Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 1988 — OHA Self-Help Housing Project On In Waiʻanae [ARTICLE]

OHA Self-Help Housing Project On In Waiʻanae

By Deborah Lee Ward Editor Seven Wai'anae coast families this month are beginning to build their own homes in phase one of a new "self-help" housing pilot project that may provide a model for future affordable housing for Hawaiian communities. The project is sponsored by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) in eonjunction with the Administration for Native Americans (ANA). It also represents several important "firsts:" • the first use of the team self-help housing method on h'awaiian Homestead land. • the first time the self-help method is being financed by private lending institutions and the

Federal Housing Authority or the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA). •the first time Bank of Hawaii will provide interim loans on homestead land. • the first housing project that OHA has undertaken. OHA chairman Louis Hao noted at the groundbreaking ceremony November 5 in Lualualei that a primary goal of the OHA Master Plan is to support the development of new programs and expansion of existing programs to meet the housing needs of Hawaiians. Towards this end, OHA last year contracted with the Oahu Self-Help Housing Corporation (OSHHC), a private non-profit agency, to administer the project. OSHHC has obtained financing and processed loans for the families, and is providing technical assistance for construction, including coming up with house site plans, obtaining approvals and permits, and counseling the future homeowners. Last year OHA received nearly $100,000 as a federal grant for this project from the Administration for Native Americans, whieh rarely gives funds to government agencies. OHA is now looking for other ways to fund future self-help projects. Hao recalled the steps that led up to this month's home-building phase: ". . . the actual beginning of this project was several years ago when Oahu Self-Help Housing Corporation director Claudia Shay campaigned for changes in the federal legislation to allow FmHA financing on homestead land." "It gained momentum when the staff of OHA applied to ANA for a grant to pay the project's administrative costs. It was through their hard work and the efforts of Senator Daniel K. Inouye, who supported the federal legislation, that this project eame together, and today we see the first concrete results of those efforts." The seven families, joining together as the Laulima Pono building team, are: Lily and Victoria Campbell, Mary and Junior Gomez, Violet and Henry Hee and Oeean Kaowili, Gavin and Frances Kaimana, William and Maile Kalama, Anthony and Alina Kea, and Alvin and Mytilene Mokulehua. Several of the families told Ka Wai Ola O OHA they had been waiting 25 to 30 years to get on their own land, and were elated and eager to get going,

with the aid of family and friends. For most of the team members, especially the wives, construction work will be a first-time experience. Participants have undergone an eight-week course in home ownership skills. Eaeh family will contribute 32 hours of "sweat equity" labor aweek to build the houses step by step together as a team, helping eaeh other. They will do all the construction work themselves, except for electrical and plumbing components, under the instruction and guidance of OSHHC construction supervisor. The supervisor will teach all the necessary home building techniques and will oversee all phases of the actual construction. Clearing the ground and installing the footing will begin this month, and eomplehon of all the homes is expected in ten months. The final products will be high-quality, double wall, three-bedroom, one and a half bath homes of 1,104 sq. feet or four-bedroom, two bath homes of 1,200 square feet for $31,000 and $35,000, respectively. The market value of the homes will be at least twice as mueh. There are now more than 100 families who have expressed interest in self-help housing on homestead land, as a result of public information meetings held by Oh'A on the different islands this summer, and publicity in Ka Wai Ola O OHA and other news media. More families may be helped in future if more Hawaiian Homeland lesses receive their lots, and if OHA ean find other sources of funding to sponsor similar projects. Present at the November 5 groundbreaking and blessing on Hokuaiaina Plaee, were OHA chairman Louis Hao along with fellow trustees Moses Keale, Clarence Ching and Moanikeala Akaka, and OHA administrator Kamaki A. Kanahele, III. Also on hand were directors of the Oahu Self-Help Housing Corporation, Pua'ala McElhaney, president, Danny Li, vice-president, Lenny Yajima, treasurer, Trinidad Kawai, Elizabeth Santana, and director Claudia Shay and construction supervisor John Richardson. Joseph K. Conant, executivedirectorofHawai'i Finance and Development Corporation represented Governor Waihee. also invited were Alvina Park, Hawaiian Homes commissioner and Gilbert Korinaga of the FHA. Oahu Self-Help Housing Corporation has helped 24 families build their homes in two projects completed in Maili and one in Makaha, and is hoping to do a project on Kaua'i.