The housing situation in Maui is dire. A new report commissioned by the Hawai‘i Land Trust (HILT) documents the distressing detail, with only 25% Maui’s housing units lived in by owners, and speculation-driven home prices rising through the roof.
The Lahaina fire disaster of 2023 made a bad situation worse. A new survey of Maui fire survivors commissioned by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement (CNHA) shows that about half have a “significant need” for secure housing and food, exceeded only by the need for financial assistance.
The need for housing on Maui is indeed an emergency, and immediate action is necessary, on multiple fronts.
In the near term, there is a great need to get additional housing options up and open for households, to reduce the pressure on rental prices. The HILT report concludes that disaster-fueled real estate speculation could both widen wealth inequality and drive displacement.
In the longer term, the state and county must reform its housing policies, including zoning and taxation strategies, and enable alternative forms of ownership, so that working people on Maui can afford to live in safe, stable housing, and to stay on the island they call home.
The data indicates that Maui has become an island divided between a minority of haves — those who have secure housing — and too many have-nots, who include the majority of Maui’s workers and far too many with generational ties to the island.
Even before the 2023 fire, 75% of housing units on Maui were either short-term or longer-term rentals and/or investment properties, owned by a landlord or corporate entity, based in Hawaii or elsewhere. And more than 1 in 4 Lahaina properties changed hands between 2019 and 2023.
To remedy this imbalance, adequate units must be created, and fast. Expansive investment in quick-build housing units that can be available to fire survivors is a significant part of this strategy.
At a temporary housing site in Lahaina, dubbed Kilohana, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will install 169 units for fire survivors by the end of October at a cost of more than $100 million. This is an unfamiliar strategy for FEMA — but this first project is evidence of the federal agency’s growing flexibility.
Ka La‘i Ola, a $115 million project led by the state Department of Human Services, will create 450 interim homes and on-site services for survivors who do not meet requirements for federal assistance, including families who were unhoused in Lahaina at the time of the fire. It’s expected to host its first residents in August, and be completed by March.
Ke Ao Maluhia at Maui Lani, a $9 million partnership between the state, Maui County, FEMA, the American Red Cross and CNHA, will create 50 two-bedroom modular homes by the end of July. This multi-organization model needs duplicating, and agencies looking to contribute to Lahaina’s revival should participate.
Another avenue to explore — but quickly — is community ownership of real estate in West Maui. A key takeaway of the HILT report is that additional community ownership could stabilize the community, make homeownership more accessible and build wealth among local families.
The Lahaina Community Land Trust (LCLT), formed soon after the Maui wildfires, has received $15 million from Maui County for the coming fiscal year and has applications pending for $20 million in grants. The trust plans to use funding to head off sales of Maui homes to nonresident buyers. Grants and donations can help to ramp up LCLT’s capability, and Maui-directed supporters must take notice.
Nearly 10 months after the Lahaina fires, “significant work remains to restore normalcy to Maui,” said Kuhio Lewis, CNHA’s CEO.
This data on housing, along with the documented need for financial and food assistance and to get survivors matched with secure jobs, must be used to direct programs and grant aid to Maui survivors. Agencies and nonprofits must coordinate efforts to make swift inroads on these issues, even as the state and county also work to reverse Maui’s housing crisis with more fundamental change.
