has been a lesson that has been hardwired into me and one that I have indoctrinated throughout the agency so that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Staff, our leadership, everybody, has a complete and total understanding of what is the purpose of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, what are our mandates, what are the tools in the toolbox, and what are the priorities that we should be focusing on.

And so that has been such a strategic and and fundamental operating principle that this Committee has taught me. Also in my presentation, I'm going to be talking about how it takes leadership to coordinate, to collaborate, and to create coherence. So OHA, with our $57 million budget, is quite small in comparison to the Executive branch's $20 billion.

And what I've learned from the work of this Committee on our site visits, again under the leadership of Chair Dela Cruz, is that it takes tremendous coordination and collaboration to move anything aspirational. And when you look at our food goals, our energy goals, much of that takes multiple state departments working together to make movement to create transformative change.

But ultimately, the only way that those things happen is if there's leadership. The third thing that I'm going to be sharing with you folks in our plan is the favorite slogan of Ways and Means is what's the plan? So in my time with you today, I'm going to be sharing with you what our plan is.

So if you can take a look, I have our presentation. So mahalo for the opportunity to present the Office of Hawaiian Affairs budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal biennium. Our work is grounded in the State of Hawaii solemn...

We were trying to avoid any Senators.

So our work is grounded in the State of Hawaii's solemn trust, obligation, and responsibility to Native Hawaiians as enshrined in the Admissions Act, the state constitution, and the Hawaii Revised Statutes, Chapter 10 and 10H. And it's imperative that there is critical alignment between and accountability to these foundational mandates and OHA's strategic priorities.

Through our biennium budget proposal, we are emphasizing the transformative potential of a collaborative approach between OHA, the Legislature, and the Executive branch departments and agencies. So this first slide talks about our state, the state's trust obligation to Native Hawaiians.

The Admissions Act of 1959 established a public trust reaffirmed by the people of Hawaii in the state constitution to ensure the betterment of conditions for Native Hawaiians. This trust obligation calls upon all branches of government to address the needs of Hawaii's aboriginal people and to work effectively towards their welfare.

Specifically, HRS Chapter 10-1B mandates that all all state departments and instrumentalities actively support the goals of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, recognizing it as a principal agency for addressing Native Hawaiian needs. Next slide.

So OHA has a mandate and our role under the statutory purpose of HRS 10-3 outlines 4, and Chapter 10 H-2, outline 4 key responsibilities. The first, bettering the conditions of Native Hawaiians and Hawaiians. OHA is committed to improving health, education, housing, and economic opportunities for Native Hawaiians. The second is coordination of programs.

OHA is the principal public agency responsible for coordinating all state programs related to Native Hawaiians, ensuring alignment with the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and other statutory frameworks. Third are policy and assessment and advocacy. OHA assesses policies and practices of other state agencies impacting Native Hawaiians and conducting advocacy efforts to safeguard their rights and interests.

And lastly, under Hawaii Revised Statute 10H-2, facilitating self governance. OHA is dedicated to advancing recognition and self governance for Native Hawaiians, including promoting their culture, heritage, health, education, and welfare. OHA's biennium budget request represents an extraordinary strategic investment in addressing historical, generational, and systematic challenges faced by Native Hawaiians.

It also signals the gravity of our shared Kuleana and the opportunities for impactful collaboration. The proposed General Fund appropriation of 4.8 million and 4.9 million over the next two fiscal years represents a critical investment by this body, by this Committee, in OHA's efforts to meet its statutory obligations while serving as a critical multiplier for additional resources.

So some key components of our OHA budget include 1.2 million for fiscal year '26 and 1.2 million for fiscal year '27. We would like to ask for appropriations that will support strategic coordination and accountability.

Funding for 13 full time equivalent positions for strategy and implementation staff will enable OHA to operationalize its statutory authority to coordinate efforts with state agencies ensuring strategic alignment, execution and accountability. We are also looking at priority agency partnerships.

Over the biennium, OHA will prioritize collaborations with the Department of Education, the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, Department of Human Hawaiian Homelands and Department of Land and Natural Resources. That's not an exhaustive list, but those are the ones that come to the top.

When we think about the things that we are trying to accomplish, when we think about all of the disparities that our Native Hawaiian families and the Lahui are facing, these partnerships aim to leverage our shared resources. You folks will be appropriating over $20 billion from this body as well as finance, health finance.

That's a lot of money and we hope to coordinate and collaborate with the Executive branch to leverage that money to ensure that it's that money is being spent in a a very precision like way and way that we can both be both the Executive branch and OHA can be accountable to the Legislature.

Our other budget request is for $3.6 million in fiscal year '26 and 3.7 million in fiscal year '27. And this is matched dollar for dollar by OHA. So every dollar in this request that we get from the Legislature, OHA will match that. We are a multiplier effect. So this is for Native Hawaiian beneficiary and advocacy.

We are looking at focusing on affordable quality housing and related infrastructure, social services including referral services and case management to at risk beneficiaries to immediately address unexpected crises, provided further that program activities shall be designed with an overall objective to provide financial assistance to improve stability during emergency situations.

We're also focusing on educational improvement programs for Native Hawaiian students, provided further that programs shall be designed to help Native Hawaiian students prepare for post secondary education and economic stability pursuits to support families and communities.

We're also asking for funds to provide for legal services and legal representation to beneficiaries including but not limited to the things that you see listed. Protections of Ina, land and water, including climate change adaptations and mitigation strategies and practices. And lastly, cultivating resilient communities through AH economics or regional economics as I've heard talked about numerous times and lots of leadership around regional economic development coming from this Committee as well as workforce readiness. Next.

So what is the path forward? Based off of our request for appropriations, it's going to be a collaborative approach to achieving transformative results. The challenges facing Native Hawaiians stem from decades of systemic inequities, land dispossession, historical injustices and complex trauma. Addressing these deeply rooted issues requires unprecedented coordination, collaboration, coherence, and accountability between OHA and the Executive Branch.

By leveraging each other's resources and the execution of OHA's statutory authorities, we can create a transformative partnership that reshapes the trajectory of Native Hawaiian well-being across the state. This level of coordinated systemic change and pursuit towards self governance is a tremendous lift. It has not been attempted by OHA previously, but the stakes demand bold action.

That is a lesson I learned from this Committee. It has not been attempted by OHA, as I said, but we are willing to step up and lead. We do believe that with your support and the collective will of the Governor, the state departments and agencies, that we can begin the vital work of collectively transforming the conditions of Native Hawaiians.

Now, I know I've shared with you over six slides about what we want to do, but I understand, yes, I understand that this Committee cares about action.

And so the plan that has been shared with you, I've called it the Framework for Collaborative Action between OHA and the Executive branch, outlines very specifically what we intend to do over the next two fiscal years. I've listed for you what our key authority is in carrying out these actions.

Very specific action steps, milestones, deliverables, and timelines. All of that to hold us accountable at the Executive branch. The call to action before you today, Senators. And in closing, OHA affirms its commitment to fulfilling our statutory mandates like never before and working with the Legislature and the Executive branch to advancing the trust obligations of the State of Hawaii to Native Hawaiians.

With this biennium budget and an unprecedented focus on collaboration, we aim to honor and actualize the principles of the Admission Act, the State Constitution, the HRS, Chapter 10 and 10H. As stewards of this shared Kuleana, we ask for your support in approving OHA's biennium budget request.

The investment represents not only compliance with statutory mandate, but also a moral commitment to the betterment of conditions for Native Hawaiians. I mahalo you for your continued leadership and support of OHA's mission. Mahalo. We welcome your questions.

I notice on Table 1, OHA Functions. You didn't fill in Department wide priority. That whole column is blank.

We are a small agency, so all priorities are...

That has to be filled out.