Section 8 in Hawaii??

[AuntRayRay]

Hi Hawaii mama's

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about Section 8 housing voucher program in Hawaii? I'm pretty sure that Oahu participates, but I would love to move to the Big Island at some point and was wondering if vouchers work there? I sent an e-mail to HUD but figured I'd ask here too.

thanx

[Maluhia]

There is a real lack of Section 8 Housing on Oahu and not a lot of centralized organization on the Big Island. This is NOT a good place to move when you are in need of subsidies - there are fewer agencies serving the population per capita than the mainland and if you get in trouble with one you end up out of luck.

[AuntRayRay]

so dissappointing to hear
we went to the Big Island 3 yrs ago and LOVED it and my son had said if we could move there and I was thinking well it is in the US and our voucher is supposed to be good all over the US.
thanx for the info though

[AuntRayRay]

So i got an e-mail back from a woman at the Hilo section 8 office. She sent me the info about transferring vouchers, a list of landlords that accept Section 8 in the Hilo area and she said that like anywhere..some accept it..some don't. Somewhere in the info. it does mention finding housing to be challenging too. That I would have to talk to my caseworker and see if I was eligible to transfer. She was very helpful, replied fairly quickly and said I could contact her in the future if I had any other questions. Not like my office that tends to be not very helpful or easy to deal with...though they seemed to be getting better as their hiring new people. So I guess I will have to talk to my casworker about it. Also researching California as well. And then my sister (who will move with us) will go with me to which ever spot we choose and then stay there and help me with finding an apartment.
It sucks that housing is "challenging" in Hawaii, but I have to say it seems to be challenging anywhere when your dealing with Section 8.
I did a quiz on this site:
www.findyourspot.com
and it was fun and also not surprisingly my first 4 "spots" were in Hawaii (Maui actually, which we've never been)and Cali LOL

So if we do choose Hawaii..we liked the Hilo area..anyone from that area on here? How do you like it there and have you lived there always or did you move from somewhere else? How do you find the community/people there? Is there any homeschoolers/unschoolers in that area? How about a free/democratic school? Some "crunchy families" there that believe in AP, BF'ing, co-sleeping, no-vaxing, GD, and such?
And if there's mama's that live in other areas of hawaii -can you tell me why you like it there? I also liked a little town called Hawi
We went around most of the Island on our trip It was all pretty-nice
thanx mama's!!

[Maluhia]

I'm not from Hilo but it's supposed to have some good crunchy groups from what I've heard. I know it has at least one Natural Parenting Store.

Hawi is nice and very country - but out there, depends how rural you want to be.

FYI Maui is a close 2nd on very expensive island (to Oahu)