The Interior and Commerce Departments will be restoring lands to the Native Hawaiian community, with the potential to issue homestead to 200-400 Native Hawaiian families.
The land is an 80-acre parcel of surplus federal property at the former NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on O‘ahu for inclusion in the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust.
Part of a 1995 Congressional settlement agreement, the transfer will compensate Native Hawaiians for the use of 1,500 acres of lands of potential homelands that was being used by the U.S. Government for alternative purposes.
“The Native Hawaiian Community has waited more than 20 years for the federal government to address a $16.9 million credit owed by the United States to the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust,” said Secretary Deb Haaland, told by the Department of the Interior. “Today’s action is an important step in our commitment to resolving the Hawaiian Home Lands Recovery Act settlement. We thank the Department of Commerce, General Services Administration, State of Hawaii and Native Hawaiian Community members who provided their input during consultation on this transfer.”
Deputy Secretary Don Graves said this parcel of land will soon be called home for hundreds of Native Hawaiians, as told by the Department of the interior.
“We are pleased that Native Hawaiians will now have access to the 80 acres in Ewa Beach where the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center once resided,” he said.
The land formerly housed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center site.
Native Hawaiians are defined as individuals having at least 50% Hawaiian blood.
“Residential lots on Oʻahu are of the highest demand from applicants on the waiting list. This land transfer is an opportunity for beneficiaries that is truly in line with the spirit of the Hawaiian Home Lands Recovery Act,” said William J. Aila, Jr., chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, the Department of the Interior reported.
