Hawaii Housing Relief Fund Letter

DAVID Y.
IGE DENISE ISERI-MATSUBARA

GOVERNOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
STATE OF HAWAII
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & TOURISM
HAWAII HOUSING FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION IN REPLY PLEASE REFER TO:
677 QUEEN STREET, SUITE 300 20:OED-20
HONOLULU, HAWAII 96813
FAX: (808) 587-0600
October 20, 2020
The Honorable Donovan M. Dela Cruz

Chair
Senate Special Committee on COVID-19
State Capitol, Room 208
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Re: State Rent Relief and Housing Assistance Program
Dear Senator Dela Cruz:
Thank you for sharing your concerns with us. Standing up a brand-new program during a crisis
has certainly been challenging. Most of the challenges involve capacity and technology. Shortly
after being launched on September 8, 2020, the program received an overwhelming response and
is now at around 19,000 applications.
Our response to your letter dated October 16, 2020, regarding the State’s Rent Relief & Housing
Assistance – Program are as follows:
1. Provide copies of the AUW and Catholic Charities contracts, including the budget and
deliverables in terms of number of applicants to be served, amount available for each
household, cost for administrative services.
Attached are the contracts with the third-party intermediaries (TPIs) that administer the
program -- Aloha United Way (AUW) and Catholic Charities Hawaii (CCH).
2. Clarify HHFDC’s role in the program. Is it managing the third-party agencies and, if so,
has its changing requirements caused the agencies to redo data entry, code data differently,
and ask for additional information or documents beyond the original agreement, leading to
more time away from quickly processing the thousands of Applications.
Because the state does not directly administer this particular program, HHFDC’s role is
primarily to provide funding and general oversight of the TPIs to ensure program delivery
and compliance in accordance with the contract.
Page 2
October 20, 2020
HHFDC has not made any recent significant changes to programming or data collection,
although we would like to point out that AUW also administers a similar rent relief program
for the city and applicants may be confusing the two programs.
Initially, HHFDC staff invested considerable time to review applications submitted by TPIs
for payment approval to ascertain if adequate internal controls were in place to properly
administer the program. Once HHFDC staff reached a certain confidence level, this level of
monitoring ceased. CCH achieved this confidence level shortly after program launch; AUW
reached confidence level earlier this month.
Applications are generally approved the same day they are received and there is no payment
backlog awaiting approvals by the state. This is reflected in the dashboards on the
HIhousinghelp.com website which shows State approvals to be nearly double the amount that
is currently being disbursed by the TPIs.
3. Determine whether HHFDC requirements has caused third party intermediaries to require
two additional vendor verification forms for agencies to complete; if so, could HHFDC work
with third party intermediaries to eliminate unnecessary and duplicative verification
documentation if information is found in other documents already uploaded as indicia of
eligibility (e.g., lost income due to COVID, lease or mortgage agreement).
The (landlord or lender) vendor verification form is a result of the collaboration between the
Mediation Center of the Pacific, CCH, AUW, and HHFDC. It is used for the following
purposes:
1. Verify that tenant/homeowner resides on the property;

2. Obtain information on the rental agreement or mortgage
3. Verify correct mailing and payment information;
4. If landlord is an individual, obtain information so that a Form 1099 may be issued;
5. Identify duplicate payments through another entity or program.
The forms are separate and distinct. One form is used to verify the vendor and must be
issued in advance of the other form. After the vendor verifies the appropriate information,
the other form is issued to notify the vendor that by accepting payment, they certify not to
evict or foreclose for the duration of the housing assistance.
4. Ask agencies to keep all documents so that HHFDC can conduct a post-audit review rather
than uploading all documents other than originally required documents for pre-audit line-by-
line review of Applications or requiring landlords to verify the tenancy of the Applicant in
addition to the lease agreement.
October 20, 2020
Page 3
Landlord or Lender verification is necessary prior to processing a payment to ensure that the
tenant is not evicted, and the homeowner is not foreclosed upon.
According to the TPIs, delays in processing applications are primarily attributed to

incomplete or incorrect information. They reported that significant time and energy is
required to remedy the information gaps. Both TPIs have been steadily increasing their
capacity to address this situation.
5. Address one of the major problems for delay – the SmartSheets software which is apparently
cumbersome and does not allow the sharing of data among the agencies, which could
eliminate the unnecessary review by both the third-party intermediaries and HHFDC if they
are reviewing Applications merely to delete duplications. This is not the most effective use of
limited staff resources.
Based on recent reports by the TPIs, most of the software issues have been resolved and the
necessary data is being shared and communicated between the State and the TPIs.
6. Provide Performance Metrics to date of the number of households receiving rent and
mortgage assistance and funds paid out by county; success will be measured by these
agencies providing housing assistance to as many of the estimated 34,000 jobless households
by December.
A performance dashboard is now available for viewing at www.hihousinghelp.com.

We would like to take this opportunity to clarify that the target of 34,000 households cited in
Act 9 (SLH2020) was based on monthly payments of $500. By the time the State’s program
launched, the City and County of Honolulu and other counties were offering three to four
times as much. In order to keep pace in the marketplace and avoid having the State’s
program sit on the shelf while time passes by, the State had to adjust its subsidy levels. This
type of flexibility was provided for under section 26 of the Act. As the monthly amount
increases, the number of households the state can serve invariable goes down. The actual
number of households served will be a function of the types of assistance demanded which
can range from rent or mortgage payments to financial counseling and mediation services.
We thank you for the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
Very truly yours,
Denise Iseri-Matsubara
Executive Director
October 20, 2020
c: The Honorable Jarrett Keohokalole

The Honorable Michelle N. Kidani
The Honorable Donna Mercado Kim
The Honorable Sharon Moriwaki
The Honorable Kurt Fevella
The Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

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DAVID Y.

IGE DENISE ISERI-MATSUBARA

October 20, 2020

The Honorable Donovan M. Dela Cruz

Re: State Rent Relief and Housing Assistance Program

Dear Senator Dela Cruz:

1. Verify that tenant/homeowner resides on the property;

According to the TPIs, delays in processing applications are primarily attributed to

A performance dashboard is now available for viewing at www.hihousinghelp.com.

We thank you for the opportunity to respond to your concerns.

Very truly yours,

c: The Honorable Jarrett Keohokalole

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