‘Recovery” has been the watchword on Maui in the eight months since much of its west side was ravaged by wildfire, with 101 residents paying with their lives. How much of the essence of Lahaina will be recovered, as opposed to being newly discovered, is the unknown that the community has been exploring since the awful day, Aug. 8, 2023, when the tragedy unfolded.

It’s a process that will take years, involving an intricate interplay of federal, state and county officials, threaded through with the ideas of residents who are reimagining what returning home to Lahaina could be like. The challenges are immense and numerous, though the most vexing at this time may be recreating the homes themselves.

As thousands of fire survivors have already discovered, the cost of rents for long-term housing has soared out of reach for many who have lived and worked in Lahaina, and would like to do so again.

Even before disaster struck, the degree to which investors had dominated the residential market already had pushed available housing inventory down, and costs up, way up. Those working in the community report that families positioned to pay monthly rents of $1,500 are confronting asking rates of $6,000 or more.

This likely means that plans to add units at an affordable level must accelerate, in coordination of state and county agencies.

That urgency also must propel the state’s strategic efforts at this stage, ideally providing a solid foundation for Maui’s on-the-ground agencies to take over the helm effectively, as Year 2 of recovery begins. Some of that was on exhibit last week at the state Legislature, where the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) gave a presentation on the work of the Maui Economic Recovery Commission, a 100-member panel formed in January that’s drawing these diverse constituencies together.

DBEDT Director James Tokioka outlined the post-disaster stages: providing shelter and mental health support, and starting the debris removal. He and other DBEDT leaders also met last week with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser editorial board.

Tokioka, a former legislator with experience in the hotel industry, said the governor asked him to initially take charge of moving survivors from shelters to hotels; he said the department relocated 6,000 survivors in 13 days.

Clearly, the hotel stopgap solution is meant for the near-term only. It is frustrating that about 1,100 households of the original 3,000 are still housed in 11 Maui hotels as of April 5 — as quantified by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA). The nonprofit agency in December transitioned into leading the housing recovery support function, said Dean Minakami, executive director of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp.

But the longer-term housing that’s available has been costing $2,000 more in rent than the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay. To get families out of hotels, CNHA has been helping to cover the difference.

“It’s not sustainable,” Kuhio Lewis, the agency’s CEO, told Star-Advertiser writer Dan Nakaso. “Hundreds of millions of dollars are better spent building than paying these ridiculous rates for a limited time.”

He’s absolutely right. Two interim housing projects are planned on 400 acres of vacant state land, 170 units to be built by FEMA, and 450 temporary units being raised by the state, Minakami said. That’s a start, but it’s not nearly enough to meet the need.

In addition to tackling the central issue of housing, other “learning groups” formed by the Maui Economic Recovery Commission are concentrating on priority areas, from practicalities such as workforce development to realities such as “community interest” and “healing.” All of these are genuine issues for a community that has suffered major trauma.

In August the commission will convene its last meeting and convey information to the Office of State Planning to produce a report for Maui County, Tokioka said. Much of the work of reshaping Lahaina, creating a more freely flowing street plan and rebuilding with fire resistance and sea-level rise in mind, will fall to the county.

In the meantime, the Small Business Administration buoyed some spirits by approving $300 million in federal disaster assistance loans for Lahaina, including about $105.8 million for small businesses and $194.7 million for residents. The help will be welcome for employers and working families, and making sure it’s disbursed effectively will be a shared responsibility of local and federal government.

Reinforcing the town’s cultural touchstones is every bit as important. State officials are supporting efforts to restore a sandbar island called Moku‘ula and the fishpond surrounding it. The campaign to nurture the town’s iconic banyan tree that survived the flames is widely embraced.

Reimagining Lahaina — the kinds of business opportunities to encourage, the community cultural assets, restoring and preserving the town’s natural resources — will involve the work of many hands, guided by many voices. Eight months into grieving, let that work begin in earnest.