Home loan plan helps new buyers

Hawaii’s housing shortage crisis is so acute that there’s perfect sense in coming at it from myriad directions. One of the more intriguing approaches was unveiled this week by Unite Here Local 5, the hotel workers’ union, outlining its participation in a national program to help its members manage — and afford — first-time home ownership.

This is not a silver-bullet solution, of course. The inventory of available homes for sale still will keep prices aloft for the foreseeable future. And groundwork must be laid carefully to ensure proper due diligence on behalf of the new buyers as well as for the protection of any public investments made in projects.

Assuming that’s a given, there’s a lot of potential here. Readying more buyers to qualify for mortgages, especially at the below- median-income price point, could incentivize developers to pursue affordable housing projects that are so challenging to create in this high-cost environment.

That is definitely worth exploration by the state, which could create more partnerships of this kind.

Eric Gill, Local 5 president, said his confidence in the program, offered by the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), is backed by years of watching it grow in other cities across the country. Gill said he was personally involved in its establishment about 30 years ago, spending a week in Boston helping to set up the first NACA office.

NACA is an activist organization, a creation of that city’s Hotel Workers Union, which established a housing trust fund as a benefit of the contract negotiated for the members. A similar fund will be under discussion for Hawaii’s Local 5, Gill said; the plan is for union negotiators to bring the proposal to the bargaining table June 28.

But whether or not that is approved, the nonprofit has committed to opening an office in Hawaii and doing $100 million in business here.

Lending institutions, which must fulfill federal requirements to serve the lower-income mortgage market, contract with NACA to enable them to meet those obligations, Gill said. Local 5 members found out more about the program on Thursday at a homebuyers orientation.

NACA-mediated mortgages require no down payment, fees, closing costs or insurance, removing key barriers to home ownership for those of modest means.

Additionally, the terms would be improved if the local unit succeeds at setting up its trust fund, authorized under an amendment of the Taft-Hartley Act, the foundational federal labor law. The money would help to buy down the interest owed, further easing the burden of the loan.

Gov. David Ige attended this week’s orientation, in advance of a five-day “Achieve the Dream” homeownership event that’s open to the public, slated to begin July 6 at the Hawai‘i Convention Center.

That would be a good opportunity for potential home buyers to ask questions about the safeguards and ground rules for embarking on a loan. NACA also can provide information through its new office here about other programs offered by government agencies, of which the prospective borrower may not be aware.

This program is geared for those earning at or below 80 percent of the median income, the largest proportion of Hawaii’s housing shortfall. A push to tailor a program for these people deserves support. This population has only a thin financial margin of error and many have stumbled — which makes the promised waiver on credit-report requirements an added plus.

Ige, for his part, should examine the potential for partnering with private builders for housing developments on state-owned land. Having a large, new cohort of prequalified buyers teed up to sign a mortgage should reduce the risk for developers.

An initiative geared to prime the pump for affordable housing is something to watch with a measure of hope.