Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 2014 — Homeword Bound [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

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1} Liza Simon llluMon b]f Neluon Gaspar

Sitting in a Nānākuli McDonald's, Jewelynn Keli ponders the peaee she has found nearby on the Wai'anae Coast in a permanent rental home. "From the outside, the house doesn't look so good, but it's the inside that counts," she says. In 2009 Jewelynn says she quit the retail job she had held for 20 years to take care of her husband, Mikaele, who was struggling with diabetes. The eouple went to Tennessee to stay with a relative who had offered to assist with his care. When her husband's health continued to deteriorate, the eouple returned just months later to Hawai'i. They couldn't find an affordable rental. Their options heeame fewer when they took in their troubled adult daughter and another relative, whose mental illness had wreaked havoc on the 'Ewa Beach home of Jewelynn's parents. For a few weeks, they had no plaee to go except the heaeh. "I never chose to be homeless," says the Native Hawaiian mother of four. "Just like my mom and dad, I worked hard and I thought that would get me by."

Helping hands

Jewelynn's family is one of 53 that have experienced this turnaround between August 201 1 and June 2014, thanks to Hawaiian k Community Assets, a Native Com- _ munity Development Financial Institution and a nonprofit certified in housing eounseling by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, or HUD. HCA uses a combination of hnaneial education and hnaneial products to put suitable rentals and opportunities for homeownership within reach of Native Hawaiian families. The agency has made it a priority to respond to a surge in statewide homelessness by assisting lowineome Hawaiians who have been affected by the crisis. "We empower them to use their own cultural knowledge of traditional resource management. This becomes their blueprint for wise money management they ean use to realize their goals of returning to permanent housing," says Jeff Gilbreath, HCA executive director. In transitional shelters on the Feeward Coast, there is plenty of stress and conflict to go around. However, HCA program director Desiree Vea says among the resident "clients" - people she visits regularly, are ■ Hawaiian families

A with a sense of I community who I embrace what | HCA offers. "I see families with a weahh of knowledge of Pthings that are not usually valued in the rest of today's society, like lei-

maiang or somehow ■ finding the best way to be in ■ the shelter. My work has ■ heeome a matter of translat- ■ ing the things they are good ■ at into the things that will ■ sustain them when they get ■ back into permanent hous- ■ ing," Vea says.

In 20 1 1 HCA began reaching out to transitional shelters statewide. As the name suggests, transitional shelters provide for people aiming to get back to independent living.

A report from the University of Hawai'i Center on the Family says that Hawaiians represented the largest group in transitional shelters in 2013. Starting in 2014, HCA has met an increased demand for its services by expanding its effort to churches andothernonprofitstoprevent very low-ineome Hawaiians from needing to use shelters - or even worse, from slipping into chronic homelessness without any shelter. Money management made cultural The varied and complex reasons of why some Hawaiians end

up homeless may very well be rooted in history. "There is a cycle of intergenerational poverty going back to Western private property replacing collective land and

natural resource management," Gilbreath says. He notes that in today's Ananeial system, prosperity requires asset-build-ing - the ability to accumulate material weahh. That weahh ean then be leveraged to get access to eapital, whieh provides a

cusmon wnen emergencies nappen -like a car repair or an illness, lest the emergencies, left unresolved, lead to catastrophic hardship. "You have to learn how to navigate the system to fully enjoy its benefits,"

Gilbreath says. This task is tough for people in poverty, but OHA has helped to make this goal attainable for them by investing $275,000 in HCA's

Renters MATCH Savings Account program, whieh provides a 4-to-l match on savings up to $500 for a combined total of $2,500 for rent, deposits and utilities that will secure a rental. After completing workshops and meetings with HCA's Ananeial counselors and trainers, participants

get the 4-to-l match only if they deposit money eaeh month into an savings account, make no withdrawals and present their bank statements to HCA. "So they are not only learning to make sense

out of this crazy Ananeial system, they're also translating their skills into long-term Ananeial responsibility," Gilbreath says. OHA also provided funding of

$262,000 for Ananeial counseling as part of the Renters MATCH Savings Account program. Of the 53 families graduated from Renters MATCH, all have remained in rentals secured with the help of the HCA program. The families saved a total of $52,371, whieh was then matched 4- 1 . These outcomes recently garnered HCA a $10,000 award from the Washington D.C.-based Corporation for Enterprise Development

as recognition of this innovative program. HCA's success also draws praise from Jim Patterson,

ieaaer oi uūa s no OKanua Waiwai, or Eeonomie SelfSufficiency initiative, who says that HCA takes a holistic approach similar to OHA's strategic plan to bolster inter-related determinants of success, including Ananeial security, quality heahh care and improved opportunities for jobs and higher education. "HCA is really able to get into the long-term situation of eaeh client. It takes

tneir constant handholding to get clients to improve their Ananeial standing, whereas banks are not equipped to do this. Banks are transaction3riented and are looking at where a client is at in the moment," he

says. No surprise then that Vea,

the HCA program director, says she meets many clients who have never done banking. "Some have even been keeping their money SEE H0ME ON PAGE 23

Escaping homelessness - or the tflreat of it, Native Hawaiiffl^^^M h leam to build better Hnaneial foundations h

The four pooled their meager resources, including a stipend Jewelynn received from a county program for being a caregiver for her husband; they eame up with just enough to afford Kumuhonua, a transitional shelter in Kapolei, where they stayed for two years sharing one room.

Hawaiian Community Assets 200 N. Vineyard Blvd.,A300 B Honolulu, Hl 96817 (808) 587-7886 hawaiiancommunity.net

Jewelynn says it was her family's lucky break when a shelter case worker referred her to Hawaiian Community Assets. "They were trustworthy and they answered all our questions. And we just leamed so mueh," she says, her voice trailing off as she shakes her head, saying she is at a loss to explain the gratitude she feels for HCA. "First time I ean shut the door at night and not worry about so mueh," she says.

HCA counselor Rose Transfiguracion with a Renters MATCH graduate and Credit Builder Micro-Loan borrower celebrate his success in securing rental housing. - Courtesy: Hawaiian Community Assets

Hale Makana 0 Nānākuli, a 48-unit affordable rental housing complex developed by the Nānākuli Homestead Community Association.

HCA's first graduating class of its Kahua Waiwai Youth Financial Education program. - Courtesy: Hawaiian Community Assets

l$helter residents take ■ partinan HCArenter I education workshop. I - Courtesy: Hawaiian CommunityAssets

Hawaiian Community Assets Executive Director Jeff Gilbreath, left, and program director Desiree Leialoha Vea, at HCA's office, in Honolulu. - Photo: LisaAsato

H0ME

Continued from page 19 in jars all their lives. But onee they see the savings grow (in HCA products), they don't want to touch it." Vea continues: "But let's face it, life happens. They might be like, 'Des, I am not sure I ean pay for a car repair.'

So we sit down and re-evaluate their hnaneial plan. We say, 'Do we really need to touch the savings? Maybe we ean move things around.' We show them that that they ean make adjustments in their budget and be creative about bringing in some extra cash and still make a eommitment to put something in monthly into their savings so they will get the 4-to-l match." Microloans ease debt In addition to funding Renter's MATCH, OHA is helping HCA with clients who have bad credit or no credit history that will likely prevent them from qualifying for a rental. "We often see people who have gotten their credit zapped by 'payday loans,'" explains HCA's Gilbreath, referring to predatory lending practices that exploit low-ineome people in dire hnaneial straits by giving them unsecured loans with excessively high interest rates, a practice now illegal in some states. Gilbreath is grateful that OHA's investment of $20,000 in HCA's Credit BuilderMicroLoans ean be used to ease this burden on low-ineome Hawaiians, including the homeless. "We are able to eome in with a microloan and pay off our client debts and make favorable

reports on their behalf to the credit bureaus," he says. As a result, microloan borrowers who had no credit scores at intake averaged scores of 633 points within one year. Second chances Jewelynn Keli, the mother of four, says HCA's programs and products gave her the motivation she needed to change her behavior. "I used to think going out to eat was a big treat for my kids, but I realized it was just habit and it was actually cutting into my kids future," she says, adding that she is passing

the money management lessons from HCA on to her grandchildren. At 45, she feels that the rental lease she signed with HCA's support has given her a new lease on life. Her only regret is that this happened too late to share with her husband. The eouple moved in April to the new rental just across from the heaeh. Blind from diabetes, Mikaele enjoyed the feeling

of sea breezes on his face while he sat near the oeean talking story to his sons about his love of fishing. But three months ago, he died during a surgical procedure. "I want to show you something that he never got to experience," Jewelynn says, offering photos of a landscaped fence bordering the entryway to her new residence. "Our son built this for his father, so he would have something to smile about when he eame home from the hospital - but it didn't happen," she says, her luminous brown eyes moistening for just a moment, before she catches herself.

She says she is following through with the plan she made with her HCA counselor: She is looking to find a job helping people with disabilities. She did this type of work during her brief stay in Tennessee. "What you have to remember is where the other people are at, when you communicate with them. Remember to react positively, no matter what comes your way."

Grim state statistics, inspiring clients Jewelynn's unflagging optimism sounds uncannily like Gilbreath's creed as he confronts a huge ehallenge fueling Hawai'i's housing crisis: the state's critical shortage of affordable housing that meets the HUD definition of not exceeding 30 percent of a renter's monthly ineome. Some federal housing subsidies won't kiek in unless this benchmark is met. Half of all renters in Hawai'i are paying more than the HUD standard. Native Hawaiians as a group put 51 percent of their monthly ineome toward rent in 2013, a decrease of nearly 5 percent from the previous year, according to U.S. Census data. Through its strategic plan, OHA is making progress

toward improving the eeonomie well-being of Native Hawaiians with initiatives that include improving job and educational opportunities leading to a higher median ineome for beneficiaries, OHA's Jim Patterson says. Gilbreath says HCA is undeterred, because the agency has succeeded in locating affordable units by being flexible, leveraging limited dollars and building partnerships with nonprofit developers. "When you take the profit motive out of housing, then you have affordable housina development," he savs,

adding that committedpartnerships between nonprofits help with the long-term goal of ensuring the size and quality of affordable housing won't be comprised, causing overcrowding of large Hawaiian families in small units. Gilbreath is confident that all this is possible. He's been inspired by several former shelter clients with long-term goals. "After becoming renters, they want to get back to the land," he says. "They want to grow their own taro again and be self-suf-ficient. They want to move up to becoming homeowners." ■

A Renters MATCH graduate with her family in their new rental apartment at Hale Makana 0 Nānakuli, a 48-unit affordable rental housing complex developed by the Nānākuli Homestead CommunityAssociation.

A Renters MATCH graduate stands with her daughter in front of their new rental apartment at Hale Makana 0 Nānākuli. - Courtesy: Hawaiian Community Assets