Fire Refugees

In Maui we went whale watching. But because of the fire in 2023 that destroyed the historic whaling town on Lahaina we docked at an industrial port, Kahului Harbor, on the other side of the island. We took a bus, across the island’s isthmus to Ma’aleea Harbor, south of Lahaina.

Along the way I saw rows of modular shelters that looked like refugee camps I had seen in my work. On the way back our bus driver told us about them. These settlements are for people made homeless by the 2023 Lahaina fire that killed 102 people destroyed more than 2000 buildings and left 5000 people homeless, giving Hawaii the distinction of having the largest homeless population, in proportion to the general population, in the United States.

We drove past the landfill where the charred remains of much of Lahaina were dumped. The landfill is now closed because federal funding has stopped. Temporary rental assistance for fire survivors ends on February 29. An extension has not passed Congress. The 18 month time limit for assistance was set based on the ability to rebuild Lahaina but staff at HUD tasked with the rebuilding was cut but the deadline remains, putting Hawaii into a Catch 22 situation.

When the fires broke out, private organizations also stepped in to fill the housing gap. We drove by Ohana Hope Village. Ohana is a Hawaiian word for extended family. The village sits on land owned by Kings Cathedral, a large Pentecostal church in the middle of the island and was privately funded by several foundations, companies, and service clubs, including Rotary.

Many of the Ohana shelters were built by Continnest, a Hungarian company that supplies temporary shelters for refugee communities, housing for relief workers, and administrative modules for aid agencies. They’ve also built modular schools. They are designed for off grid use, so they have solar panels to provide electricity.

When we worked in South Sudan, we lived in containers less sophisticated (but more nicely kitted out) than these. These containers are sophisticated in that they collapse and can be popped open in about 20 minutes by an experienced crew. Up to 20 units can be loaded on one flatbed truck. A Boeing Globemaster flew 160 of them from Hungary to Maui and the sponsoring agencies had them set up 9 days after the fires. They housed 350 people made homeless by the fire. To meet the needs of extended Hawaiian families the village clusters the housing modules in groups of 4 to six units (each with its own toilet, shower, and kitchenette) and adds an extra unit for a large family community kitchen and meeting place. As fire victims return to Lahaina the buildings will be repurposed to deal with the chronic homeless problem.

Near Ohana we passed another temporary housing project, Ka La’I Ola, “Place of Restful “Recovery,” operated by an organization called Homeaid, an agency established before the fire to deal with the state’s chronic homeless problem. It built 450 homes for 1500 people in a public/private partnership. Labor Unions contributed much of the labor. This project is designed to house people through 2029. Currently 900 people still live in the project.

Overall, around half of those displaced by the fire still live in temporary housing. And while these two projects are important to the recovery FEMA provided most of the housing support after the disaster.

Maui. Like the rest of the state, it is using Solar Power to generate electricity, but from the whale watching boat we also saw a windfarm. The State has appropriated $5 million to drill a test hole to see if geothermal can provide a stable source for power generation. They have engaged in public surveys to see if there will be objections from those who believe that drilling is a desecration of Goddess Pele’s domain.