There’s a 617-home gap between the ask from Hawaii Gov. Josh Green and the commitment made so far by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for assistance with Maui fire disaster relief, and no guarantee that it can be bridged.

It’s clearly in Hawaii’s best interest, though, that FEMA be persuaded to join more robustly in efforts to create more long-term housing units, and there are many good reasons for convincing the feds. But the clock is ticking, and the state needs to double down on its efforts to elicit a commitment.

Lahaina burned in August, destroying thousands of homes and housing units, and displacing 12,000 people. About 8,000 of those survivors were rapidly placed in hotel rooms, in an unprecedented effort. At the end of last month, some 3,000 of these displaced people remained sheltered in hotels. That’s an extremely costly strategy that has been estimated to cost $1,000 per each room night, with the lion’s share of expense borne by FEMA.

To move all displaced households into long-term homes, the state, Maui County and nonprofit organizations agreed to join forces in an effort to provide 3,000 homes for fire survivors by July 1. In early January, Green announced that FEMA would contribute by creating up to 500 housing units.

The next month, Green and other local government leaders upped the ask, asking FEMA to build 1,000 homes as part of the multilevel effort. Green’s pledge for the state in aiding Maui recovery is to “focus on using all available resources,” and the FEMA request is in keeping with that. But FEMA has pushed back, unfortunately. State and county officials told Hawaii lawmakers in late February that FEMA had shown “reluctance” over the 1,000-homes request.

Part of the issue is that FEMA does not typically build long-term housing. Then again, FEMA does not typically respond to a “fire hurricane” that destroys an entire town on a Pacific Island.

Green determined in the first weeks after the Aug. 8 disaster that FEMA’s portable trailers weren’t adequate for the long-term housing that Lahaina evacuees need. Maui, already experiencing a housing shortage, has been thrown into crisis. And without creating new affordable housing, there’s simply nowhere on Maui for survivors to go.

FEMA’s efforts so far have been focused on leasing existing housing units, and that too has had negative consequences, inflating rents and displacing some Maui renters in favor of fire survivors.

As Hawaii’s congressional delegation has proposed, FEMA must take the costs and inadequacy of “business as usual” into account in considering alternative approaches.

On April 10, U.S. Rep. Ed Case spoke directly to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at budget hearings in Washington, stating that FEMA’s “standard approach” to emergency housing relief “is not really going to do the job” as applied to “the very unique circumstances of the Maui housing market.” However, Mayorkas was noncommittal, responding, “We are looking at all our options.”

FEMA has a firm plan to place 169 homes for fire survivors on state-owned land in Lahaina, in a project dubbed Kilohana. The agency has begun soliciting contractors to provide and install the manufactured homes, and a contract is expected to be awarded May 24.

And on April 18, FEMA announced that land lease negotiations were underway with the landowner of a Kaanapali site where a 214-unit project has been proposed. The agency has conducted and published a draft environmental assessment for the plan.

That leaves more than 600 units in Green’s housing plan unaccoun- ted for.

Given the extreme circumstances of the Lahaina fire, which destroyed around 3,500 residences and killed 101 people, it’s incumbent on FEMA to come forward with this assistance.

The agency must recognize that Hawaii is dedicating an extraordinary amount of resources into fire recovery, including its own efforts to build housing for survivors not eligible for FEMA assistance.

Last week, Hawaii legislative committees agreed on emergency funding of $297 million for shelter, food and other assistance for survivors of the Lahaina fire. This includes $72.5 million to produce 450 modular homes on state land in Lahaina. The $115 million project, Ka La‘i Ola, will house fire survivors not eligible to have housing costs paid by FEMA.

Lahaina is also benefiting from strong community support. At Ka La‘i Ola, about $40 million of the project’s cost is required to come from private sources, and last week, the Hawaii Community Foundation (HCF) committed to provide a $40 million grant for the project. Previously, HCF committed $10 million for a joint project with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement to build 68 accessory dwelling units for survivors.

In this small state, a wide gap remains between funding capacity and the need for housing units on Maui, which has been magnified to crisis levels by the Lahaina fire. The county has “critical need of federal support,” as Maui Mayor Richard Bissen has stated. FEMA, Lahaina’s fire survivors, Maui and Hawaii are counting on you.