Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 1996 — Building a home for Hawaiiam [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Building a home for Hawaiiam

For OHA's housing division, providing a plaee for Hawaiians to live means more than building homes: it means building eommunities. "Our mission is to build or rebuild sustainable Hawaiian eommunities whieh integrate affordable housing with all types of eeonomie, social and cultural opportunities," explains Steve Morse, OHA's housing division officer. The division's activities are based upon a long-range housing and community development plan - Pihana Kauhale Hou - whieh focuses on helping to house Hawaiians and provide healthy eommunities for them to live and grow. Its efforts include supporting self-help housing projects whieh involve groups of Hawaiian families building houses in the same area. It is also involved in the development of a Waimānalo kūpuna housing project whieh, when completed, will include 65 housing

units, a community/cultural center, and a commercial center. The division is also actively involved in the development of a eommunity in Puna to help Hawaiian families displaced by lava inundation in Kalapana. Other division activities include advocating for Hawaiians at the state, loeal and federal levels, and providing assistance for Hawaiians holding 999-year homestead leases. The division also works to meet Hawaiian emergency or short-term housing needs through its housing information and referral service. Housing Officer Steve Morse is assisted by Patti Tancayo, housing specialist; Leona Kalima, housing counselor; and Joanie Martinez, division secretary.

Pihana Kauhale Hou: Housing and Community Development Plan OHA's housing division has been centering its activities around a housing plan whieh focuses on building or re-building specific areas whieh have been traditionally inhabited by Hawaiians or whieh have good development potential for new Hawaiian eommunities. The Pihana Kauhale Hou: Housing and Community Development Plan envisions overal! housing as an integral part of, , development projects such as community and cultural centers, edueahonal and training facilities, health centers, agriculture, and aquaculture. • Waimānalo Kūpuna Housing Project OHA is in the planning stages of a kūpuna housing development in Waimānalo. When completed, the project will include 65 units of low and moderate ineome rental housing for elderly native Hawaiians. Priority will be given to kūpuna on the Hawaiian home lands wait list and those currently residing on homestead property. In Febmary 1995, the Hawaiian Homes Commission approved a 65-year general lease at $1 per year to the seven-acre parcel on whieh the project will be situated. The project plans also include the development of community and commercial centers. Morse believes the commercial centers Continued page 10

Building homes and communities: OHA's housing division programs are helping house Hawaiians and provide healthy communities for them to live and grow in.

Housing fr„m ,

will help to revitalize the economy of the area and provide jobs for ' residents. "The primary area of focus will be the homestead eommunity but we think it will have a ripple affect and benefit the whole area." • Kikala-Kēōkea In 1983, a volcanic eruption destroyed the town of Kalapana, one of the last remaining Hawaiian settlements on the island of Hawai'i. In response, the state is building a subdivision at Kīkala-Kēōkea, a 150-acre parcel of state land located just north of the former Kalapana Village. The Legislature has also provided relocation and housing construction financing to the approximately 65 residents that had lived in the town. OHA is assisting the residents' efforts by hiring a housing and community planner to help resi-

dents prepare a master plan for the Puna subdivision. The emphasis has been on planning the site of a community/cultural center and other areas that will be used for cultural or eeonomie activities. • Self-help housing Self-help housing is a program designed to assist families in obtaining home ownership by having family members contribute labor toward the construction of their homes. The work takes plaee under the direction of construction supervisors, and families that qualify for mortgages — whieh range from $40,000 to $50,000 - work with other families when building their homes. Homes are built in the same area and share the same inffastructure. The housing division, OHA staff and Kaua'i Habitat for Humanity (KHFH) played a major role in a "housing blitz" that helped build

ten self-help homes for Hawaiians on Kaua'i in 1994. In January 1995, the Board of Trustees approved a $1.7 million, no-inter-est loan to Kaua'i Habitat for Humanity to assist in developing 100 self-help homes for Hawaiians over a three-year period. The loan provides construction financing for qualifying Hawaiian families. The loan also helped KHFH

leverage funding from other s o u r e e s including $2 million from the County of Kaua'i and $375,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. In addition to the loan, OHA p r o v i d e d KHFH with a $50,000 grant

to hire a construction supervisor and housing counselor to work with the families. The division is presently supporting self-help housing projects in Maunalaha and Kahana Valleys, Ho'olehua, Moloka'i and Kawaihae/Waimea on the Big Island. To date, assistance has eome in the form of workshops to educate Hawaiians about self-help housing. Later, OHA funding will provide technical assistance and project management. Morse feels that the way selfhelp housing is structured - with groups of families building homes in the same area - is conducive towards building communities.

"Working together in the same area helps families get to know eaeh other and encourages them to think about their future together as a community." Housing advocacy OHA's housing division advocated on behalf of 51 Hawaiian families holding 999-year leases from Department of Land and Natural Resources who have

encountered difficulty in obtaining financing for home repair or construction due to lease restrictions. The division has also worked with families who have experienced strife among family members eoneem-

ing descent laws regarding leases, or who are unable to purchase the fee interest as prescribed by law. Assistance has likewise gone out to families who are without a general understanding of their rights and responsibilities with respect to the 999-year leases.

In late 1994, the housing division produced a brochure and eonducted workshops to teach homesteaders about lessees' rights and responsibilities under the 999-year lease. OHA was also successful in passing Act 30 whieh created a Successor Determination Program to assist benefici£iries in determin-

ing successors to the leases without being subjected to the high costs of probate proceedings. - v - Housing information and referral service OHA's hoūsing division provides support for Hawaiians with serious or emergency housing needs. Approximately 100 calls are received eaeh month for housing assistance due to eviction or delinquent payment and for information about affordable rentals. OHA's housing counselor provides primary services and works with OHA's donations committee to respond to housing-related requests.

Morse beheves that with a weak economy and with upcoming cuts in federal and state budgets that the housing situation for Hawaiians is only going to get worse. "More and more folks are going to be unemployed, homeless, or living in unstable, overcrowded housing." He hopes to strengthen OHA's referral service and play a more proactive role in developing permanent, low ineome rentals and transitional rental housing for Hawaiians. This, Morse believes, will involve working cooperatively with private and public agencies in the state and with other OHA divisions. "It behooves us to try and integrate our housing services with other groups that are providing services." For more information about OHA's housing programs eall 594-1972.

"Working together in the same area helps families get to know eaeh other anei encourages them to think about their future together as a community." - Steve Morse OHA housing officer

Owning a home in Hawai'i has always been expensive and a weak economy has made it even more difficult.