Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 7, 1 July 2014 — OHA grant helping Native Hawaiians buy homes [ARTICLE]

OHA grant helping Native Hawaiians buy homes

By Harold Nedd Luckily for Clayton Kiliona Ku, he was ready when the opportunity eame for him to buy his four-bedroom home at the Kanehili homestead in Kapolei. But it was not because the first-time homeowner had been saving up to buy the home he lives in with his wife and two young ehildren. Instead, the 31-year-old Navy sailor credited the $15,000 in assistance he received from a program partly funded by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to help Native Hawaiians eome up with the down payment to buy a home. "The grant really helped," Ku said. "I didn't think I was anywhere near ready for the opportunity. It was just sheer luek; things fell into plaee for us." He is among dozens of Native Hawaiians who have bought their homes within the past year through the Hawai'i Family Finance Project, whieh received a $500,000 OHA grant to pay for homeownership counseling as well as assistance with down payments. The program, whieh fits into a broader strategy at OHA to help Native Hawaiians achieve housing stability, is also funded by the U.S. Department of Treasury, Wells Fargo and First Hawaiian Bank. The OHA grant helped 49 Native Hawaiian families with down payments, accounting for 61 percent of the families receiving this particular assistance from the program, whieh is coordinated by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. In addition, the OHA grant helped 83 Native Hawaiian families buy homes after receiving homeownership counseling, accounting for 43 percent of the families receiving counseling from the program. Among other key highlights: the program has helped 1,556 Native-Hawaiian families improve their credit score, the number that measures creditworthiness and goes a long way toward determining where you ean afford to live. While this program's OHA funding has dried up, information about similar assistance ean be obtained by calling either Hawaiian Community Assets toll free at ( 866) 400- 1 1 1 6 or the Hawai 'i Homeownership Center at (877) 523-9503. ■