Posted on: Tuesday, June 10, 2003

State agency helps Hawaiians finish building homes

By Kawehi Haug
Advertiser Staff Writer

Nine Native Hawaiian families who faced suspending construction of their homes will be able to finish building because of an $800,000 advance from the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the department announced yesterday.

The money will solve a financing lapse posed when the Veteran Affairs loan program announced last week that it was suspending cash disbursements on the families' construction loans because the program is over budget, Home Lands department chairman Micah Kane said. The loan recipients are U.S. service veterans.

The money advance provided by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands will allow the families to continue construction on their lots until October, when new money will be allocated to the VA loan program. Kane said the DHHL will be reimbursed at that time.

"We understand the situation, the human side of the issue," Kane said in a statement released yesterday. "These beneficiaries who received a piece of land to call their own have secured a loan for the VA to build their dream home.

"To begin construction and watch as the foundation was poured, only to find out that there isn't any money left to complete the home must be devastating."