The bill requires the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to use the block funds to hire nonprofit, and where warranted, for-profit organizations to build affordable housing for Hawaiians on the homestead list.
The measure also creates a loan guarantee program for those unable to secure conventional loans for their homestead lots.
Nationwide, federal findings indicate 49 percent of native Hawaiians experience some sort of housing problem, a higher percentage than American Indian and Alaska Native households on tribal lands.
Kali Watson, Hawaiian Homes Commission chairman, said the department is keenly aware of the importance nonprofit groups play in developing affordable housing for low-income families, and pledged to continue working with them if this bill becomes law.
"We believe this approach goes a long way to improve the delivery of safe, decent and affordable housing in a manner consistent with native Hawaiian goals and needs," Watson said.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Billie Beamer, former head of Hawaiian Homes, said the department used "every conceivable creative measure" to build affordable homes for native Hawaiians.
OHA favors the bill, she said, but asked the committee to include OHA as a grant recipient because the semiautonomous agency has several projects that help Hawaiians left out of housing programs.
Mililani Trask, governor of Ka Lahui Hawaii and director of the Gibson Foundation on the Big Island, believes the bill builds a stronger foundation from which government can ensure affordable homes for native Hawaiians. She and others, however, questioned why only those who are at least half Hawaiian are eligible. People less than 50 percent Hawaiian need housing assistance too, she said.
Inouye responded that the measure, if passed, would include any changes made by Congress regarding blood quantum. Currently, a bill in the U.S. Senate would allow those who are at least 25 percent Hawaiian to assume a homestead lease upon the death of a parent or grandparent who was an original lessee. The House recently passed a similar measure.
Meanwhile, other Hawaiians attending the hearing were denied oral testimony after the three panels of testifiers were heard. Inouye, however, said he would read all written testimony submitted to his office by April 18.
The boy, testifying yesterday in the sexual assault trial of Ryan Sueoka, used a doll to show how he was seated on Sueoka's knee during the alleged offenses.
"He used his right hand to stroke my butt," said the boy, whose 11-year-old sister also said Sueoka touched her in the chest. She was expected to testify today.
But Howard Luke, Sueoka's attorney, said the fourth-grade teacher, former coach and basketball referee didn't sexually assault either child.
He said a television promotion about an inmate convicted of child molestation triggered a concern in their mother, who drew out their allegations.
Luke also cross-examined the boy, showing differences in his statements to a police detective and jurors.
"That was a year ago," the boy said. "Since then, I've remembered."
The state has accused Sueoka, 43, of five counts of third-degree sexual assault, which carries a five-year prison term.
Sueoka, a public-school teacher since 1983 and on paid leave from the state Department of Education, will testify.
Police are asking the public for help in identifying the suspect, who fled the second time after cutting the woman, 27, on the back and face.
At 2:30 a.m. on March 25, the woman was looking into the trunk of her vehicle in the parking lot of the Pohakea Point complex when the man came up from behind her.
He placed a knife or razor-type object to her throat, police said. He allegedly laughed as he slashed her in the back and her face and called her derogatory names, police said.
He fled after she managed to startle him with a strobe light.
He is described as in his late 20s to early 30s, about 5-foot-10, 220 to 240 pounds and husky. He has black hair in a crew cut, a goatee and wears a stud earring in his left ear.
Anyone with information is asked to call 955-8300.
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