An anonymous donor is providing a gift or loan to Kauai Habitat for Humanity. The action is forestalling legal action by the County of Kaua’i against the organization. The county gave Habitat until Dec. 15 to get the project started,
An anonymous donor is providing a gift or loan to Kauai Habitat for Humanity. The action is forestalling legal action by the County of Kaua’i against the organization.
The county gave Habitat until Dec. 15 to get the project started, but the organization missed the deadline. A foreclosure petition filed in court in December alleged the organization failed to repay a five-year-old loan.
Habitat has provided documentation to the county that the loan will be repaid. The County of Kaua’i has stalled legal action against the organization after Habitat pledged to repay a $980,000 county loan given to develop a 24-acre housing project in ‘Ele’ele.
The county provided the loan to Habitat in 1997 to help build low-income homes.
County officials announced an agreement for a continuance for a March 7 summary judgment hearing on a foreclosure action it has filed against the Kauai Habitat for Humanity organization.
Merrill Lynch has confirmed that the donors have the ability to fulfill the commitment, county officials said.
The count has asked for a three-week delay in the court hearing so that the details of the repayment can be completed.
Apparently as part of the repayment plan, the county has indicated it will waive late fees totaling $117,600.
Mayor Maryanne Kusaka said she was happy with the outcome. “We are delighted that this matter could be resolved and that the dream of Habitat’s project may now be realized,” she said.
A Habitat board member, who asked for anonymity, said “we will once again try to develop that land in ‘Ele’ele.”
The county made the loan so that Habitat could purchase a 24-acre subdivision in ‘Ele’ele where low-income homes would be built in part with sweat-equity of owners.
When the purchase didn’t go through, the county tried to facilitate a deal for the organization, but that proposal also failed.
For the project to have worked, the county would have had to provide another $1.4 million, an amount county housing officials said they didn’t think the Kaua’i County Council would approve.
