HONOLULU (KHON2) — Gov. Josh Green announced there will not be a short-term rental moratorium for Maui since the State has reached the minimum number of units to house families impacted by the wildfires.
Over 3,000 displaced residents — down from 8,000 in August, 2023 — still remain in hotels and Gov. Green said they are slowly being transitioned into more permanent housing.
The governor said some of the 31,000 short-term rentals on island could and should be used to house them and even threatened a moratorium from December, 2023 until March 2024. His tone was different on Wednesday, March 27.
“We have enough units across Maui, but we still have some shortage of units in West Maui, so I’m going to continue to ask for people if they have short-term rentals or other capacity to rent to our people, to still go to helpingmaui.org/offer,” Green said.
Green said many of the short-term rentals are already illegal and urged his attorney general to form a task force to crack down.
“I can’t assure those individuals at all that they’re going to be able to continue to rent their places out as short term rentals. What I would humbly ask them to do is go to that website voluntarily, rent for the next two years, probably through FEMA or through us, let us handle these rentals and then frankly, transition out, sell your properties to local families.”
Gov. Josh Green
KHON2 asked why the program is still open if there are enough available units that have signed on to house displaced residents.
“Some people are going to fall out of contract, other people will lose patience and leave,” Green said. “It’s kind of like you have to restock the shelves in some cases, because if you lose certain numbers of units, you don’t want to be left in the lurch and then have someone stuck in a hotel room again for another month.”
Permits to rebuild Lahaina homes — if there are no hiccups in installing infrastructure — could be doled out by the end of 2024.
“I think that especially around the edges of the fire, you’re going to see the infrastructure start creeping in more quickly,” Green said.
The governor added every single one of the 3,109 residents who are still in hotels will be transitioned in to more permanent housing by Monday, July 1 if all goes well with the State and FEMA rental programs and modular homes being brought in.
