Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 38, Number 10, 1 October 2021 — Financial Assistance Available for Lessees on Hawaiian Home Lands [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Financial Assistance Available for Lessees on Hawaiian Home Lands

J 'O KA NUHOU 'AINA HO'OPULAPULA ^ HOMESTEAD NEWS

By Cedric Duarte

Financial relief for lessees on Hawaiian Home Lands has arrived in the form of a new Homeowner Assistance Program. The program will assist homesteaders struggling to pay their mortgage, utilities, property taxes, insurance, or association fees as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. The assistance program will deploy $5 Million in federal funds from the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant in accordance with the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act. In April 2020, the department began allowing deferrals of mortgage loan payments for DHHL direct loans and loans assigned to the department. The Mortgage Deferral Program ran through March 2021 and assisted over 700 lessees who took advantage of deferring their monthly payments during the pandemic shutdowns. Homesteaders who had mortgages from private lenders were unahle to take advantage of the Mortgage Deferral Program. DHHL's new Homeowner Assistance

Program is open to all homeowners on Hawaiian Home Lands who earn helow 80 percent of the Area Median ineome and have been financially impacted by the COVIDT9 pandemic. As of June 30, 2021 there were 4,488 mortgages on Hawaiian Home Lands. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) is administering DHHL's Homeowner Assistance Program. CNHA and DHHL were also recently recognized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a high-performing grantee for successfully dispersing $2.4 Million in Emergency Rental Assistance, and there are still funds available from CNHA for Native Hawaiian renters. Hawai' i's congressional delegation has consistently secured federal funding to serve Native Hawaiians throughout the pandemic. From emergency rental assistance to infrastructure funding and now mortgage assistance, it is reassuring that our leaders are finding ways to provide for the Native Hawaiian community. Beneficiaries ean find more information and application forms for DHHL's Homeowner Assistance Program at www. hawaiiancouncil.org/kokua. ■

Cedric R. Duarte is the Information & Community Relations Officerfor the Department ofHawaiian Home Lands. He has worked in communications and marketing since 1999 and is a longtime event organizer. A product of the Kamehameha Schools and the University ofHawai'i at Mānoa, he resides in 'Aiea with his wife and two daughters.