Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 11, 1 November 2011 — The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and The Department of Hawaiian Home Londs commit to a partnership ... to create housing for all Hawaiians [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs and The Department of Hawaiian Home Londs commit to a partnership ... to create housing for all Hawaiians

/A no'ai kakou ... On Sept. 21, /\ 2011, the OHA / \ Boardof Trustees

# % held a historic # % j oint meeting with the nine-member Hawaiian Homes Commission to discuss ways to expand our roles in creating housing opportunities for Hawaiians. The meeting prompted a great deal of discussion about the ways Trustees and Commissioners could work together to increase housing opportunities for all Hawaiians.

OHA and DHHL have a long history of working together to create homeownership opportunities for Hawaiian families. For example, we worked together to house 279 Hawaiian families in the Kānehili subdivision in Kapolei and 19 others in the new Kaupuni community in Wai'anae. OHA has also contributed $500,000 to a joint effort with DHHL to renovate Kalaniana'ole Hall in Moloka'i; $667,000 to rebuild Kawānanakoa Gym on the Big Island; and $3 million to build the 85-unit Waimanalo Kupuna Housing. In addition, OHA has provided $3 million annually to cover the debt service on bond funding of approximately $40 million on various DHHL projects. And in 1994, OHA set aside $20 million for down payment and home repair loans for homeowners and those on the waiting list. According to the Star-Advertiser (9/23/11), Hawaii is one of the bottom states when it comes to owning a home and renting. Hawaii was the highest in the nation for the median cost of a home, at $525,400, compared with West Virginia, whieh ranked the lowest at $95,100. The national average was $179,900. Our median rent was first in the U.S. at $1,291, compared with West Virginia, whieh eame in last at $571. The median rent nationwide was $855. Among our islands, Oahu had the highest monthly rent at $1,363, while the Big Island had the lowest at $972. The percentage of

multigenerational households here was the highest in the country at 7.2 percent.

According to OHA's Kauhale: Native Hawaiians anā Housing report (9/21/11), Native Hawaiians: » Experience a disproportionately high rates of unsheltered homelessness and make up a significant portion of the populahon in shelters; » Spend a significant amount of their ineome on housing; and » Must compete for both rental and homeownership opportunities in

an inflated market. Our loeal people are also faced with the fact that landlords are aware that the federal government supplements housing for military families and are also providing them with a cost of living allowanee (COLA). Given these benefits, military families are able to pay the high rents charged by landlords, while our loeal people are not. I believe the solution lies in partnering with other advocates and pooling our resources to address the core issue of homelessness - the laek of affordable rentals and homes. Going forward, the key to success will be to think outside the narrow vision of building only single-family homes. We must build townhomes that more than one family ean live in, niee apartments or transitional housing units for single family members and kupuna. I look forward to working closely with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Director and its Commissioners in the coming years to vastly improve the housing conditions for all of our Hawaiian people. Aloha Ke Akua and Imua Hawaii nei. ■ Interested in Hawaiian issues and OHA? Please visit my web site at www. rowenaakana.org for more information or email me at rowenaa@oha.org.

Followus:lLJ/oha_hawaii | Fan us:Ē/officeofhawaiianaffairs | Watoh us: /user/OHAHawaii

v LEO 'ELELE v > TRUSTEE MESSSAGES "

Rūwena Akana TrustEE, At-largE