Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 9, 1 September 1994 — Chairman's View [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Chairman's View

Ka 'ikena a ka Luna ho 'omalu

(This eolumn is open to to the OHA ehainnan to express his individual views and does not necessarily represent the official position of the Board of Trustees. Since these are individual opinions, OHA does not take responsibility for their factual accuracy.)

bv Clayton Hee Chairman, OHA Board of T rustees Home mortgage interest rates have been rising over the past months and housing remains a critical Hawaiian need. On Aug. 4, 1994 "conventional financing"

interest rates at Hawai'i banks were I at 8 5/8 percent fixed for 30 years. I Not surprisingly, the majority of Hawaiian people aren't able to qualify. By the time you read this, the chances are that interest rates will

be even higher. Castle and Cooke. one of the largest "affordable home" builders in Hawai'i, has offered OHA the opportunity to purchase new homes. The interest rate? Six and 3/8 percent fixed for 30 years, a savings of at least 2 1/4 percent. Over the term of the mortgage loan you save tens of thousands and up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the cost of the home. In addition, Castle and Cooke has offered to waive a portion of the escrow costs, a savings of hundreds of dollars. But that's not all. They've also offered to discount certain new homes for Hawaiians. That means if you're Hawaiian you pay less than non-

Hawaiians for the same home. And that's still not all. Castle and Cooke has offered their money to Hawaiians for this program. That's right. Their money. In other words, not one singie penny of OHA native Hawaiian trust funds is used. Zero.

First Hawaiian Bank has agreed to waive the appraisal fee: a cost of $500 to everyone else. But that's not all. It normally costs one percentage point to process loan applieations. In other words, one percent of your purchase

pnee is charged as payment for bank costs. First Hawaiian Bank has agreed to cut that price in half. That means for those who would normally pay $1,500 to $2,000 for loan processing, First Hawaiian bank would "eat" $750 to $1,000 in processing fees. Why do companies do this? Is it becau.se — as one trustee alleged — Clayton Hee is getting a free house? Nope, because Clayton Hee is not getting any house, period. Is it because, this same trustee claims, that Clayton Hee has promised Castle and Cooke $20 million? Nope, because Clayton Hee does not have that kind of money or power. He only has one vote. Ho'okahi wale no.

Then, how eome? Simple. The fact is, there are many people, companies and institutions who want to help Hawaiians. Tom Leppert, president of Castle and Cooke, is one of them. Sure, Castle and Cooke is going to make some money by selling their homes, but they don't have to offer it to Hawaiians. They could offer the same deal to the Japanese Chamber of Commerce or the United Filipino Association. But they didn't. They called OHA. They offered their units, their escrow fees and most important, their money at 6 3/8 percent over 30 years fixed, to us. All of us. The Hawaiian people. Walter Dods, chairman of First Hawaiian Bank, doesn't have to discount his costs to us. But Walter Dods has a long history of helping Hawaiian people. Every month, two OHA trustees gripe about being in the minority on votes they disagreewith. Sometimes they've even voted for things they later disagree with. behaving as if they never voted at all. Their inability to convince their colleagues in a democracy to vote with them speaks for itself. Moaning and groaning are an accepted part of the process. However, have you ever noticed that they've yet to offer a better solution to housing, or for that matter, mueh of anything?