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Michelle Kauhane
Executive Director
P.O. Box 3006
Wailuku, Maui, HI 96793
Phone: (808) 760-5100
Fax: (808) 760-5115
mkauhane@hclending.com
Counties Served: Maui
Incorporated:
2000
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According
to scientific evidence, Maui started five million years
ago as the result of a volcanic eruption on the ocean
floor that created two adjacent volcanoes. These
volcanoes pushed to the ocean's surface and formed Maui.
The
first inhabitants were Marquesas, a Pacific-island
people, who sailed to and settled on the island chain.
Then came the Tahitians. In 1778, Captain Cook arrived
and Europe discovered paradise. Traders, whalers, and
missionaries arrived en masse. In a still controversial
decision, the United States took control of the whole
island chain in 1898, making it a territory.
In
1920, based upon findings of Congress that Native
Hawaiians were a landless and 'dying people,' the United
States set aside approximately 200,000 acres of public
land to establish a permanent homeland for the native
people of Hawaii. Native Hawaiians are defined two ways:
Hawaii's Office of Hawaiian Affairs uses the term for
anyone with any amount of ancestry tracing back to the
inhabitants prior to Captain Cook's arrival; the
Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 uses the term for
anyone with at least 50 percent of their ancestry
tracing back prior to Cook's arrival.
As
a condition of Hawaii's admission into statehood in
1959, the United States transferred title to the 200,000
acres of land to the State of Hawaii with the
requirement that the lands be held 'in public trust' for
'the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians'.
The lands are now administered by a state agency, the
Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
The
primary obstacle facing Native Hawaiians seeking
homeownership is the lack of lending programs for
Hawaiians on Trust Lands. None of the five major lending
institutions in Hawaii, have a special program for
Hawaiian Home Lands. This is basically because lenders
cannot take the land as collateral. Native Hawaiians
have the highest levels of poverty, unemployment, and
incarceration together with the poorest housing,
education, and health of any group in the state.
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