Homestead nonprofit partners with DHHL to serve waitlisted Hawaiians

The Hawaiian Lending & Investments (HLI) nonprofit founded by the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations (SCHHA) has partnered with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) to support home building and home ownership by Native Hawaiians waiting for a homestead lot award.

Under a memorandum of agreement executed this month, HLI will administer DHHL matching down payment assistance grants of up to $5,000 to eligible DHHL beneficiaries toward the cost to build or purchase a home on Hawaiian Home Lands.  

“Our HLI team, and our board members from every island region, appreciate the purposes of this MOA,” said Rolina Faagai, HLI executive director.  “It is very straightforward – HLI will facilitate a matching grant from DHHL to waitlist families that receive funding support from any number of agencies that specialize in down payment assistance.”

“As an example, if HLI or if Hawaiian Community Assets (HCA) or other agencies award one of their waitlist clients a grant in conjunction with a homeownership program, HLI will facilitate a matching grant from DHHL of up to $5,000,” Faagai added.  

According to the MOA, DHHL will set aside a first investment level of $250,000 for the matching down payment grants, with HLI processing and documenting compliance to Act 279, the Waitlist Reduction Act. 

The DHHL Matching Down Payment Assistance Program supplements family funds, mortgage loan funds and grants from financial nonprofits, toward the goal of homeownership, and most importantly, the goal of moving families off the State DHHL waitlist when homestead lot opportunities are made available.

“This initial investment is a great start; it won’t resolve 29,000 on the Waitlist, but it supports those that the State DHHL has or will be awarding lots to,” KipuKai Kualii, SCHHA Chair said.  “As a coalition of Homestead Beneficiary Associations across the state, this partnership is exactly the kind of work we want HLI to be doing with the State DHHL – it advances our homestead self-determination too.”

The waitlist Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands (AHHL) executive board member Kainoa MacDonald commented, “as an active homestead association in the SCHHA coalition, this is good news – it engages us as homestead leaders in the many solutions needed toward ending the waitlist.”