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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands office in Kapolei is seen here.
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Great caution must be made with granting $600 million to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL). That large a sum of money is difficult to manage by any entity, and requires extensive planning, accounting and oversight. DHHL seems at this time unable to handle such a complex plan.
All one needs do is drive through Waimanalo and other homestead lands to see that DHHL can’t successfully operate what it already has. Many properties have empty, dilapidated and neglected homes along with illegal structures and piles of garbage and junk in the yards. Nowhere else on the islands does one see such squalid neighborhoods.
While the Hawaiian community needs to have the state fulfill its obligation to provide homesteads, handing over $600 million to DHHL would be like giving a driver’s license to a child who hasn’t even demonstrated they can ride a bike.
Robert Bravieri
Waimanalo
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