By Holo Hoʻopai and Lindsay Kukona Pakele
In the pursuit of sustainable and multigenerational community resilience, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs’ (OHA) Mana i Mauli Ola (MiMO) Strategic Plan outlines a vision for quality housing that prioritizes the wellbeing and vitality of our lāhui.
As Native Hawaiians face increasingly difficult challenges related to housing accessibility, retention, and maintenance, OHA is targeting strategies to help ensure that we are focusing our resources, connections and expertise to meet the current needs of our lāhui while also building a strong foundation for our keiki and moʻopuna.
Our housing team – part of OHA’s new Strategy and Innovation Division – has been tasked to develop bold and innovative approaches to improve housing opportunities for our lāhui by leveraging our collective ʻike in fair housing and housing law and policy, project management, and advocacy to design meaningful, impact-driven housing solutions. Our work is grounded in the need for kānaka to have viable opportunities to live full, rich lives here in Hawaiʻi nei, connected to our ʻāina, culture and lāhui.
Mana i Mauli Ola: Guideposts toward ea
MiMO sets a high bar for our housing team to dream, ideate, and plan projects and programs that are impactful, transformative, and tailored to the unique needs of our lāhui.
MiMO “Quality Housing” Strategy 5 is to “advance policies, programs and practices that strengthen Hawaiian resource management knowledge and skills to meet the housing needs of their ʻohana.”
Strategic outcomes include increasing the number of Hawaiians who rent or own homes that meet their financial and wellbeing needs, and increasing the safety, stability, social support networks, and cultural connection in Native Hawaiian communities. Assisting beneficiaries to develop resource management knowledge and skills is a key component to increasing the number of Native Hawaiians renting and owning homes.
MiMO “Quality Housing” Strategy 6 is to “support the implementation of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act and other efforts to meet the housing needs of ʻohana.”
Here, our strategic outcomes include increasing affordable non-traditional housing options (e.g., accessory dwelling units/tiny houses), increasing housing supply on Hawaiian Home Lands, and decreasing Native Hawaiian out-of-state migration.
To chart a path forward, our team has identified three tactical approaches we believe will improve access to information and empower our lāhui with options to make informed choices about their housing priorities. These tactics should also yield data useful to continue improving, innovating, and advocating for our beneficiaries, with an end goal of Hawaiian self-governance.
- Tactic 1: Mālama Honua – provide funding for home improvements/renovations prioritizing homeowners with significant health, safety and financial challenges.
- Tactic 2: Mālama Kānaka – provide funding for tiny homes, accessory dwelling units, etc. in rural communities and other areas where affordable housing is insufficient/absent.
- Tactic 3: Mālama ʻIke – develop and maintain a repository of housing resources available to help beneficiaries navigate the rental and home buying processes.
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) is an important partner in this effort, as OHA and DHHL share beneficiaries and have complementary missions. Our goal is to foster meaningful, targeted collaborations and share information, resources and capacity to identify gaps in DHHL services that OHA can help to fill. It’s a unique opportunity for our agencies to work together with shared purpose and vision.
The current state of housing for Native Hawaiians
Housing issues for Hawaiians are multi-faceted, but there are three common themes: few affordable housing options, inadequate financing, and a lack of access to priority housing exclusively for Hawaiians.
Median rent in Hawaiʻi is the second highest in the nation The national median rent is $1,300 while the median rent in Hawaiʻi is $1,813 – 39% higher.
On average, Hawaiian households are larger than non-Hawaiian households for both homeowners and renters, and total household income for Hawaiians lags behind the overall state population ($89,322 versus $92,458). And 54% of Native Hawaiians households spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
Additionally, for years Native Hawaiians have represented about 40% of the houseless population on Oʻahu, despite being less than 20% of the general population.
Exacerbating the lack of housing availability, between 2018-2023, DHHL leases (residential, agricultural, and pastoral) flatlined, growing by just over 1% while the number of applicants on the waitlist rose about 3.5% (from 28,306 to 29,296).
According to a 2020 study, the number of DHHL applicants earning less than 80% of the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) area median income (AMI) increased to 51%, meaning more than half of DHHL’s waitlist may not qualify for a turnkey housing unit.
A 2017 HUD report found that, “overall, the Native Hawaiian population faces greater levels of disadvantage than the residents of Hawaiʻi population, and HHCA [Hawaiian Homes Commission Act] beneficiary households on the waiting list…face even larger challenges. By contrast, Hawaiians currently living on the Hawaiian home lands have higher incomes and face housing affordability issues less often.”
The report noted that Hawaiians living on DHHL lands are better off financially than other Hawaiians, and that Hawaiians on DHHL’s waiting list struggle the most with affordability problems, suggesting that this difference could be due to the ability of more financially secure beneficiaries to obtain housing loans and assume homestead leases, versus those who cannot obtain housing loans and thus languish on the waiting list.
Nevertheless, the report confirmed the benefit of DHHL housing and “supports continuous and increased funding for infrastructure, housing development, and housing assistance for low-income HHCA beneficiaries.”
Reframing the housing narrative from “how come?” to “how can?”
The needs of our beneficiaries are many, and OHA cannot achieve its vision of raising a beloved lāhui alone. OHA looks forward to working collaboratively with DHHL, with other partners in the housing community, and with our lāhui – with a focus on information sharing, capacity building and identifying gaps – to develop creative ways for OHA to help our beneficiaries to acquire secure, safe, and affordable housing.
OHA’s Housing, Infrastructure and Sustainability team includes Interim Director Kūʻike Kamakea-ʻŌhelo and Strategy Consultants Holo Hoʻopai and Lindsay Kukona Pakele.
Lindsay Kukona Pakele, Esq. was born in Hilo, and split her childhood between Hawaiʻi and Connecticut. She has a bachelor’s from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, a master’s in education from Hunter College, and a J.D. from the William S. Richardson School of Law. She has a background in education and law and over the past decade, she has focused on Hawaiian and civil rights issues at OHA, the Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi, and most recently as a Hawaiʻi DOE Civil Rights Compliance Branch Equity Specialist. She returned to OHA in December 2024.
Holo Hoʻopai was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaiʻi and graduated from Ke Kula ʻo Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu. Prior to joining OHA, Holo worked at UH Hilo where he served as a special assistant to the chancellor and program coordinator. He has a bachelor’s in history from Stanford University and a master’s in Hawaiian language and literature from Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani at UH Hilo.
 Mana i Mauli Ola (MiMO) Strategic Plan outlines a vision for quality housing that prioritizes the wellbeing and vitality of our lāhui.){kind=link}