Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 3, 1 March 1993 — OHA gives self-help kōkua to Nā Po ʻe Kōkua [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA gives self-help kōkua to Nā Po ʻe Kōkua

by Jeff Clark There's an old saying, "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." lf that adage was coined today, it might read, "If you want something done affordably ..." The OHA housing division has provided funds to a group of Hawaiians who believe in doing things themselves. Nā Po'e Kōkua is a hui of Maui residents, consisting primarily of women, who are interested in developing affordable housing. particularly self-help housing.

Self-help housing is a way for families to house themselves via "sweat equity." OHA contracts with a non-profit organization whieh trains and supervises the tenants, who save big money by building their homes themselves. With the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands lending money to the homesteaders for

materials, the lessees end up spending about $30,000 to build their houses with average monthly mortgage payments of about $400. In addition to learning skills, the residents are cemented by their sense of accomplishment and laulima, working together. OHA has already coordinated a successful self-help project on the Big Island in Keaukaha/Waiākea (see photo box this page), and in Wai'anae on O'ahu.

"Rather than plan and develop housing on a centralized basis, what we want to do is get more into community-based planning and development," said Stephen Morse, OHA housing officer. "Nā Po'e Kōkua represents an attempt to extend our housing development program into the communities." Morse said he hopes to have at least one community-housing development organization per county. (OHA last year had funds

available for a group on Kaua'i, but the funds lapsed before Ku'u Home o Kaua'i could get its nonprofit status.) Morse recently traveled to the Big Island to meet with a group in Waimea who impressed him with their intelligence, energy, and abundance of good ideas. A group with a diverse membership (members largely eome from the Waimea Hawaiian Homestead Association but Ka Lāhui Hawai'i and Waimea Main Street are also represented), they will probably be included in future OHA housing plans, Morse said. "I see a lot of good happening through working with these community groups," he added.

OHA's role is helping the groups organize, giving them seed money for overhead costs, and providing technical assistance. Then the OHA housing division monitors the project and finds ways that OHA resources ean be used to leverage additional

support. It's all about getting the . beneficiaries involved, Morse said, using "their skills and their knowledge, and we just help with back-up support and seed money." As an example of backup support, Morse helped Nā Po'e Kōkua file for 501 (c)(3) status with the IRS.

"We're hoping to help set up nonprofits like this throughout the state and assist them - help them grow and let them go," Morse said. OHA received $63,355 in its 1992 supplemental budget for Nā Po'e Kōkua. This included money to train the board members to set policy and manage the organization. The group recently received a eheek for $35,000 from OHA, the first increment in the contract fee. "We saw the need for a pilot project to see how self-help housing would work on Maui," said OHA trustee Abraham Aiona. "We felt it would be something

worthy for OHA to provide financial assistance as well as technical expertise." Most of the Nā Po'e Kōkua members are homesteaders, or awardees of unimproved lots, in the Kula area. Their seven directors are Natalie Kama, president; Celeste King, vice president/secretary; Kehaulani Filimoe'atu, treasurer; Sara Nakihei, Joseph Kealoha, Henry Kana'e, and Ilima Wood.

Their contract mandates that they study the feasibility of a self-help housing project on Maui. screen and select seven to 10 Hawaiian families to participate, and conduct workshops to instruct the families in the responsibilities of home ownership, how to apply for mortgage loans, and how self-help housing works. Their first project will likely be in Waiehukou, where approximately 40 lots should be ready to develop in about a year, Morse said.

The self-help affordable home of Ronald Decosta

Noeau

Kuamoo

Segawa

lokepa