High-rise Hawaiian Home Lands project could be first of many, but not everyone is on board

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Native Hawaiians are divided over the first-ever rental high-rise to be built by the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands — exclusively for beneficiaries.

The $137 million project on 820 Isenberg St. is a redevelopment of the old Stadium Bowl-O-Drome property, which had remained unused since the bowling alley’s closure in 2004.

The 23-story high-rise will have street-level commercial space and 278 rental units, ranging from studios to three-bedroom townhouses. All rental units will be reserved for DHHL beneficiaries.

The project functions as a temporary housing solution for Native Hawaiians on the waiting list for a DHHL 99-year homestead lot.

The only way we could really make or maximize the use of land was to build up.”

While living in the high-rise, Native Hawaiians will maintain their status on the waitlist.

The milestone project has sparked discourse at both the city and state level. A Honolulu City Council committee Wednesday endorsed the plan for final council approval.

Onlookers say as land runs scarce for traditional DHHL land plots, 820 Isenberg is the beginning of what could be a high-rise future for Native Hawaiian housing.

“While we are being very aggressive and doing the typical residential developments, especially on the Leeward Coast and coupled with some others in the urban area, it has been a real challenge,” said Kali Watson, director of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

“The only way we could really make or maximize the use of land was to build up.”

According to the DHHL, 14 out of 20 projects most recently approved by the Hawaiian Homestead Commission involve vertical construction, though that could be subject to change.

Of the 2,700 DHHL housing units slated to be constructed, 2,400 of them are vertical.

820 Isenberg is also a project spotlighted by Gov. Green’s housing emergency proclamation, designed to streamline housing construction, including on Hawaiian Home Lands.

There are some 29,000 applicants on the DHHL waitlist.

The emergency proclamation says Native Hawaiians, on average, spend 23 years on the waiting list; what’s more, Native Hawaiians make up 40% of the state’s houseless population.

Paul Kema, who lives with his family in the Kalawahine Homestead in Punchbowl, was excited after hearing the conceptual plans of 820 Isenberg.

Referencing the landmark settlement that granted $328 million to DHHL beneficiaries who have spent decades on the waitlist, Kema says it’s time for new housing solutions for Native Hawaiians.

Other Native Hawaiian housing leaders alike commended the rental high-rise for providing alternatives, albeit temporary, to beneficiaries.

“With 20,000 — almost 30,000 — Hawaiians waiting, we have to be innovative,” said Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement CEO Kuhio Lewis.

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“You can’t just keep doing the same thing and hope for different outcomes.”

If not enduring disproportionate housing burdens in their own backyard, Lewis warns that Native Hawaiians are increasingly being priced out of paradise.

The massive flight of natives and locals out of Hawaii, he says, was his impetus for hosting the 2023 Native Hawaiian convention in Las Vegas rather than Hawaii.

“If there’s an opportunity to go upwards in Honolulu and make something out of this parcel, why not? For me, it’s just making sure we approach it correctly,” said Lewis.

“So we don’t run over the work that our kupuna advocated for.”

Some beneficiaries, however, believe the new project fails to achieve the DHHL’s mission of developing land for Native Hawaiians.

Puni Kekauoha, senior vice president of Kula No Na Poe Hawaii, a Native Hawaiian organization that serves Papakolea beneficiaries, maintains the high-rise project is a grave departure from the tradition of Hawaiian Home Lands.

“We had this granted on land — not on a condo, not on an apartment. I can’t even imagine deciding who to give as a successor to an apartment. I’m taken aback,” said Kekauoha, herself a Papakolea Hawaiian Home Lands beneficiary.

Kekauoha added the 1920 Hawaiian Home Commission Act, which granted Native Hawaiian families land to attain self-determination, cannot be fulfilled by a rental high-rise unit.

Organization CEO CEO Adrienne Dillard agrees.

“When you are a renter, you lose the autonomy that you get as a homeowner. So there are other considerations when people will be in rentals that impact a Hawaiian way of life,” said Dillard.

Longtime affordable housing advocate and beneficiary Blossom Feitera understands the necessity to have rental units as an option, but also believes it falls short of the legacy of DHHL.

“Rentals should never be the forever home for people, they should choose where they want to go and fulfill a dream if owning a home is that dream. If not, our people are leaving Hawaii for something better,” said Feitera.

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands acknowledged that the smaller rental units are not conducive to the clientele of often multi-generational Native Hawaiian families, and will carry heightened cultural awareness to this development.

“We need to be sensitive because high-rise living doesn’t necessarily align with our cultural perspectives. There’s a lifestyle change—living in a condominium, you don’t have as much privacy, or have the open space benefits, the yards,” said Watson.

Meanwhile, those on both sides of the issue are watching the governor’s emergency proclamation for housing with caution optimism, especially in regards to creating housing for Native Hawaiians.

“We will have a role in helping to support both sides — the ones that are concerned about the impacts on long-standing laws that protect our archaeological sites, our iwi kupuna,” said Lewis, on behalf of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.

Before the pandemic, Kula No Na Poe Hawaii had worked closely with DHHL in the pre-development phase of 820 Isenberg, including the selection of the high-rise’s developers, Stanford Carr Development and Hawaiian Dredging.

Now, the organization urges the DHHL to do more so that the project can fully serve its beneficiaries. For example, they’d like the commercial space to showcase Hawaiian businesses.

In response to regulatory concerns, the DHHL said many of the 20 commission-approved projects are still undergoing environmental review, and two currently have issues with historic preservation.

Feitera similarly calls on the DHHL for further consultation with indigenous communities, specifically with waitlisted beneficiaries.

“Right now, the community in general understands that there’s going to be an apartment,” Feitera said. “It’s going to be a high-rise — but, what else?”

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