Posted on: Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Receiving homestead 'like being in Las Vegas'
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
KULA, Maui — Hundreds of Native Hawaiians turned out over the weekend to learn if they would be awarded one of 337 single-family residential lots in the Waiohuli Homestead, a state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands project planned for 523 acres in Kula.
Jeanette Ka'auamo, 55, has been on the agency's waiting list since the 1980s, and at No. 899, she wasn't sure her number would come up this time around. A little more than an hour after officials began announcing each award Saturday morning, Ka'auamo got her answer.
"I was just so happy. It was like being in Las Vegas," she said.
"I was happy not only for me, but for everyone else who got a lot. We were cheering for every person who was there."
Home Lands officials said the Waiohuli Homestead development will help meet the high demand for homes on Maui and provide home ownership opportunities for Native Hawaiians faced with escalating real estate prices.
The agency has nearly 7,000 applications for Hawaiian homelands on Maui, about 3,200 of which are for residential property.
The Waiohuli Homestead lots would be built on 196 acres. About 100 acres of the remaining land on the 523-acre property would be used for archaeological and cultural preserves, with another 100 acres for ranching and grazing and 125 acres for open space.
The project site is part of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' Waiohuli Keokea tract, which includes 6,112 acres next to Kula Highway, some of which is now used for cattle grazing. The land is between the Kula Residential Lots, which consists of 321 existing lots and 99 planned lots, and the Keokea Agricultural Lots, which has 69 planned lots.
The Waiohuli Homestead is scheduled for development within the next two to five years. On-site improvements include water storage, transmission and distribution facilities, individual septic tanks, roads, drainage, and electrical and communication systems.
The department for the first time used its Undivided Interest Award Program to distribute homestead lots to beneficiaries. The program awards ownership in the development without immediately specifying which piece of property, and allows those with the required 50 percent Native Hawaiian blood to pass on the property to a successor with at least 25 percent Native Hawaiian blood.
The program also gives awardees time to prepare for home ownership while the department develops the project, said Darrell Ing, a land agent with the agency. As development occurs, owners will be offered financial assistance, education and personalized case management help.
Since Ka'auamo already owns a home in Kokomo and doesn't want to assume a new mortgage at this point in her life, she is planning to turn her lot over to her 29-year-old daughter.
"She would never be able to apply since she's not 50 percent Hawaiian. Now I have that to give her," she said.
Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
