Maui's housing crisis made worse; governor cautions locals against selling their ash-covered land

Entire neighborhoods were lost in the fires that ravaged Lāhainā.

Thousands of Maui residents lost their homes in the wildfires that decimated parts of Maui last week and wonder where they will live as the island slowly recovers.

Gov. Josh Green wants to hold up any land sales as Maui recovers from the tragedy that ravaged the homes of workers who are employed in the tourist industry, hotels and restaurants.

“We’re short on housing here,” Mike Cicchino told CNN. His family is staying in Kihei after the fire encroaching on his Lāhainā home forced him to take refuge along the seawall for 12 hours. “We just went through a nightmare, and we’re about to go through another nightmare trying to, basically, not stay homeless.”

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Like most of his neighbors and co-workers, there are no homes to return to after the hurricane force winds ravaged much of Lāhainā and other parts of Maui last week. The death toll from the devastating blazes is at 111 and the search is only half-way through from the worst US wildfire disaster in the last century. 

About 37% of the island's population is Asian American, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Filipinos at 17% comprise the largest AAPI subgroup. Whites make up about 33%.

Housing costs and availability were a critical issue before the fires driving many residents to leave the island and the state. The lost of so many homes made the affordable housing shortage even more critical.

Housing crisis made worse

Officials estimate that 86% of the more than 2000 Lāhainā structures that burned down in Lāhainā were homes, many housing the workers in the tourist and service industry, the town's main industry that brings in millions of visitors every year.

The median price of a Maui home pre-fire was $1.2 million, putting a single-family home out of reach for many of the local workers. Even a median condominium costs $850,000.

Hawaii has the highest cost of living index in the US. A family of four making less than $93,000 in Hawaii is considered low-income. And Maui County is one of the country’s most rent-burdened places, with more than half of renters spends upward of 30% of their income on housing. Around Lāhainā, residents rent takes up 50% of the family income.

Symbolic of the worsening housing shortage was the loss of Kaiāulu o Kupuohi, a new four-story affordable rental building in the Lahaina Business Park. It had its grand opening in December of 2022 and was home for 89 families all of whom were safely evacuated a week ago as the wind-driven fires swept across the seaside town.

Lost to the fires was the Kaiāulu o Kupuohi housing complex opened its doors last December.

Sterling Higa, executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more housing in Hawaii, says many of the affordable housing that was burned down in Lāhainā have been in the hands of local families for generations.

Another factor affecting housing availability is gentrification, says Higa in an  interview by the Maui News. “So a lot of more recent arrivals — typically from the American mainland who have more money and can buy homes at a higher price — were to some extent displacing local families in Lāhainā,” Higa says. It’s a phenomenon he has seen all along Maui’s west coast where a modest starter home two decades ago now sells for $1 million.

"We want Lāhainā to be a part of Hawaii forever,” the governor said during a recent visit to the seaside town of Lāhainā. “We don’t want it to be another example of people being priced out of paradise.”

Days after the fire, people have been approaching Maui homeowners who lost their houses. Maui residents burnt out of their homes are being approached about selling fire-damaged home sites, by people posing as real estate agents trying to take advantage of the fire victims' fragile emotional state by offering the lure of quick money to survive the next few years while replacement homes are being built.

“I’ve reached out to the Attorney General to explore options to do a moratorium on any sales of properties that have been damaged or destroyed,” said Gov. Green. “Moreover, I would caution people that it’s going to be a very long time, before any growth, or housing can be built. And so, you would be pretty poorly informed if you try to steal land from our people and then build here.”

“We are disheartened to hear that survivors of this catastrophe are being approached by unscrupulous persons whose only goal is to prey upon them," says Esther Brown, Complaints and Enforcement Officer for the Regulated Industries Complaints Office.

"If someone approaches you with a deal or offer, and you did not reach out to them first, please hang up the phone or walk away," she says. "Chances are high that unsolicited deals are not a legitimate operation or part of the federal, state, county and private partnership working to assist those affected."

Prospective buyers may or may not be licensed professionals and may withhold or misrepresent vital information and details during a transaction. Realtors are prohibited from making misrepresentations, false promises, and engaging in fraudulent or dishonest dealings. RICO works with the Real Estate Commission to regulate real estate licensees.

Search for housing now 

In the meantime, state agencies and local nonprofits have been rushing to find housing for the thousands who have lost their homes and have been staying in temporary emergency shelters.

“This is a critical situation and time is of the essence,” Green said in a news release. 

The state secured nearly 2,000 units at hotels and vacation rentals and launched an online program to help residents find potential housing.

The Hawai’i Fire Relief Housing program opened earlier this week to connect Maui residents affected by the fires with property owners who volunteered to provide fire victims with rooms, dwelling units, houses and other accommodations immediately

“I am asking the people of Hawai’i to consider making this significant sacrifice to help our neighbors, many of whom have lost everything they owned in a matter of minutes. Let’s show the rest of the world the meaning of aloha,” said Green.

Connecting to the Hawai'i Fire Relief Housing program:

• For help via phone, call (808) 587-0469. Staff is available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, including weekends.

• The public may also email staff at hhfdcfirereliefhousing@hawaii.gov.

“I’ll also tell you that this is going to impact how we view, because of tragedy, how we view all of the development in our state," said Gov. Green in a news conference. "And much of what we do, is challenged by other laws, federal and otherwise, that don’t let us restrict who can buy in our state. But we can do it deliberately during a crisis, and that’s what we’re doing. 

"So for my part I will try to allow no one from outside our state to buy any land until we get through this crisis and decide what Lāhainā should be in the future.”

Such proclamations from government officials are viewed with suspicion by long-time Maui residents. “This is an opportunity for our government to step in and make right by the people who have been wronged for so long,” Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, a Maui County Council member and Native Hawaiian, told the Washington Post. “This shouldn’t be a land grab.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.