WAILUKU, Maui — Three years after the county appropriated $400,000 for a first-time homebuyer's fund, the program still hasn't been put into action, The Maui News reported.

Housing and Human Concerns Director Vanessa Medeiros said the program was held up while her staff drafted changes to the fund that would require borrowers to begin paying back the loan in three years. The original rules allow a beneficiary to delay payback for up to 15 years.

Those changes are now being reviewed by county attorneys and will need County Council approval before they can be implemented.

"It's not that nothing's being done," she said. "When we came on board, this is one of the things we took a hard look at."

But the new draft might not get a warm reception at the council.

"It's just really, really disappointing," said Council Member Mike Molina, who proposed establishing the fund three years ago. Molina said the fund, with its 15-year payback, was modeled on similar programs that had worked successfully in California. He questioned why Medeiros hadn't communicated with the council about the changes she needed to make.

"It's ironic this falls on the heels of the State of the County where (the mayor) talked about the need for affordable housing, and now you have the housing director holding up a program for affordable housing," he said.

The first-time homebuyer's fund was created to give no-interest loans up to $15,000 for downpayments or closing costs to families making less than 140 percent of the median income and buying their first homes.

The program has already come down a long road. After budgeting $400,000 in 2005, it wasn't until a year later that the council passed legislation formally establishing the fund.

The fund was intended to benefit families who could afford a monthly mortgage but might not have the money for a downpayment on a house.

First Deputy Corporation Counsel Traci Fujita-Villarosa said "extensive revisions" had been made to the legislation, and her office hoped to complete its review of the draft by the end of March.

Medeiros said she studied the program when she was appointed to her post a year ago, and felt the 15-year delay in the payback had to be changed.

"This was only going to hurt the families in the long run," she said.

If families don't have to make any payments for 15 years, it could be a "sudden blow" when the loans eventually come due, she said. The family could also have additional expenses by then, such as college tuition.

In addition, the loans could be forgotten by the county as administrations change over 15 years, she said.

That happened with past programs, she said, when some money from long-term loans was never collected.

"If we forget and don't collect this money, we're not able to revolve that money around," she said.

Molina said he'd never heard of past problems, and felt the idea that families would be hurt if they have up to 15 years to start their payback was "presumptuous."

"We don't know that," he said. "Every family has different goals. I think it's being too speculative. What we need to do is provide financial assistance now — not hold things up based on assumptions."

He noted funding for the program will expire if it's not used by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

Molina said he'd ask for another appropriation in upcoming budget deliberations.

"The only people being victimized here are the families in need," he said.

For more Maui news, visit http://www.mauinews.com/default.aspx">The Maui News.