County lottery offers housing help
Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino reaches for another folded slip of paper as he and Council Members Yuki Lei Sugimura and Tasha Kama draw names during Saturday’s county homebuyers lottery at the
J. Walter Cameron Center in Wailuku. Maui County in August collected applications for its First-Time Home Buyers Down Payment Assistance Program. The program was established to assist low- to above-moderate- income first-time homebuyers with down payments and/or closing costs. The county Housing Division is overseeing the program where successful lottery-winner applicants are able to receive a grant of up to $30,000 and maximum assistance to any one borrower of not more than 5 percent of the purchase price or appraised value of the residential property. All applications were drawn during the lottery. The applicants of the first 66 cards drawn will be notified that they must complete and sign formal applications to submit with signed tax returns for the last three years, which must be returned within 10 calendar days of the date of the letter. The rest of the applicants were put on a waiting list based on their drawing number.