The Last Home Has Been Completed!!

The final home in Waikapu Gardens Phase 2 has been completed and is scheduled to close this week. We are thrilled to see all the families who have moved into our newest project. To date there are 56 families with a new home and over 100 kids enjoying this wonderful family neighborhood. Mahalo to all our new homeowners for allowing us the privilege of building you a new home.

Stay tuned for our upcoming project – Maalaea Plantation. We should have some exciting news on this project coming out in the next few months.

Our Waikapu Gardens Phase 2 Family is Growing!

We now have 30 of our 56 families moved in. What an exciting time to see our local working families moving into their homes. If all goes according to plan, all 56 families will be moved in by the end of the year. We appreciate everyone’s patience for all the bureaucratic delays we encountered over the last year. When this project is complete, there will be over 100 children living in Waikapu Gardens Phase 2.

Our hearts go out to the thousands of families who so desperately need a home to call their own. Hopefully our County politicians will recognize the ongoing crisis in Maui for truly affordable housing and come up with viable solutions. Your voices need to be heard, so we urge everyone to contact the members of the Maui County Council and let them know that affordable housing is the number 1 issue facing our County.

Stay tuned for more news on the Spencer family’s latest upcoming project – Maalaea Plantation.

The first homes are being framed!!

First homes being framed up!

After getting over the hurdle of getting our building permits issued, we got hit with all the rain over the last couple of weeks, which has hampered our ability to move as quickly as we would like. Now that the sun has come back out, we are taking advantage of the weather and have our crews out on Saturdays to catch up.

Our first three homes are framed up and being prepared for siding and roofing. In the meantime, we are working on pouring additional slabs so we can keep up the momentum.

All of the Spencer Development crews and subs are very excited to finally be building houses. If you drive by on Waiale Drive and look in the mauka direction, you see the homes starting to take shape.

Weather permitting, we are optimistically hoping to get our first families moved into their new homes sometime in late May to mid June. This will be an exciting time not just for those families but the entire Spencer Development ohana as we get the privilege of watching our local families move into their brand new homes.

None of this would have been possible without all the tremendous support of Mayor Arakawa, our nine County Council members (who voted unanimously and enthusiastically for this project), and of course our wonderful Director of Housing and Human Concerns, JoAnn Ridao and her staff.

Waikapu Gardens Phase 2 is truly a community wide effort and we are honored that so many people in Maui County have placed their faith in the Spencer family. We promise not to let you down as we forge ahead with all speed in getting these homes built.

First Batch of Building Permits Issued!!

We are pleased to report that we were finally able to get our first batch of building permits issued this week. Weather permitting, our first six slabs will be poured next week. By the following week you will be able to see the first walls being framed and houses starting to take shape.

This is an exciting time for all of us here at Spencer Development and we know that all of our buyers share in that excitement (maybe even more so!). If all goes well, we hope to have our first families moving into Waikapu Gardens Phase 2 by the end of May or first of June.

One final note. A couple of weeks ago we were hit by nighttime thieves who broke the chain into our jobsite. They made a couple of trips stealing the lumber that will be going into your houses. Auwe!! Shame on these guys who are victimizing our working families.

Fortunately, an alert member of the Waikapu Gardens ohana who lives behind our jobsite, took down the license plate number. A police report was filed and it is being investigated. If anyone drives by at night or on the weekend and notices any suspicious activity, we encourage you to immediately contact the Maui Police Department via 911. We have several MPD officers moving into Waikapu Gardens Phase 2, so we know our fine local police force has a vested interest to help prevent thefts and other crimes in this project.

Selection Saturday Roundup!

Many thanks to the 44 families who made it to our “Selection Saturday”. What a joy it was for our family to see our potential new buyers in Waikapu Gardens Phase 2 come by to pick out their cabinets, floor coverings, and upgrades. The excitement could be seen on all their faces. It is because of them that we do what we do. Our only regret is not inviting our Maui County Council members to attend so that they could see first hand the real crisis that exists in our County by the lack of affordable housing and the local families who are in need. Hopefully, some of them are subscribed to this blog and can see the pictures below of some of the families that showed up on Saturday.

Work is progressing on our site work and our roads were paved just in time for Thanksgiving. We are now constructing the many retaining walls needed throughout the project so that we can begin house construction soon. Everyone is asking when the houses will be ready. We had hoped to begin house construction in December, but getting our building permits processed is taking much longer than we would like. David Goode and the folks at the Public Works Department are doing their best to process the dozens of permit applications we’ve submitted, but unfortunately they have to be routed to other agencies as well. We are extremely optimistic that we will break ground for our first homes in early January and hope to get our first families moved in sometime in April. What an exciting day that will be for us all.

The King and Queen of affordable housing – Jesse & Joyce Spencer

Our first round of buyers are now signing reservations!

We are so excited to have our first group of potential buyers coming in to sign reservation agreements.  Our sales staff has been doing an incredible job of explaining the process to everyone, including assisting them in picking out where their future homes will be located.

For every family that comes in to pick out a home, we know there are dozens more that we are not able to help get into a home right now.  Our hearts go out to all the families that we were not able to provide a home to in this project.  We trust you understand that we share in your frustrations and disappointments.  The process of taking a piece of raw land and turning into a quality family neighborhood is a long and difficult one.  A lot of money has to be spent in just the planning stages, not to mention the very long approval process, then the frustrating long permitting process; all this before we even are able to turn over the first shovel full of dirt.  The process in years in the making.  Our family believes that there should be a better way of providing housing for our local families.  Unfortunately, our hands are tied and it is up to our politicians to change the system of how things are done.  If we really want truly affordable housing in Maui County, then there must be a radical shake up and revamping of how things are done.   Merely tweaking the existing system won’t be enough.  The existing system simply doesn’t work and we need to start all over and come up with a system that can work for everyone.

It is vitally important for everyone to contact our local politicians, particularly the County Council members and the Mayor, to encourage them to do whatever they can to address this ongoing crisis.  Spencer Development is just one small family company that is doing what it can to provide housing for the backbone of Maui County – our local hardworking families.  If we all work together and let our politicians know how important this issue, I am confident that we will see more affordable homes being built in the near future.

Processing Buyer Applications

By now all those who were in the initial round of selected buyers should have received their Affordable Housing Application. Our sales office will be contacting you to start setting up appointments next week. At this appointment we will go over your Affordable Housing Application to make sure it is complete and also go over the non-binding Reservation Agreement that you will need to sign, and explain the house selection process to you. Once we receive final subdivision approval from the County, you will be presented with an actual contract to sign for your home.

Actual house construction should be starting the first part of December and we hope to be moving our first families in sometime during the spring.

To those who were not in the initial round of selected buyers, do not lose heart. We have already had a few cancelations for various reasons.

We continue to urge everyone to continue to contact the members of the County Council letting them know of the serious crisis we have in Maui County due to the lack of affordable housing. The Spencer ohana does its best to be an advocate for you but we cannot fight this battle alone. We need your help.

Good News! Initial buyer selections have been made!

We were finally able to get everything resolved so that the initial selection process of our buyers could be completed.  Emails and letters will be sent out in the next 24 hours to those families that were selected.  Please note that we are only sending out notices to those potential buyers that have been initially selected to enter into a reservation agreement with us.  The process has been very difficult as we have almost 800 families that have signed up for 56 homes in this project and we had to sort out very applicant by income category and loan approval amount.  We would ask that you not call our office to verify whether you are on this initial list or not.

As we’ve previously stated, there will probably be certain families that have been selected that will drop out for various reasons.  This might include them changing their minds, their inability to get final loan approval, their inability to be approved by the County of Maui as an affordable housing buyer, or for many other possible reasons.  If this happens, we will then be selecting another family from our existing list to take their place.

One of the problems we have encountered is that some of the applicants were not including income from all household members in their application.  This was either done inadvertently, or with the desire to get a lower priced home.  Everyone needs to be aware that every person who will be living in the household (whether related or not) must submit their income information.  Eligibility and pricing is based on TOTAL household income of everyone who will be living in the home.   The applicants who were initially selected will be required to submit this income information and attest under penalty of perjury, that the information they are providing is true and correct.  The effect of this is to make it a crime to intentionally submit false or incomplete information.  We don’t want to see anyone get into trouble, but it is important that everyone provide truthful information.

We have too many qualified families wanting one of these homes to allow someone to try and take advantage of the process by submitting false or incomplete information.  Everyone needs to cooperate to make sure that all the information you’ve submitted is 100% true and accurate.  If we find out that you have submitted false or incomplete information, this will result in you being disqualified for one of our homes and your name will be removed from our list.  If you’re one of the initially selected buyers, your selection will be canceled and the home will be offered to someone else on the list.

To those families that have been initially selected, we extend our congratulations and look forward to working with you during the sales process.  Our hope is to get you qualified and be there to congratulate you when you move into your new home.

To those families that did not get selected, do not lose heart.  There may be some homes that open up as the initial buyers drop out for any of the above stated reasons, and it is possible that you could take their place.

We are very sorry that we cannot provide an affordable home for every family that wants one.  Unfortunately many of the policies enacted by our County Council over the years, although well intentioned, have not provided the proper incentive for developers to build more affordable housing.  Even for our own company, who has made it their goal to develop affordable housing, it is very difficult because of all the regulatory barriers that are in place.  These regulatory barriers, along with the opposition of certain environmental groups and community associations, has resulted in virtually no new affordable housing projects being built, with the exception of Waikapu Gardens Phase 2.  Even getting this project approved was not easy and without the support of some very key people on the County Council and in the County administration, we would not have been able to provide these affordable homes to people. We would encourage everyone to let the County Council and the Mayor’s office know that the need for truly affordable housing is at a crisis stage and we can longer afford to sit back and do nothing.

Update on selection process

I know everyone is anxiously awaiting our initial round of selections. Let me clarify how the process will work and attempt to dispel some of the rumors that appear to be floating around. This should answer most of the questions we have been receiving.

1. We have not made any selections yet, but hope to make some initial selections by the end of this week. The County has recently changed the median household income amounts for 2014 (it went down), which has resulted in having to go over our entire list of buyers to see what income category each family goes into. We have a very specific number of families in each of our four pricing categories. Since we have almost 800 families who’ve applied thus far, it is a large task updating our list and putting everyone into the appropriate pricing category.

2. We have been updating incomes with various buyers and they may have received an email or phone call from our sales office. PLEASE NOTE: If you have received an email or phone call from our sales office getting updated information from you, this does not mean that you have been selected. If you have not received a phone call or email from our sales office, it doesn’t mean that you haven’t been selected. In other words, there is no significance to receiving such a communication from us, other than we need updated information so as to know what category to put each family into before we make any selection. Please don’t tell your friends, family, and neighbors that you have been selected just because you were requested to provide updated information. This just creates confusion out there and results in people calling our office when they hear such false rumors.

3. Once the initial selections are made, those families selected will receive a communication from our sales office by either email or U.S. mail. You will receive a Reservation Agreement and Affordable Housing Application, both of which will need to be completed and returned to our sales office. We will post an entry on this blog when those communications are sent out. Until you see a notification on this site that the initial selections have been made, don’t believe any rumors to the contrary.

4. Those families who receive notice of being selected still must be qualified through the County of Maui Department of Housing and Human Concerns. We will be taking the information provided in the Affordable Housing Application and working with the County in getting the buyers qualified. This is a different process than getting qualified through your lender. Getting your loan approved is something you will need to do independent of Spencer Development getting you qualified through the County of Maui.

5. It is our hope that all those families selected will be qualified as an affordable home buyer by the County of Maui and will be able to get their loans approved by their lender. It has been our experience however, that some families will not be able to either get approved by the County of Maui or may have problems getting their loans approved. In that case, we will be selecting another family to take their place if that happens. We won’t know this though, until we start the process and see what happens.

6. Once all the County and loan qualifications and approvals are in place, and we receive final subdivision approval from the County of Maui, we will be converting the reservations into an actual Sales Contract.

7. We recently met with several representatives of the County Departments involved in this project (e.g. Housing, Public Works, and Planning) in order to see what can be done to streamline the permitting process for house construction. All the Departments were very willing to do what they can to expedite our building permits; so a big MAHALO goes out to them for their help. It is our hope to begin construction of the first houses by beginning of November.

8. As we’ve stated in the past, we have a closed jobsite and the general public is not allowed on our site without being escorted by a representative of Spencer Development. This is for safety reasons. Waikapu Gardens Phase 2 is very small jobsite and we have numerous workers there operating equipment that poses a danger to those who are not supposed to be there. At some point in time in the future, our sales office will arrange site inspection for each selected buyer to show them exactly where their home will be located.

We hope that this answers most of the questions that our potential buyers have and dispels some of the rumors that have been floating around out there. This process takes much longer than all of us would like it to, and we appreciate your patience as we do everything within our power to get things done.

Please stand by later this week or next week when we hope to have some news regarding our initial buyer selections.

One step closer – Affordable Housing Agreement has been signed by the County!

We finally have a piece of good news to share.  The Mayor and his staff have signed off on the Affordable Housing Agreement.  Director of Housing and Human Concerns, JoAnn Ridao, was able to get this signed by everyone in a matter of days.  This is how our County is supposed to operate when we all work together for the working people of Maui.  Getting the Affordable Housing Agreement signed sets in the motion the process that will result in us being able to take reservations. There are a couple of minor administrative tasks that need to be done, but we should have our first round of selections sent out by the end of September.

In the meantime, we’ve run into another minor snag on getting some of our building permits issued.  Nothing major, but just one more example of how our County system should be more efficient in processing these types of projects.  Hopefully the affordable housing crisis (and it is a crisis!) will be addressed by our Mayor and County Council members when the new political season starts in January.  I know Mayor Arakawa is very concerned with the lack of new affordable housing projects and I expect getting more houses built will be an important part of his next term.   We are excited to see what the Mayor’s plans will be once he takes office in January.

In the meantime, please stay tuned for more news here regarding Waikapu Gardens Phase 2.  We will be posting a notice when the first reservation packets are mailed out.  As we’ve stated before, if your friends or family get a reservation packet and you don’t, this doesn’t mean that you haven’t been selected.  We will be sending out reservation packets in stages.  In addition, some people who are initially chosen may not be able to qualify for a loan or have other reasons that they cannot complete the purchase of a home.

We will try and keep everyone updated on this website as we have news to report.