KAILUA, Hawaii (KHON2) -- A historic day for Hawaiian homestead lands is what the Honolulu City Council said after transferring the City and County property to create housing for Native Hawaiians in Kailua.
Council chair Tommy Waters said it is a significant move that has never been done before.
"You know, this is historic! Never before has the City and County of Honolulu participated in building Hawaiian homes," Waters said. "We don't want to be in the position of building houses ourselves, the City and County, but what we can do is provide land."
The resolution transfers 10 acres of land in Kailua off of Mokapu Boulevard to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, their director said homes that will be built need to be consistent with the character of the existing neighborhood.
"But the main point is we want to take people off the waitlist," DHHL director Kali Watson said. "We are not looking at doing multi-units or anything like that, it's going to be single-family consistent with the neighborhood and to whatever extent we can build, those are coming off the waitlist."
Some have held out hope for as long as they can remember.
"My dad got an offer to move on Hawaiian homelands, we didn't qualify, we had 11 kids and so we grew up in a 900-square-foot home but it never stopped the fire burning in all of us to want to own a home," lifelong Kailua resident Corbett Kalama said.
Officials said it will be a few years before folks will move into the homes that will be built, but it means the world for those who have waited decades.
"Oh, it's awesome. It's a dream. You know, growing up, you dream about owning a home. And what it does for the Hawaiian community is that it rekindles that t desire to to know that they can have a place of their own in a place that they call home, Kailua," Kalama said.
Councilmember Esther Kiaaina said the introduction of the resolution gives DHHL the right of access to assess drainage flow, and traffic management and to determine how many homes can be built.
"This could potentially be a a model for other areas in the state," Kiaaina said, "to potentially look at helping Hawaiian homelands put more beneficiaries on the land."
