State of Hawai'i County 2005 Year in Review/2006 Looking Forward

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State of the County 2005 - The Year in Review 2006 - Looking Forward: Projects and Issues Housing and Community Development Ed Taira, Administrator HUD Programs. The OHCD administers HUD programs, including the CDBG (approximately$2.4 million a year grant), HOME (approximately$900,000 a year), and Section 8 Rental Assistance (approximately $9 million a year), and also administers several other Federal, State and County programs, including the Workforce Investment Act, and several other smaller programs. The OHCD has 1600 Section 8 vouchers under contract and has initiated the HUD Section 8 Family Self Sufficiency program with 46 families participating. We are finalizing the implementation of our Section 8 Homeownership program. Waikoloa. UniDev, LLC, a Maryland company, was selected to develop the Waikoloa Employee Housing project. We are in the pre-development stages, design, engineering site improvement and finalizing financing. We anticipate construction of 900 to 1,000 homes, a mix of rental and for sale units, multi- and single family, on the 268 acre site at the end of Paniolo Drive. The site plan accommodates a 12 acre school site, several parks and a community center that will be made available for use by Waikoloa Village residents. Workforce initiatives. We are working closely with the Mayor's workforce task force to initiate housing, transportation and other related initiatives to increase the availability of workers in West Hawaii. One initiative is to seek shelter for workers so they would not have to commute daily; another is to ask Real Property Tax to allow renting a room in an owner-occupied unit so that the owner does not lose his homeowner status and exemption. Affordable housing. We are also working with the State's Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, other State and County departments to develop affordable housing units in Keahuolu in Kailua. In addition, the OHCD is coordinating the development of affordable housing units with developers in East and West Hawaii who have affordable housing conditions to satisfy. Homeless. We continue to work with the homeless coalition for creative solutions to homelessness, including development of a 32-bed overnight program in West Hawaii, and renovations to the Kawaihae Transitional Shelter, until a more permanent shelter site can be found. A one-stop service center for the homeless will open in early 2006 on County-owned land in the Kailua industrial area.