All 167 brightly colored houses at FEMA’s Kilohana temporary housing site in Lahaina are now complete.
“It couldn’t have been done without everyone working together, being creative and solving problems,” said Forrest Lanning, FEMA’s joint housing task force leader. “This was a completely new type of housing project for FEMA, and we all had to be flexible to learn new things and get it done.”
The project took more than a year of construction, beginning less than two months after the 2023 wildfires. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed and prepared the 34-acre site, which is owned by the state.
About a year later, in late October 2024, the first 10 modular homes arrived by barge, got trucked to West Maui and were installed at Kilohana. The first fire survivor households moved in at the end of November.
The one, two and three-bedroom units have basic furnishings, and some were made to accommodate residents with accessibility and functional needs.
More than 100 households have been assigned to units so far, with more to come.
FEMA said the modular homes have been built to last at least 30 years, though the Kilohana site is planned to house fire survivors for five years.
They are the first prefabricated, modular temporary homes that FEMA has built that meet the International Building Code and local amendments.
Kilohana is located next to a state temporary housing project, Ka Laʻi Ola, which will provide 450 units for households displaced by the wildfires.