DHHL to Receive $22.3M in HUD Funding

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is slated to receive $22.3 million in the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), who serves as both the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and as the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Housing, secured the funding.

“We secured the highest level of funding for Native Hawaiian housing ever,” said Schatz. “This major increase in funding is a big win and means DHHL will have more resources to put people into homes.”

The record amount, included in this year’s appropriations bill and signed into law in March, is $20.3 million more than was allocated last year.

Hawaiian Homes Commission Chair William J. Ailā, Jr. said the increase in funding will significantly enhance DHHL’s ability to develop more housing units and provide additional housing services to beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.

“I would like to extend my gratitude to Senator Brian Schatz for his continued advocacy for native Hawaiians, and our congressional leaders for this vote of confidence in the Department,” Ailā said. “DHHL has worked diligently over the last few years to deploy all of our allocated federal funding into the beneficiary community with housing programs and services.”