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Ms. Kahakalau: Okay so open hearing is fine. So if you could just please state a <br /> little bit more beyond the petition that you provided why you're <br /> here this morning. <br /> Ms. Akiyama: Okay. My name is Susan Akiyama and I'm the administrator for <br /> the Office of Housing and Community Development. I'd like to <br /> introduce Megan DeCoito who is my staff and she works in the <br /> office who administers this particular program that I'm gonna tell <br /> you about. So one of the grant programs that we run is a <br /> residential emergency repair program and it basically it's a low <br /> interest loan program to help eligible participants to do renovations <br /> on their homes to extend the life of the dwelling unit. There's a <br /> limit of$25, 000 loan and it's a 3 % interest loan...so there's <br /> construction activities that usually get funded. In our <br /> administrative rules for this particular program, you will find that <br /> the agreement for the construction is done solely between the <br /> homeowner and the contractor. The office of housing does not <br /> participate in the selection of or the contracting of the contractor. <br /> Megan who works in our office...here father has periodically been <br /> selected as a contractor by the families that we loan monies to. So <br /> we wanted to bring this situation to this Board to make a <br /> determination for us. <br /> Ms. Kahakalau: Thank you. Mr. Adams? <br /> Mr. Adams: The loan itself..what's the process for making the loan? <br /> Ms. Akiyama: The participant would come into the office and fill out an <br /> application. There's an income eligibility criteria...so they have to <br /> go thru the checking of their income documents and things like <br /> that. And once these specialists determines that the family is <br /> eligible for the loan...they would...we send an inspector out to the <br /> house to do an inspection to make sure that what they're applying <br /> for is really the situation at hand. There would be a check list <br /> created of the type of work that needs to be done and the <br /> participant would be notified that whether or not the loan was <br /> approved and whether or not the activities are eligible. They <br /> would then be instructed to go out and select a contractor. The list <br /> that we refer to in our explanation is not a professional services <br /> list. It's just a...it's an informal list that over the years OHCD has <br /> created...and basically the way we put this list together is every <br /> time a contractor gets hired by a family and they were...had the <br /> 7 <br />