Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 2, 1 ʻAukake 1994 — Bill would address Hawaiian housing needs [ARTICLE]

Bill would address Hawaiian housing needs

bv Deborah L. Ward A bill is now being prepared to move from the U.S. Senate to the House to make low-ineome Hawaiians eligible for federal housing assistance programs and to create one or more Native Hawaiian housing authorities to administer these programs. S.B. 2150, a bill to establish a Native Hawaiian housing program, was introduced in May by Sen. Daniel Inouye, following meetings last year with representatives of Hawaiian agencies and organizations. Last month, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs heard testimony on the bill from DHHL, OHA, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), the State Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations, Hui Kako'o, NHLC. Gibson Foundation, Hawaiian Home Lands Action Network, and others. Most agree the bill should apply to all low-ineome Hawaiians regardless of blood quantum (with the exception of blood quantum requirements on homestead lands). The bill would amend federal housing assistance under the lowineome rental. Section 8, mutual help (home ownership), HOME, loan guarantee and community development block grant programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (HUD). The bill provides for community participation in planning and developing housing programs. A demonstration project would develop housing standards appropriate to native Hawaiian eommunities, since national housing program standards are developed for different climates and conditions. lnouye said he was confident the bi 1 1 could pass this year in Congress if several issues, such as the scope of the bill and the eomposition of the housing authority, could be resolved. He noted that both the Department of Housing

and Urban Development and the administration have for the first time, included native Hawaiians specifically in legislation and a study of Native American housing needs. Under discussion too was whether there should be one, or several, Native Hawaiian housing authorities and how that authority should be constituted. On the Mainland, there are many Indian housing authorities, some large, some small. Laek of adequate funding has been a eommon problem. The bi 11 defines a Native Hawaiian housing authority as any public body or agency chartered by the state to develop or operate lowineome housing for Native Hawaiians on "Native Hawaiian lands," meaning Hawaiian homelands, ceded lands or other lands traditionally occupied by Hawaiians. Following the meeting, the Indian Affairs Committee was to draft several housing authority options for Hawaiian input. Such options could involve: — Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. whieh would focus on creating housing opportunities on the homelands. DHHL favors this option, but sees its obligation as serving homesteaders and homelands trust beneficiaries on the waiting list first. Hui Kāko'o, a support group for homesteaders on the waiting list, also believes DHHL should be a housing authority because it stands ready to get beneficiaries on the land sooner. — Office of Hawaiian Affairs, focusing on creating housing opportunities on and/or off the home lands for HHL trust beneficiaries as well as the majority of Hawaiians who do not quahfy for HHL. who are the majority. — a federally-created entity — a state-created entity — an "umbrella" authority,

combining all of the above in addition to other community and expert representatives. OHA administrator Dante Carpenter told the Indian Affairs Committee staff OHA supports passage of S.B. 2150 because it would "provide a significant financing tool in planning and developing low-ineome housing for thousands of Hawaiians, irrespective of blood quantum, throughout the state." He said OHA believes the best model would be a non-profit umbrella organization similar to Papa Ola Lōkahi, the multi-mem-ber non-profit organization whieh was created as part of the Native Hawaiian Heahh Care Improvement Act of 1992. Advantages of this model, said Carpenter, are: • a non-profit's board of directors ean be made up of representatives from many native Hawaiian organizations. thus assuring shared participation; • non-profits ean solicit funding from a variety of public and private sources, rather than depend solely on federal funding; • creation of a non-profit Native

Hawaiian Housing Authority would ensure that the authority's sole mission would be implementation of any Native Hawaiian Housing Program Act whieh Congress should pass. Disadvantages of a non-profit setup, he said, would be: • the time needed to establish the non-profit, get it staffed and up and running; • the fact that non-profits are not normally empowered to collect rents and mortgages, or to evict tenants. These powers could be specified in an amendment to S.B. 2150, he said. Carpenter noted that if the housing authority was attached to an existing public agency, OHA is best positioned for that responsibility. Under Chapter 10. HRS, OHA has broad enough powers to collect rents or evict. He said if the authority was attached to OHA, it could be structured like OHA's Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund, whieh uses federal funds and matching OHA funds to provide low-interest business loans to native Hawaiian entrepreneurs. The loan fund has an independent board of directors

and staff who work solely on the loan program. Mililani Trask of the Gibson Foundation said she favored a single umbrella-type housing authority with experts representing both federal and loeal programs, thereby avoiding duplicative administrative costs of more than one authority. OHA housing officer Steve Morse noted that "S.B. 2150 will not be the total answer to resolving all housing needs of Hawaiians. But it will add another pieee to the pie. It will add to the financing packages that we have to put together new projects." He pointed out that S.B. 2150 sets aside only a fifth of one percent (0.2%) of Housing and Community Development Act appropriations for grants to the Native Hawaiian housing authority(ties). He estimated potential federal funding at about $8 million at most, for planning, developing projects and for operating expenses of the authority. However, he said, this amount could be increased if a non-profit authority were able to obtain private funding or matched funding from other sources.