Agencies release plans to move hotel survivors of the Maui fire into long-term housing
HONOLULU– The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday it plans to move thousands of hotel survivors of wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui into long-term housing over the next month.
The agency expects the number of households with long-term leases funded directly by FEMA to rise to 1,500 from 100 now in the coming month, TJ Dargan, federal coordinating officer for the Maui fires, said at a news conference.
The increase would accommodate much of the 2,400 households still living in hotels months after wildfires scorched historic Lahaina on Aug. 8. Many are stuck in hotels because they have been unable to find rentals in Maui's exceptionally tight housing market.
FEMA, the state, county and nonprofit organizations have urged owners of Maui's 27,000 short-term rental properties to make their units, which normally house tourists, available to wildfire survivors.
The agency is working with three Maui property managers and the mayor's office to identify units that can be rented to wildfire survivors for 18 months. It has found 600 and is aiming for another 1,000, Dargan said.
The agency has distributed flyers and letters explaining how long-term FEMA leases provide stability.
“So we've shaken that tree pretty hard… and will continue to shake that tree until we have adequate resources for everyone,” Dargan said at the news conference, which was held in Wailuku, Maui, and streamed online.
Other programs host hundreds more, including one that hosts displaced Hawaiian families in exchange for a monthly stipend from the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.
Funding for hotel rebates from FEMA expires Feb. 10, but Hawaii Gov. Josh Green has requested an extension that the agency is considering, Dargan said.
Still, Green said he expects all Lahaina evacuees to be out of their short-term hotels by March 1. Months after that, modular homes built around Maui by FEMA and the nonprofit Hawaii Community Foundation will add housing to hundreds more people, Green said. plans announced by federal, state and provincial governments and nonprofits.
Green threatened in December to use his emergency powers to impose a moratorium on short-term rentals on Maui if officials failed to arrange enough long-term rentals for fire survivors. But he backed away from the statement on Friday.
“If we meet these milestones, it is very unlikely that we will need to invoke the moratorium on short-term rentals,” Green said at the news conference.
Kuhio Lewis, the CEO of the Council on Native Hawaiian Advancement, acknowledged protesters who camped on the beach in Lahaina to demand housing for residents.
“This is in response to that kahea,” Lewis said, using the Hawaiian word for call or alarm. “We also realize how important it is. And now we are responding.”