Print subscriber but without online access? Activate your Digital Account now.
The federal government is chipping in to help Native Hawaiians build homes on land leased from the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands under a new pilot program.
The department announced the program Saturday and said it will start with more than 100 households that have land leases but no home in the state’s two oldest Hawaiian homestead communities: Kalamaʻula on Molokai and Keaukaha on Hawaii island.
Under the program, DHHL will use $29 million from the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay for pre-designed home kits from HPM Building Supply and Honsador Lumber.
The federal money will pay for the kits, leaving homesteaders to finance construction that DHHL said costs an average of $130,000.
A homestead family in Keaukaha might be able to own a home for a $300 monthly mortgage payment, the department said.
DHHL said it is in the process of qualifying homesteaders who have vacant lots in the two communities, and that some of the lots have been vacant for more than a decade.
"We really wanted to focus on those families that had lots but for whatever reason have not been able to build, and to provide another opportunity for them to get on their homestead," Jobie Masagatani, DHHL director, said in a statement.
81