Self-Help’s subdivision to add 12 new homes

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COURTESY SELF-HELP HOUSING CORP. OF HAWAII
Fifty-two homes, including ones shown here, have been built by their owners at the Maili Self-Help Housing Subdivision in West Oahu. Another 12 families are slated to break ground on their homes Wednesday at the 72-lot subdivision.

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KRYSTLE MARCELLUS / KMARCELLUS@STARADVERTISER.COM
Self-Help Housing Team 5 Project participants Pua Durell and her husband Cody Durell, right, posed for a photo with Gov. David Ige on Wednesday following the Self-Help Housing Corp.’s groundbreaking ceremony at the project’s site in Maili. Community members, politicians and program participants gathered to celebrate the 12 families who will help each other build their homes. Each family pays $285,000 for the lot, materials and some contractor work. In the end, they get a home appraised at $415,000.

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A dozen local families with low incomes are ready to get sweaty so they can become new homeowners on Oahu.

The families are scheduled to break ground Wednesday on 12 homes in Maili they will build in teams for each other — contributing sweat equity valued at more than $100,000 per home.

In about a year the residences should be ready for occupancy by the families, who obtained low-interest $285,000 loans and will perform about 85 percent of the labor on each house, which when done should be worth $415,000.

The group of homeowners referred to as Team 5 represents the latest increment in a 72-lot subdivision being developed with state, city, federal and private assistance. To date, 52 of 72 homes have been completed in the Maili Self-Help Housing Subdivision, which was begun in early 2013.

Local nonprofit Self-Help Housing Corp. of Hawaii provides education and technical assistance for the homebuyers that includes helping them qualify for a loan. Loans are arranged under a federal rural development program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in which interest rates range from 1 to 3.125 percent.

Self-Help Housing Hawaii said most borrowers in its program pay less every month for their loan than they were paying for rent, and that the equity they earn by building the homes eliminates the need for a down payment.

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“The sweat equity really cuts through the barrier of having savings,” said Claudia Shay, the nonprofit’s executive director. “The sweat equity serves as a down payment.”

Participants in the program may earn no more than 80 percent of the median income for Honolulu, which is about $80,000 for a family of four. About 40 percent of participants earn less than 50 percent of the median income.

“We try to give priority to those most in need,” Shay said.

Each family is required to provide 32 hours of labor per week on the homes, which are built together and take about a year to complete. A construction supervisor provides instruction, and licensed subcontractors perform electrical, plumbing, masonry and excavation work.

Self-Help Housing Hawaii was established 30 years ago and has produced 627 homes on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Molokai. Partners in the Maili subdivision include the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., a state agency that facilitates affordable-housing development, the City and County of Honolulu, Bank of Hawaii, the Housing Assistance Council and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.