Hawaiʻi Housing Finance & Development Corporation

Ma`ili  Self-Help Housing and Pokai Bay Self-Help Housing, a public-private partnership between the Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC), The City and County of Honolulu, U.S.D.A. Rural Development and Self Help Housing Corporation of Hawaii (SHHCH) made homeownership possible for 142 low-income families on Oahu’s west coast.

Under the Self-Help Housing Program, low-income families help each other build their own houses. SHHCH develops the project as a 201 H project with special exemptions through the City and County of Honolulu, and with loans from the State’s HHFDC, Rural Community Assistance Corporation, Housing Assistance Council, and a grant from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, SHHCH is able to offer fee simple house and lot packages below market prices.

Families who would otherwise not have the opportunity to become homeowners, build one and two story, three, and four bedroom, two bath houses, all with solar water systems. Under the guidance of the SHHCH, the families learn all the skills necessary to build the houses through the team self-help housing method. Self-help builders contribute 1700 hours of labor over a year and help each other build the house; thereby, earning their “sweat equity” and building a community together.

The “sweat equity” serves as a down payment allowing SCHH to assist lower income families. About 25 percent of the homeowners have incomes below 50 percent of the area median income and in many cases, are paying less for their mortgage than what they would pay for rent.