OHA grant helping Native Hawaiians buy homes HONOLULU (June 17, 2014) – Luckily for Clayton Kiliona Ku, he was ready when the opportunity came 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 children. 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 specifically help Native Hawaiians come up with the down payment to buy a home. “The grant really helped,” Ku said. “I didn’t think I was any where near ready for the opportunity. It was just sheer luck; things fell into place 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, which received a $500,000 OHA grant to pay for homeownership counseling as well as assistance with down payments. The program, which 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 specifically helped 49 Native Hawaiian families with down payments, accounting for 61 percent of the families receiving this particular assistance from the program, which 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 can afford to live. While this programs OHA funding has dried up, information about similar assistance can be obtained by calling either Hawaiian Community Assets toll free at (866) 400-1116; or the Hawaii Homeownership Center at (877) 523-9503.
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 04:22:34 +0000