As of 2 p.m. Saturday, as many as 400 families displaced by the Maui wildfires were looking at having to vacate their hotel rooms as temporary lodging, but that number was likely to drop, an American Red Cross official said.
Fire survivors were given until Friday to get approval from the Red Cross for continued temporary shelter under its noncongregate shelter program. For the past 45 days the program provided lodging at 39 hotels and other properties for about 3,200 households, or 7,800 people, whose homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable by the fires in Lahaina and Upcountry.
“Many have just left (the hotels) because they are not eligible, mostly because they did not reside in Maui before the disaster or their homes were not made uninhabitable by the fires,” Red Cross Deputy Coordinator Adam Runkle said Saturday afternoon.
“We’ve been trying to reach out to them for weeks,” he said, adding that the hotels turned off their key cards Saturday because they were no longer eligible for the program.
Runkle said that as of midday Saturday, more than 2,600 households, up from 2,200 Friday, were found to be fully eligible to continue receiving shelter in hotels and other types of accommodations.
Eighty-five families that did not meet the full eligibility requirements will be able to receive shelter under a parallel program, according to the Red Cross. Most are largely undocumented individuals or Hawaii residents from the Compact of Free Association states in the Pacific.
The Red Cross will continue to take care of unhoused families with minor children or families with members with disabilities, who will remain in noncongregate housing.
“We will continue to work with them,” Runkle said. “We want to do everything we possibly can to continue to receive NCS (noncongregative shelter) care regardless of citizenship status.”
Runkle said some of those who are eligible just need to register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Red Cross Regional Communications Director Matthew Wells said in a statement: “We continue to work with everyone in our NCS to ensure that every survivor has the opportunity to retain a safe place to stay, whether that means being in one of the hotels or at Pu‘uhonua o Nene.”
The temporary shelter in Kahului with military-grade tents opened Friday to house adults who were homeless before the Aug. 8 wildfires.
FEMA Assistant External Officers Officer Michael Peacock on Saturday said the agency has staff at various hotels to assist those who have not yet registered for assistance. That also can be done at FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers on Maui.
