Posted on: Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Honolulu Habitat receives $1.4 million

By Kapono Dowson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Honolulu Habitat for Humanity has been awarded a $1.4 million grant, one of its biggest, to further its work building low-income affordable housing.

Honolulu Habitat executive director Jose Villa said grant revenues have increased dramatically since the agency revamped its approach to business this year, creating a five-year plan to raise $27 million and build 300 low-income homes.

Honolulu Habitat has built 34 homes since it was established in 1988. Four homes are in progress. But Villa said the agency is changing the way it operates.

"We're looking to building communities, not just houses," Villa said.

As a part of this new emphasis, the agency recently bid on a Kapolei subdivision lot, where it hopes to build 45 low-income affordable homes.

Villa said Honolulu Habitat's homes are always at cost and without interest. Building communities would bring the home costs down even further, he said.

The latest grant came from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, with American Savings Bank sponsoring the application for the agency.

Villa said the grant is the largest affordable-housing grant given by the Seattle bank to a Hawai'i agency.

Families that partner with Habitat must demonstrate the need for a new house, and an income level that precludes them from conventional home loans.

The families must contribute 500 hours of "sweat equity" as part of their down payment. The first 250 hours are used to build the home of another family. The next 250 hours are used to build their own home.

Since 1976, the parent organization — Habitat for Humanity International — has built more than 100,000 homes, making it the nation's 15th-largest homebuilder, the agency said.