A community hub opened at Pohaku Beach in Kahana, known as S-Turns, just hours after the fire.
“We’re the first hub, we'll probably be the last hub that's gonna be open like this,” said Kanamu Balinbin, whose family spearheaded the hub’s launch.
Some community hubs have now phased out — but not S-Turns.
Shawn Anderson, a hub coordinator, has volunteered there since the beginning.
“I would say we're probably 1,500 people a week [right now]," she said. "On a busy day, we're 400 to 500 people, especially because Honokowai [community hub] has closed, and other hubs have closed. So we're now seeing an uptick in people that are still coming to see us because they have need — now they just have to geographically go further.”
When HPR first visited S-Turns in August, there was a nonstop stream of deliveries, hot meals, bottled water, toys and school supplies. It was crowded with displaced Lahaina residents coming for essentials.
Now, things are a little more streamlined. Hot meals have been replaced by twice-weekly deliveries of fresh produce from local farmers through nonprofit partnerships. But they’re still handing out much-needed items from ongoing donations.
“We have folks come and check in at our front table and from there they'll be distributed dry goods, canned goods, laundry detergent, dish soap,” she explained. “If we have it and they're in need of it, then we're going to help distribute it to them.”
Anderson said they’ve shifted from survival mode to recovery mode.
“So getting people housed and that’s not happening nearly as fast as any of us would want, of course,” she explained.
“But that changes the dynamic. Now we're not looking like getting through the next 24 hours. We're looking at the next two weeks, four weeks, 60, 90, 180 days. People are still housing insecure, so now we can't load them up with things like pots and pans and dishes.”
Balinbin said a Maui Economic Opportunity grant is helping support staffing at the hub. But he’s still making out-of-pocket contributions to keep the hub running.
“I myself spend roughly $200 to $300 a week on diesel,” he said. “Sometimes we get donation money, but like right now we don't. I know what I'm doing is right, morally. But I don't have any savings anymore for my kids.”
Anderson doesn’t blame some of the other hubs for closing. She said it’s hard to balance taking care of the community and their own families.
But she said S-Turns will be there as long as it takes.
“The drive to keep us doing this? We're just here,” Anderson said. “There's not really another option as far as I'm concerned. I’ve never gotten a clean answer as to who will fill that gap.”
They hope to someday have a building for their services to replace the wind-blown tents that have served as hub headquarters for the past six months.
“Our goal is to definitely have a brick and mortar, we want a place to do this out of because this need is not going away anytime soon,” Anderson said.
For Balinbin, he said government inaction has left them no choice.
“There's a lot of frustration. That's the bottom line, lot of frustration with the government. And the way we handle the frustration is by f------ just doing it ourselves.”
But Anderson said it’s all worth it to be there for their community.
“The hugs that I've gotten … people who are literally at their wits end in tears because we gave them some bananas and some lettuce, you know, it's just those little things,” she said.
