Location: Oahu, Hawaii

Problem: Low-income Hawaiian families can’t access affordable housing

Outcome: RCAC’s collaboration with the Self-Help Housing Corporation of Hawaii helps families attain homeownership

In response to a chronic housing shortage on the Hawaiian Islands, the Self-Help Housing Corporation of Hawaii (SHHCH) was founded 34 years ago to improve the living conditions of low-income families. A strong economy in Hawaii means a single family house sells for on average about $600,000, which precludes low-income families, single parents, native Hawaiian families, and middle income workers from entering the conventional homeownership market. With the cost of living 30 percent higher than the mainland U.S., many residents have little to no savings.

As an RCAC grantee, SHHCH guides low-income families as they work together to build each other’s homes. With a construction supervisor on site, the families perform at least 65 percent of the construction work required (known as “sweat equity”) to build their homes. The grantee manages the construction loans, develops the building site, provides homeownership training, offers building plans, qualifies the borrower for his/her mortgage and markets the program in the service area. RCAC assists grantees like SHHCH to successfully complete the production of single-family financed housing under the Mutual Self-Help Housing program. RCAC coordinates activities with USDA staff and regularly reports on each grantee’s activity and performance production. Today, RCAC provides technical assistance to 50 active program grantees.

Last year, SHHCH acquired a 70-unit subdivision on the island of Oahu in the Pokai Bay community, which had gone into foreclosure when the market declined a few years prior. SHHCH is assisting low-income households to construct their own homes in two phases. The first phase of 35 homes are under construction; the second phase is underway, and the first building group is in the process of closing their Rural Development construction financing. While the median house price in the Waianae area is $430,000, self-help homebuyers will pay $250,000 in Pokai Bay.