Native Hawaiians are being priced out of Hawaii | ABCNL

you've heard the saying there's no place like home but for native Hawaiians home is becoming increasingly a pricey proposition so much so many are being forced to leave the place they love some have found a community and purpose thousands of miles away others have tried but found themselves missing their home too much to stay away our team traveled thousands of miles to bring us this story tonight and Eva Pilgrim has the in-depth report [Music] is the mountain range mololani is the name of our winds of is the name of our rain um getting emotional because that's where my feet Run free [Music] I can smell it I can hear it I hear the streams at night I can feel the Winds of where I grew up healing Aina is a word that flows deep through the veins of Hawaiian culture love of the land founded on the sense we are all connected as living things threat from the sprawling sandy beaches along Chris blue Shores to the Misty mountaintops dotted along the islands here in Paradise there is immense respect for both the land and the Sea honored for providing and sustaining life and the hula dance tells the love story of it all in this it's very solemn we're trying to express we do whatever is necessary to protect our islands and our people yeah but the beautiful landscape of Hawaii is a dwindling option for many natives who have called it home for Generations here they dance have not in Hawaii but nearly 3 000 miles away in the continental U.S four more Las Vegas is home to one of the largest Hawaiian communities outside of the island itself nearly half of all native Hawaiians have had to move away from Hawaii a lot of people who have chosen to move away from our Island homes majority of them is priced out of paradise it's very difficult to have a comfortable lifestyle when we actually bought our house in 2020 we're the First on both sides of our families to ever own something and for many who move away from Hawaii it's that mindset to kind of break that generational trauma of my parents never owned so I would never be able to own and we knew that we wanted to be that like break [Music] the decision to leave not just Paradise but home behind closed doors I would ball my eyes out I would want to move them back home when we decided to move it definitely was not a unanimous decision when we first got here it was so hard as a parent I mean he would cry he struggled finding his place here and understanding what it meant to grow up in a landlocked City like he could not conceptualize as a parent to see and watch your child feel so displaced because of something out of your control it's so heartbreaking there's different thoughts right like we're cowards because we left we didn't fight for it but it definitely is very upsetting to hear of how many Hawaiians are displaced from our home you know and that I'm one of them in Oahu 30 minutes outside of Honolulu the asking price of this home is over one million dollars that price simply is not affordable for many native Hawaiians most of the folks that really want to stay they always want to build their own families within the culture of Hawaiian it's just going to be a you know living paycheck to paycheck and it's a very hard lifestyle most of the native Hawaiians looking to move to Vegas are first-time buyers hoping to give their kids and their parents a better life they want to give back to their parents even it means that they have to come and live in Las Vegas with me but at least I can give them a better quality of life I I can take care of paying for everything now with my job so it is a good situation but it is sad Governor Josh Green says keeping Hawaii accessible to those who've lived on this land for Generations is important my wife who's native Hawaiian and Japanese grew up in Kaneohe my children are part native Hawaiian so I'm already anticipating how it will affect all of our families including my own but Hawaii is the most expensive state to live in in the United States the cost of living is 86 percent higher than the national average with the cost of housing and astounding 207 percent higher than the national average we don't want any at migration we need our young people to stay we're working on economic development we're working on making Hawaii the most diverse place in the world which it is actually it's just too expensive for many people efforts to protect Hawaiians date back over 100 years in 1920 the federal government set aside 200 000 Acres of former lands owned by the royal family and the state for native Hawaiians all because the then Hawaiian Prince Jonah kahio kalaniola wrote to the U.S Senate that the only way to rehabilitate the race was to place them back upon the soil fast forward to today and those 200 000 acres are still being doled out by the government in a program called the Hawaiian Homeland some islands like Oahu have a 30 000 person wait list Aloha welcome to the anahola marketplace I live here in anahola with my beautiful home because of the Hawaiian homelands we have a Barbecue Pit where we have a vendor doing huli-huli chicken kipukai kuwali is chair of the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Association on the island of Kauai he waited decades to be awarded a plot of land for dollar a year for 99 years and it can be extended for another 99 years people are frustrated with the weight knowing that it might take 20 to 30 years even still these homesteads aren't an option for most natives because of a strict rule the blood Quantum level there are a lot of 25 quarter Hawaiians out there that wish they could be part of this land program but they cannot it'll literally take an act of Congress Governor green acknowledges the homestead process needs to be expedited we have 600 million dollars to build four thousand houses right away it's critical because we're trying to right wrongs of the past if you own a second home here in Hawaii please rent it to a local family who's in the tourism industry in the healthcare industry who's a teacher you'll be helping us I was looking for these clothes did you see these pens on the windward side of Oahu Mali is currently raising her family of five in a two-bedroom apartment in the small town of Kaneohe her husband keola is 50 Hawaiian and qualifies for Homestead housing his father died while on the wait list and hopes that with recent reforms his family may still have a chance to be on that list you got to have a certain amount of Hawaiian blood in you and here that's it's a dying race you know it's which it's crazy to think about you can't find 50 Hawaiian out here Molly and keola grew up in the same town as CC we live in Kaneohe it's another city on the island of Oahu I was born here raised in Kahuku there's just something about when you grow up in Hawaii when you're raised here it's just the connections that you make with your people our families have been here for years and there's a lot of roots and that is one thing that people sacrifice when they leave one of the things you want to do right when you come home go to the beach because the water is always a connection with Hawaii you know it is more than Paradise here it really is because we live the real life of living here it's beautiful but have you seen what a gallon of milk is it's like ten dollars she was inspired to move to Las Vegas also known as the ninth Island in hopes for a better life for their family they call it the ninth Island it was a nice stepping stone for us because we knew that it wouldn't be a huge culture shock like the food is still there the Hawaiian activities the people [Music] here CC's Hawaiian spirit is strong despite not being on the eyelid the community becoming her Ohana Hawaiian her family most of us miss home but to be really content I've created something really special for our family [Music] who said you know what you're doing mom right and I said what am I doing he said you're creating your Hawaii I literally broke down in tears one time because I guess that's what I'm doing but as similar as it could be for Molly is just wasn't home the moment that we realized that we needed to go home it was slowly creeping up on us so I left with two kids I came home with one more [Music] I started to think about just having a baby in Hawaii the family the culture the love and support after just two years she was ready to rejoin the Aina trading in her five-bedroom single-family home in Nevada to return to the island leaving was bittersweet because we had the home that you picture yourself living in when you moved to the mainland and now we live in a two-bedroom apartment with five of us and we're happy when I got off that plane with the kids and I was home like my heart felt good I said we experienced Vegas we experienced something new but raising baby and bringing the family home was important [Music] hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show 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Channel: ABC News

Views: 299,568

Keywords: Hawaiians, Las, Native, Vegas, abc, abcnl, cost, culture, expensive, living, news, of, outmigration, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-99916210, preserve, prime

Id: STEXHjWcc0o

Length: 11min 59sec (719 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2023