Attention all Hawaiian Homestead Leasee's..... Please read .....DHHL Proposes Anti-Beneficiary Policy to HHC

Policy Alert - DHHL Proposal

At the Hawaiian Homes Commission meeting yesterday, held in Lahaina Maui, DHHL (Masagatani/Aila Administration) put on the HHC agenda, a set of Hawaii Administrative Rules (HAR) they want to get changed and added that attempts to take money away from native Hawaiians. Masagatani/Aila are seeking HHC approval to take their draft set out for Beneficiary Consultation.

I was able to attend the meeting, and read the material (pages and pages), only made available to the HHC commissioners or anyone at the meeting, yesterday! Literally not providing any time for the HHC to actually read every word! Here's what the Masagatani/Aila drafts say (with a Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down based on whether it benefits native Hawaiians):

1. Thumbs Up - Genetic Testing. To establish rules that enable beneficiaries to use DNA testing to prove parentage (if I don't have paperwork to prove this guy is my dad, here is a DNA test that shows he is my dad). This could be super helpful in many instances like adoptions where beneficiaries can't find documents to prove biological parents.

DHHL is proposing this rule because they denied recognizing a DNA test presented by an applicant to prove parentage that would support the applicant's eligibility. DHHL denied it, so the applicant had to sue, and in the legal settlement, DHHL now has to allow DNA testing.

2. Thumbs Down - Governor Approval. DHHL is proposing a new rule that says that if the HHC amends, adopts or repeals any rule for DHHL to follow, it has to be approved by the Governor before its legit. Wow. This Administration now wants to put into a place a back door that if DHHL doesn't like a rule, it can go to its boss, the Governor, to veto it.

3. Thumbs Down - Subsistence Agricultural Homesteading. DHHL wants to establish rules to create a subset of the Agricultural homestead awards of up to 40 acres allowed in the HHCA, to create a category called "Subsistence Ag", to be able to award 1 acre or less AND require the lessee to occupy the 1 acre parcel. Its a nice idea that seems sensible, but if this rule goes into effect, it reduces the rights of beneficiaries. Based on the behavior of DHHL over the last 55 years, the agency will use this rule to justify only awarding 1 acre Ag Lots, leaving the intent of the full fledge farm of the up to 40 acre farm necessary to be sustainable to just be put on the shelf.

In addition, by requiring occupancy, it will also make most lessees that take the 1 acre farm lot, nixing their eligibility for their rightful award of a residential lot. This rule is dangerous to set in HAR given the history of DHHL on how it implements these kinds of rules. We oppose reducing the farm rights established in the HHCA. We prefer to see a rule that mandates that DHHL spend our trust fund dollars on such things as land acquisition to increase the size of our land inventory, instead of spending our money on themselves.

4. Thumbs Down - Lease Transfers. Shocking proposed language by DHHL! DHHL wants to create rules for when a beneficiary needs to transfer their rightful lease award on an undeveloped lot to another beneficiary or when a beneficiary needs to transfer and sell the improvements the beneficiary owns on the land. Here are the proposals put forward by DHHL to the Commission yesterday:

A. On Vacant Land or Undeveloped or Undivided Interest Lots, a transfer can only be done as a GIFT, to a family member or successor or another beneficiary on the waitlist. It's essentially a prohibition on vacant lot transfers that have a private monetary transaction between beneficiaries.

B. On Lots with Improvements (a house, a barn, a stable, etc) that are owned by the beneficiary, DHHL is proposing that beneficiaries may not sell their homes, barns, etc for more than appraised value. If the beneficiary built their home through a Self Help program, they may not sell their home at all, until the "affordability period" is expired.

Currently, for everyone in the state of Hawaii, including beneficiaries, we ican sell our homes for any price we set, with a willing buyer, not at all limited by appraised value! As we should be able to! This rule will say to just beneficiaries, NO, you can't sell your home for what you think it is worth or want to be paid for it! Horrendous policy language.

On the issue of Self Help homeowners, right now, you can sell earlier than the affordability period (usually 15 - 20 years), by paying back any subsidy received if you decide to sell. This new rule would lock a family into that home, no matter what happens in their lives that might necessitate a sale of their home.....for NO GOOD reason!

C. Lots with Improvements Must Pay DHHL a Portion of Beneficiary Sale Proceeds - In addition to trying to limit the sale of our homes to at or below appraised value, DHHL is proposing to take a portion of the sale proceeds on your home in one of the following ways:
DHHL takes 50% of any net sales proceeds you receive on your home (or farm/ranch buildings); OR
DHHL takes the cost of installing utilities, roads and such into the lot, out of any net sales proceeds you receive on your home (or farm/ranch buildings).
The reason DHHL gives the HHC for taking a cut of the sales proceeds on the home that the beneficiary owns, is to put those funds into a fund to build more infrastructure. So essentially, a lessee already on the land that spent their own money to build a home, has to give half or more of their net sales proceeds to DHHL to build more infrastructure for those on the waitlist.

SO ridiculous and a clear violation of the HHCA not to mention our constitutional rights. DHHL is suppose to use our trust funds located in our 9 trust accounts, and access state funds to build out infrastructure for home, farm and ranch lots!

Dumbfounding. Not only does DHHL continue to use our trust funds to pay for its state employees, now they want beneficiaries to pay for lot development out of our personal assets and funds.

D. For Non-Compliant Lessees - if you are out of compliance on your homestead lease for any reason and you need to sell your home, then DHHL is authorized under its proposed rules to take 5% of the sale amount of your house. DHHL is also proposing that if it wants to, it can just cancel your lease rather than let you sell your home.

Closing Section of this Action Alert
The SCHHA went on record yesterday testifying to the HHC our opposition to these rules AND to not allow DHHL to even let them out of the gate for Beneficiary Consultation.

How can any Commissioner give DHHL a green light to include the Thumbs Down Rules in the next step. Aole. If there were ever an example of why the SCHHA called for federal regulations over DHHL and for the Department of Interior to do its job of protecting beneficiaries from the abuses of the State of Hawaii , these are it!

The item was deferred for action until today. We will publish the names of the Commissioners that vote for these DHHL proposed rules once we know the results of the vote. Stay tuned for an update this week!

Robin Danner, SCHHA Policy Chairman

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