Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 1, 1 January 1994 — Draft federal bill would assist Hawaiian housing [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Draft federal bill would assist Hawaiian housing

by Jeff Clark Hawaiians will be included in federal housing programs that benefit Indians and other Native Americans, if draft legislation being prepared by the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is introduced by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and passed by Congress. Inouye, during a hearing last month in Honolulu on the Native Hawaiian Housing Assistance Act of 1994, said he hopes to introduce the measure by early February.

The act would: • establish a "general program of assisted housing" for native Hawaiians by amending the United States Housing Act of 1937; • start a loan guarantee program for native Hawaiians; and

• make native Hawaiians eligible

for such federal housing grant programs as the HOME program and community development

block grants. These programs would be carried out through the creation of a Native Hawaiian Housing Authority, whieh would develop and operate low-ineome housing projects and make improvements on existing projects. The auth-

o r i t y would be funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, "Section 8" low-ineome housing assistance would be available to residents of native Hawaiian lands, meaning areas where the authority ean provide low-ineome housing.

OHA trustee Moses K. Keale,

Sr. applauded the act for supporting the participation of eommu-nity-based Hawaiian organiza-

tions in planning and building housing, and for establishing a mutual help home ownership program for Hawaiians. In a mutual help home ownership program, families would contribute land, labor, money, materials or equip-

ment toward a project's development, and then make monthly rent payments of just 15 to 30 percent of their ineome, minus utilities. When and if the family is ready, they would be able to purchase the home. Keale called for clarification on two points: how the authority would be created, and what steps would be taken to prevent it from becoming just another layer of continued on page 4

Sen. Daniel lnouye

Trustee Moses Keale

« Federal housing biil would assist Hawaiians

from page 1 bureaucracy whieh might hinder, rather than help, Hawaiians in

their quest for housing. Because OHA is a public agency established by Hawai'i state law, OHA should become the authority, Keale recommended. The law mandates that OHA serve, he pointed out, "as the princi-

pal agency in this state responsible for the performance, development, and coordination of programs and activities relating to Hawaiians, and is responsible for receiving and disbursing funds from all sources for Hawaiian programs and services." In an interview following the

hearing, OHA housing officer Stephen Morse reiterated and added to Keale's remarks. "OHA is the agency that should be that Hawaiian Housing Authority. If Chapter 10 mandates that we be the one to serve as the responsible agency for coordinating Hawaiian programs, then that's what we should be. OHA is already there, we're already out in the community doing things." Morse said the authority could be involved in "building rentals, doing the kind of housing and community development we're talking about at OHA - acquiring private parcels, anything - we could do it all. We're already creating a housing program here at OHA - we have been for a year and a half. This throws a little

different dimension on it, but to me it means we ean just expand

our scope a little bit. Rather than go create this whole new entity, we're already in the process of doing it." Morse, along with housing division staff and consultant James Severson, has developed a eomprehensive plan for Hawaiian housing

and community development that soon will be presented to the Board of Trustees. Inouye said the bill's housing standards, whieh mention heating systems, would be revised. State Rep. Virginia Isbell's testimony noted that the language statihg the housing should conform to

loeal housing codes should be stricken, and that the bill's definition of "standard housing" as being "decent, safe, sanitary, and modest in size and design" should be sufficient. Keale agreed that the housing standards section should be changed to allow

greater flexibility, citing the selfhelp project in Miloli'i as a successful example of alternative building and infrastructure systems. Hoalikū Drake, chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, said programs for Hawaiian

housing should be established separate from those for Native Americans, saying, "We do not want to cut into their pie." She agreed with Richard Miīehell, chairperson of the National American Indian Housing Council, who said Hawaiians should have their own program and offered suggestions in implementing such a program. Inouye discussed with those testifying the question of whieh lands these programs would cover. Drake said the emphasis should be on Hawaiian Home Lands, adding, "We feel that the federal government has not carried its share of the load" in providing money to put Hawaiians on homestead land. Honolulu City and County Admini-strator Daniel J. Kihano said there could be a mix of projects on and off

homestead lands. Other possible areas might involve retum of ceded lands and acquisition of private parcels, said OHA housing specialist Patti Tancayo in an interview! "Deciding whieh lands these programs would put houses on is part of the process," she said.

Citing the land inventory and acquisition strategy being eontracted by OHA's land and natural resources division (see story page 6), Morse said this is another area in whieh OHA is already moving ahead.

Stephen Morse

Patti Tancayo