Federal aid for temporary shelter of displaced Lahaina residents ends in less than two years. By that time, construction of permanent housing may not even have started.
Finding temporary housing solutions for this gap period is the immediate focus of the House Interim Shelter Working Group, which held its first public hearing Friday.
Lahaina Strong organizer Deandre Makakoa is urging lawmakers to find a way to use the nearly 5,000 short-term rentals in Lahaina to shelter displaced residents.
There was urgency in his voice Friday when he testified about how those residents have become increasingly frustrated being shuffled from hotel to hotel.
"It’s been so incredibly draining on our community to have to check in every four days. To not know where you’re going to stay long-term. This needs to happen. We can’t have empty short-term rentals in the same zip code that our community struggles to survive in," Makakoa said.
Converting short-term rentals is just one of the options suggested at the public hearing of the House Interim Shelter Working Group.
Ted Kefalas with Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi urged legislators to remove barriers to multi-family housing to boost available housing and lower costs.
"We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. California came out with SB9. The law allowed up to four housing units on all parcels zoned residential and allowed homeowners to split their lots. Again the main thinking behind it is increased density," Kefalas said.
Thousands of housing units were lost in the wildfires, which means displaced families are competing for the limited supply of existing housing stock.
Ted Ralston of the Hawaiʻi Pacific Advisory Group told lawmakers about a project in Scotland that uses sea vessels as housing.
"Ferries, cruise ships and freighters that have reached the end of their economic life. They're using them as housing for reconstruction crews showing up to avoid putting construction crews in places where residents should be. So it's temporary housing that floats," he said.
The 11-member Shelter Working Group will continue to solicit public feedback on its draft report and list of recommendations until Dec. 15.
Any recommendations included in the final report will still need to go through the legislative process this coming session.
