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VITOUSEK: And for the sake of those of us on the Commission who aren't familiar with it,
<br /> would the County mind explaining the housing credit program and how that can suffice an
<br /> affordable housing requirement?
<br /> JACKSON: Chairoh, Malia, do you want to respond to that
<br /> KEKAL Yeah, I got it, Maij a.
<br /> JACKSON: you have more information than I do since you are counsel to Housing.
<br /> KEKAL Yep, got it.
<br /> JACKSON: Thank you.
<br /> KEKAL Chair, yeah, Chapter 11 of the Hawaii County Code is the Hawaii affordable, Hawaii
<br /> County's affordable housing chapter, and basically it states that you have to dedicate 20 percent
<br /> of your project units to affordable housing. It also basically lays out that if you purchase credits,
<br /> that you can use those credits for your 20 percent and therefore would not actually have to build
<br /> the housing yourself, but that money would then be given to, you know, hopefully you are
<br /> buying it from an affordable housing developer, which would turn that money around into
<br /> affordable housing is usually the intent of it. But that's the basic way that it works. And those
<br /> developers usually, the affordable housing developers, because they do more than 20 percent,
<br /> they earn excess credits, and that's where they fund their projects. So if they did, you know,
<br /> 80 percent affordable, then they have, basically 60 percent of the earnings are just excess credits
<br /> that they can turn around and sell to other developers to raise money.
<br /> VITOUSEK: Commissioner Knowles.
<br /> KNOWLES: And are those credits, when are those collected? Up front? Before the project
<br /> sells or after the successful, you know, for example, they build the homes, they sell the homes at
<br /> market rate, then, then the credits are released? How does that—I'm sorry, I don't unders- I
<br /> don't know how that works.
<br /> KEKAL Oh, no, yeah, it's, totally, yeah, so each developer enters into an affordable housing
<br /> agreement in that that basically isn't released until they satisfy those terms. But it, they have to
<br /> prove to us that they are also—well, if it's rental or sale, right, we have both rental and sale
<br /> programs—so if it's sale, for instance, they would have to show that a qualified household
<br /> making the required income, you know, has to be below basically from 60 percent to 140 of the
<br /> area median income, and they would have to show us that they sold that house to a qualified
<br /> buyer, and therefore that would then transfer to, you know, them getting it. But at the end if they
<br /> don't sell it to qualified buyers, they don't, they wouldn't meet their requirements.
<br /> PAISHON-DUARTE: Commissioner Knowles, are you done or did you—okay. So, follow-up
<br /> question, and I'm not sure who this is directed to, I think it's to Mr. Mansi or someone of the
<br /> development team. So my question, what is the affordable housing development plan? What is
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