HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

115

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS TO INCLUDE ASSISTED AND INDEPENDENT LIVING HOUSING FOR KUPUNA IN ITS DEVELOPMENT PLANS.

 

 

WHEREAS, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, as amended, was enacted to rehabilitate Native Hawaiians who had been displaced from ancestral lands by returning them to the land; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act established a land trust of over two hundred thousand acres for that purpose; and

WHEREAS, the kuleana or responsibility for accomplishing the mandate of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act rests with the State's Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and its nine-member commission; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has met this mandate through the award of over seven thousand residential leases to Native Hawaiians since its inception; and

WHEREAS, many of those who received these leases are now elderly and are unable to live alone without assistance; and

WHEREAS, family members often have difficulty in assisting their kupuna because meeting the financial and other needs of their own families is a hardship; and

WHEREAS, because of advances in medical technology, the number of na kupuna living past age sixty-five is increasing; and

WHEREAS, the availability of assisted living housing units for na kupuna are limited within the State and are non-existent on Hawaiian home lands; and

WHEREAS, providing assisted living housing units within the Hawaiian homestead community for na kupuna, living both on and off Hawaiian home lands, will allow na kupuna living on Hawaiian home lands who need this assistance, to continue to reside within the Hawaiian homestead community; and

WHEREAS, the homes now occupied by na kupuna who need assisted living housing units can be passed to their successors once na kupuna are relocated to assisted living housing units, thereby aiding family members to acquire a home on Hawaiian home lands; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is requested to include assisted and independent living housing units for kupuna in its development plans; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Chairperson and members of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Senate President, the Chairperson of the House Committee on Housing, the Chairperson of the House Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, and the Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

DHHL; Assisted and Independent Living Housing; Home Lands