Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 10, 1 October 1995 — Feds back homesteader loans [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Feds back homesteader loans

by Jeff Clark It's now a little easer to get financing on Hawaiian home lands. Loans to Hawaiian homesteaders for the purchase or construction of homes on homestead land ean now be guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing and Community Development Service (RHCDS). The agreement between RHCDS and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) allows for federal guarantees on home loans made by private lenders for up to 100 percent of the purchase price. A loan for the full amount would negate the requirement for a hefty downpayment, whieh for some potential homesteaders is good news: For many Hawaiian families who have demonstrated they ean make the mortgage payments, the inability to eome up with a downpayment is often the major obstacle between them and homeownership, according to OHA housing officer Stephen Morse. Morse hailed the agreement as "another financing mechanism for Hawaiian homesteaders. "One positive aspect of the agreement is that it brings the private lenders more into the action as far as affordable housing for Hawaiians is concerned. The other positive thing about it is it reinforces the idea that the federal government has a trust responsibility to Hawaiians and when agreements like this are made it sets a real positive precedent for recognition of that responsibility," Morse said. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, on hand for the

signing, also said the agreement "enhances and strengthens a special bond many of us have insisted exists between the federal government and the Hawaiian people." Inouye and Morse were referring to the federal government's trust responsibility to beneficiaries of the

H a w a i i a n Home Lands trust, whieh past administrations have said was extinguished when the home lands program was shifted to the state in 1959. The agreement was signed Aug. 30 in Honolulu by Jan E. Shadburn, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's acting administrator* and Jobie Yamaguchi, deputy to DHHL chairman Kali Watson. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lee Crowell and Francis Blanco, the RHCDS state director in Hawai'i, were also in attendance. DHHL, whieh has itself guaranteed loans in the past, will now be able to eoncentrate its resources on providing infrastructure so that homesteaders ean get on their land, said DHHL community relations officer Francis Apohona. "Now that 'i"

we've gotten Washington to do it (guarantee loans), that's a big burden that's been lifted," Apoliona said. Maximum loan amounts are $114,250 for O'ahu, $102,125 for Maui county, and $93,650 for Hawai'i and Kaua'i. The following līnaneial institutions are approved to make RHCDS guaranteed loans: All Pacific Mortgage Company of Hawai'i, Bank of Hawai'i, Continental Savings Bank, Directors Mortgage Loan Corporation, First Federal Savings and Loan Association of America, First Hawaiian Bank, First Hawaiian Mortgage Corp., Honolulu Mortgage Co., International Savings and Loan Assn., Island Community Lending Corp., North American Mortgage Co., Norwest Mortgage and U.S. Financial Mortgage — — — -«• Corp.

For more information on RHCDS guaranteed loans, contact DHHL or one of the above-named lenders.

Jobie Yamaguchi, deputy to DHHL chairman Kali Watson; acting USDA administrator Jan Shadburn, state RHCDS director Francis Blanco and U.S. Sen. Daniel lnouye eelebrate the signing of an agreement providing for USDA guarantees mortgages on Hawaiian home lands. Photo by Jeff Clark