Mōʻī Kawaʻakoa and her family of five, along with their three dogs, are on the brink of homelessness. This comes after renting the same Maui house for seven years.
“I started looking for homes ending of July because we got the 45-day notice mid-July,” she said. “So about ending of July, I started looking, and I probably applied for about 50 homes, spoke to five or six realtors.”
Kawaʻakoa’s landlords were Lahaina fire survivors who had to move back into the home after their homeowner’s insurance ran out that paid for their West Maui rental.
Now, Kawaʻakoa and her family are sheltered at a friend’s house, but just found out they have to be out by the end of the month.
If they can’t find a place before then?
“We would definitely be houseless, on the streets, if we don't find something by next week,” Kawaʻakoa said.
She lives with her father, her cousin, and her niece and nephew, who she raised as her own. Four out of the five of them are income earners.
Kawaʻakoa is just one of many on Maui facing dire situations.
Nicole Huguenin is the co-director of Maui Rapid Response — and also who Kawaʻakoa is staying with.
Huguenin said the housing situation is “tearing Maui apart.”
“To be with a person when a family that has done everything right, have to make the decision to leave island or to, like, crash at Olowalu campground, and then hope and pray that something comes up,” she said, filled with emotion. “It's happening every single week, every single week, and there are times of the year that it's happening every single day. It's awful, it's really scary out here.”
Kawaʻakoa went from paying $2,300 in rent for her previous three-bedroom home to a housing market where the same size house is now averaging $5,000 per month.
A recent UH Economic Research Organization study found that fire-impacted households are paying on average 43% more in rent for the same or fewer bedrooms, compared to before the wildfires.
Though Kawaʻakoa wasn’t directly impacted by the fires, she’s feeling the same effects.
Huguenin said answers are lacking.
“I'm looking at whose kuleana is this to solve this? And I can't find those people. I find people that are saying they're looking at it. I find people that are putting band-aids on it, and I see a lot of finger-pointing,” she said.
The governor’s emergency wildfire proclamation attempts to curb evictions and rent increases, but residents and community leaders say it’s not enough.
“I think the proclamation is a small band-aid,” Huguenin said. “We need, like a four by four gauze pad proclamation and so and then the regulatory agencies need to be beefed up to be able to respond at a four by four gauze pad level — because we're hemorrhaging.”
Regulation, they say, needs to occur hand-in-hand with the proclamation — and that’s not happening.
During a recent Maui County Council meeting to discuss rent stabilization, Alan Lloyd of the Maui Tenants and Workers Association testified the measure includes no enforcement.
“There is no designated entity in the emergency proclamation to enforce it,” he said. “If a tenant is willing to risk possible eviction, they can report it to the attorney general's office.”
Kawaʻakoa is familiar with houselessness. Along with her paid job and starting her own small business, she spearheads Holomua Outreach, an effort that assists the unsheltered community living on Holomua Road in Paia, where some of her own family members live.
She organizes services and community cleanups, bringing resources and advocacy.
“Our people need the help now,” she said. “You cannot just sit down and wait for things to happen.”
Now, she said though she didn’t want to, she’s starting a GoFundMe to hopefully raise over $10,000 for a rental security deposit — standard for a 3-bedroom with pets.
With the new timeline from the landlord to leave Huguenin’s house, the financial assistance Kawaʻakoa applied for may not come through in time.
In the meantime, she’s hoping for a miracle home.
