Survey reveals slight recovery since August for Maui residents affected by fires

Temporary housing now serves fewer than half of all households affected by the August 2023 Maui wildfires, according to surveys aimed at tracking recovery from the disaster.

The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization surveys found that the proportion of displaced households with temporary living arrangements in February, 18 months after the disaster, declined to 45% from 51% a year after the fires that destroyed most housing in Lahaina and several homes in Kula.

UHERO’s surveys, conducted monthly since August, also show that there has been roughly no change over the past six months with high housing rental rates and employment difficulties for fire survivors.

“The latest findings … show that while some progress has been made in housing stability, broader affordability and employment challenges remain largely stable,” Trey Gordner, a UHERO policy researcher involved in the ongoing study, said Monday during a media briefing on results. “Declining incomes combined with rising rents have increased financial strain. That’s the main takeaway.”

UHERO has been surveying people affected by the fires every month since August. All respondents were displaced from homes in Lahaina or Kula, worked in those places or owned a business in those places and were affected by the fires, which killed 102 people, destroyed around 3,500 homes, ruined numerous businesses and severely reduced tourism on Maui.

Survey respondents in February reported that housing rents remain 50% to 60% higher for comparable arrangements that they had before the fires, reflecting no measurable decline over the prior six months.

Rental rates for many homes across Maui spiked after the disaster in part due to the Federal Emergency Management Agency paying vacation rental rates to property owners who agreed to house fire survivors instead of visitors.

Gordner also noted that most of the housing lost in Lahaina tended to be larger and more affordable than inventory in other parts of Maui.

“You didn’t take out the average unit on Maui,” he said. “The fires removed some of the most affordable — especially relative to how much space you got — units on the island.”

One major change with Maui fire survivor housing after UHERO’s most recent survey occurred March 1, when FEMA began charging households rent in homes that FEMA built or leased from private property owners.

FEMA said it is required by federal law to charge rent 18 months after a disaster declaration.

The agency has said that rental rates for such housing on Maui range from $1,750 for a studio to $1,762 for a one-bedroom, $2,309 for a two-bedroom, $3,103 for a three-bedroom and $3,584 for a four-bedroom. Those rates include utilities and are based on 100% of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fair market rental rate for Maui along with household ability to pay.

FEMA also has said that fire survivors who find temporary housing on their own may get help from the agency’s rental assistance program.

Nearly one-third of respondents in UHERO’s most recent survey reported receiving no financial assistance in the past month, which is close to levels since September.

The survey also showed that employment and income for fire survivors remains depressed with little improvement over the past six months.

About a quarter of surveyed people in February were earning less than half of their pre-fire income, UHERO said. Much of this situation is attributed to a large portion of Lahaina’s pre-fire population working in tourism, an industry that has been recovering slowly on Maui since the fires.

The unemployment rate for fire-affected people remains higher than Maui’s overall population, or about 8% compared with around 3.5%, and there has been no clear upward trend in employment since August, UHERO said.

UHERO reported that only about 60% of fire-affected households who worked in the tourism industry before the fires remain employed in the industry, and that fewer than half work full-time.

Among other findings from the latest survey, which UHERO produced in partnership with the Hawai‘i Community Foundation:

w About 21% of affected household income is below the federal poverty line, about the same as in September and up from about 11% before the fire.

w About 90% of Lahaina burn-area residents remain displaced.

w Nearly half of all respondents still reside in temporary housing.

The survey each month is not from all of the same people who responded in prior months. UHERO said about 900 different people have participated in the survey over the past six months, with an average of about 425 monthly.

Survey findings could apply to 18,000 to 20,000 people, including about 12,000 who lived in Lahaina before the fire and 6,000 who worked in Lahaina but did not live in the West Maui town.