David Kalahiki and Linda Twitchell are residents of the Courtyards at Waipouli, an apartment complex on Kaua‘i. Both have been served eviction notices—not because they broke a lease or missed rent, but because a state agency decided they don’t have the right bloodlines to stay in their homes.
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) purchased the 82-unit complex in late 2025. The purchase was the agency’s first attempt at converting existing private housing into a rent-to-own program reserved for residents who meet a 50% native Hawaiian “blood quantum.” DHHL has more than 30,000 people on its waiting list for homestead leases, and the agency has cast the Waipouli purchase as a way to shrink that backlog.
But for the apartment’s current residents, the agency’s actions have real consequences. For David, who is 25% native Hawaiian, it means he is not quite Hawaiian enough—according to the government—to keep his home. For Linda, who is not native Hawaiian, it means she’s kicked out of the apartment she’s lived in for seven years.
DHHL is serving 90-day eviction notices in batches of five households at a time, a pace the agency says is meant to avoid overwhelming Kaua‘i’s already tight housing market.
In response, David and Linda filed a lawsuit, represented free of charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, challenging DHHL’s blood-quantum eviction policy under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
Courts have long held that the government may not draw lines between citizens based on their ancestry. The Supreme Court has said that distinctions “solely because of ancestry” are “odious to a free people.” Ancestry-based classifications, whether to benefit one group or exclude another, get the strictest standard of review that courts can apply, and DHHL’s rule does not survive it.
A win would mean the residents of Waipouli get to stay in their homes without having to prove their ancestry to a state agency. It would also put every government agency on notice that housing people according to bloodline has no place in America.
What’s At Stake?
- The government cannot evict people from their homes because a state agency decides they don’t have the right ancestry. No one should lose their home over their bloodline.
