As of Friday, 1,367 owners of Maui short-term rental units agreed to take advantage of a property tax moratorium and above-market rents to convert to long-term rentals to house Maui fire survivors, Gov. Josh Green told reporters today following his second State of the State speech.

During his speech, Green told legislators and visitors to the state Capitol that he will issue a moratorium on short-term rentals if does not get 3,000 property owners to voluntarily convert by March 1 in order to house fire survivors who continue to live in Maui hotels.

After the Maui County Council agreed to temporarily waive property taxes for owners who convert their units, Green said the number of volunteers grew to 15, then 150 and over 600.

Green sees converting short-term rentals to long-term units as the quickest and simplest way to fill the need for 50,000 affordable housing units across the state — and Maui as a way to test new ways to do it.

For Maui, Green told reporters “I hope we overshoot and have too many offers of housing” to meet the 3,000 long-term rentals he wants by March 1

“Then I will become a mellow governor again,” he said.