A nonprofit group that helped Native Hawaiian families build 22 homes on Oahu and Kauai under a "sweat equity" program said it is being forced to end the affordable housing initiative because its contract was not renewed by a state agency.
The program run by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement provided low-cost financing and organized groups of families to buy materials in bulk and use family labor to reduce construction costs for the four-bedroom, two-bath homes. The homes, built on Hawaiian Home Lands, were sold to program participants in Kapolei for $185,000 and in Anahola on Kauai for $160,000.
Plans for an additional 30 homes will have to be shelved as a result of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands not continuing the contract first awarded in 2009 during the Lingle administration, Robin Puanani Danner, CNHA’s chief executive officer, said Friday.
CNHA officials were informed via email June 27 that the contract was not being extended. Danner said she has been trying to get a meeting with DHHL officials since then without success.
"The clock ran out, and DHHL let the contract expire without any discussion or coordination, just an email telling us to send a closing invoice and to stop any work on the additional 30 homes authorized and in planning," Danner said.
DHHL officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Danner said things appeared to be going smoothly in April when she met with DHHL to give officials an progress report on efforts to recruit 30 applicants for the second phase of the program.
"We had a sit-down with DHHL to let them know where we were," she said. "The chairman’s office was very engaged," she said, referring to then-DHHL Director Alapaki Nahale-a. The DHHL director also serves as chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission.
However, she said things began to change after Nahale-a stepped down in May and was replaced by Jobie Masagatani, a DHHL deputy director from 1995 to 2002.
At first Danner said she thought it might just be an inadvertent oversight as part of the transition to a new director. "Then when we got the June 27 email, I became very concerned," she said. After several months of lack of progress with DHHL, Danner said CNHA decided to put out a news release saying it was ending the program.
The "Homestead Self Help Program" was aimed at low-income families and families in the "income gap" that could not afford a market-priced home but earned too much to qualify for typical housing subsidies, Danner said.
The program served families with incomes up to 200 percent of the area median income. The program provided participating families with homeownership counseling, financial education and technical assistance during construction.
The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in 2010 allocated 10 lots in the Kanehili subdivision in Kapolei and 12 lots in its Piilani Mai ke Kai subdivision in Anahola, Kauai, for the CNHA-developed homes.
Danner said CNHA had a preliminary agreement with DHHL to continue the program with an additional 20 homes in Kanehili and 10 in Piilani Mai ke Kai.
CNHA, which had been recruiting families for the second phase of the program, will begin informing applicants over the next few days that the program has been canceled.
The nonprofit had conducted "aggressive outreach" and had seven applicants who qualified, Danner said.
