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As Hawaiians struggle to find affordable housing after Lahaina wildfire, lawmakers reconsider vacation rentals

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As Hawaiians struggle to find affordable housing after Lahaina wildfire, lawmakers reconsider vacation rentals

Amy Chadwick spent years scrimping and saving as a single mother of two to buy a house in the town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. But after a devastating fire leveled Lahaina in August and reduced Chadwick’s home to white dust, the cheapest rental she and her now-husband could find for their family and dogs cost $10,000 a month.

Chadwick, a fine-dining server, moved to Florida where she could stretch her homeowners insurance dollars. She’s worried Maui’s exorbitant rental prices, driven in part by vacation rentals that hog a limited housing supply, will hollow out her tight-knit town.

Most people in Lahaina work for hotels, restaurants and tour companies and can’t afford $5,000 to $10,000 a month in rent, she said.

MAUI FIRE REPORTS: KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE DEADLIEST US WILDFIRE IN OVER A CENTURY

“You’re pushing out an entire community of service industry people. So no one’s going to be able to support the tourism that you’re putting ahead of your community,” Chadwick said by phone from her new home in Satellite Beach on Florida’s Space Coast. “Nothing good is going to come of it unless they take a serious stance, putting their foot down and really regulating these short-term rentals.”

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The Aug. 8 wildfire killed 101 people and destroyed housing for 6,200 families, amplifying Maui’s already acute housing shortage and laying bare the enormous presence of vacation rentals in Lahaina. It reminded lawmakers that short-term rentals are an issue across Hawaii, prompting them to consider bills that would give counties the authority to phase them out.

Gov. Josh Green got so frustrated he blurted out an expletive during a recent news conference.

The Rev. Ai Hironaka, resident minister of the Lahaina Hongwanji Mission, walks in the parking lot of his temple and residence on Dec. 7, 2023, that was destroyed by wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii. An acute housing shortage hitting fire survivors on the Hawaiian island of Maui is squeezing out residents even as they try to overcome the loss of loved ones, their homes and their community. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

“This fire uncovered a clear truth, which is we have too many short-term rentals owned by too many individuals on the mainland and it is b———t,” Green said. “And our people deserve housing, here.”

Vacation rentals are a popular alternative to hotels for those seeking kitchens, lower costs and opportunities to sample everyday island life. Supporters say they boost tourism, the state’s biggest employer. Critics revile them for inflating housing costs, upending neighborhoods and contributing to the forces pushing locals and Native Hawaiians to leave Hawaii for less expensive states.

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This migration has become a major concern in Lahaina. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, a nonprofit, estimates at least 1,500 households — or a quarter of those who lost their homes — have left since the August wildfire.

The blaze burned single family homes and apartments in and around downtown, which is the core of Lahaina’s residential housing. An analysis by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization found a relatively low 7.5% of units there were vacation rentals as of February 2023.

Lahaina neighborhoods spared by the fire have a much higher ratio of vacation rentals: About half the housing in Napili, about 7 miles north of the burn zone, is short-term rentals.

Napili is where Chadwick thought she found a place to buy when she first went house hunting in 2016. But a Canadian woman secured it with a cash offer and turned it into a vacation rental.

Also outside the burn zone are dozens of short-term rental condominium buildings erected decades ago on land zoned for apartments.

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In 1992, Maui County explicitly allowed owners in these buildings to rent units for less than 180 days at a time even without short-term rental permits. Since November, activists have occupied the beach in front of Lahaina’s biggest hotels to push the mayor or governor to use their emergency powers to revoke this exemption.

Money is a powerful incentive for owners to rent to travelers: a 2016 report prepared for the state found a Honolulu vacation rental generates 3.5 times the revenue of a long-term rental.

State Rep. Luke Evslin, the Housing Committee chair, said Maui and Kauai counties have suffered net losses of residential housing in recent years thanks to a paucity of new construction and the conversion of so many homes to short-term rentals.

“Every alarm bell we have should be ringing when we’re literally going backwards in our goal to provide more housing in Hawaii,” he said.

In his own Kauai district, Evslin sees people leaving, becoming homeless or working three jobs to stay afloat.

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The Democrat was one of 47 House members who co-sponsored one version of legislation that would allow short-term rentals to be phased out. One objective is to give counties more power after a U.S. judge ruled in 2022 that Honolulu violated state law when it attempted to prohibit rentals for less than 90 days. Evslin said that decision left Hawaii’s counties with limited tools, such as property taxes, to control vacation rentals.

Lawmakers also considered trying to boost Hawaii’s housing supply by forcing counties to allow more houses to be built on individual lots. But they watered down the measure after local officials said they were already exploring the idea.

Short-term rental owners said a phase-out would violate their property rights and take their property without compensation, potentially pushing them into foreclosure. Some predicted legal challenges.

Alicia Humiston, president of the Rentals by Owner Awareness Association, said some areas in West Maui were designed for travelers and therefore lack schools and other infrastructure families need.

“This area in West Maui that is sort of like this resort apartment zone — that’s all north of Lahaina — it was never built to be local living,” Humiston said.

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One housing advocate argues that just because a community allowed vacation rentals decades ago doesn’t mean it still needs to now.

“We are not living in the 1990s or in the 1970s,” said Sterling Higa, executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future. Counties “should have the authority to look at existing laws and reform them as necessary to provide for the public good.”

Courtney Lazo, a real estate agent who is part of Lahaina Strong, the group occupying Kaanapali Beach, said tourists can stay in her hometown now but many locals can’t.

“How do you expect a community to recover and heal and move forward when the people who make Lahaina, Lahaina, aren’t even there anymore?” she said at a recent news conference as her voice quivered. “They’re moving away.”

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Hawaii

Hawaii County Surf Forecast for April 29, 2026 | Big Island Now

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Hawaii County Surf Forecast for April 29, 2026 | Big Island Now


Forecast for Big Island Windward and Southeast


Shores Tonight Wednesday
Surf Surf
PM AM AM PM
North Facing 1-3 1-3 1-3 1-3
East Facing 2-4 2-4 2-4 2-4
South Facing 1-3 1-3 1-3 1-3
TONIGHT
Weather Mostly cloudy. Occasional showers.
Low Temperature In the upper 60s.
Winds North winds 5 to 10 mph.
Tides
Hilo Bay High 1.8 feet 01:18 AM HST.
WEDNESDAY
Weather Partly sunny. Scattered showers.
High Temperature Around 80.
Winds Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph.
Tides
Hilo Bay Low -0.3 feet 07:36 AM HST.
High 2.3 feet 02:26 PM HST.
Sunrise 5:52 AM HST.
Sunset 6:43 PM HST.

Forecast for Big Island Leeward


Shores Tonight Wednesday
Surf Surf
PM AM AM PM
West Facing 0-2 0-2 0-2 1-3
South Facing 1-3 1-3 1-3 1-3
TONIGHT
Weather Mostly cloudy until 12 AM, then partly
cloudy. Scattered showers.
Low Temperature In the upper 60s.
Winds East winds around 5 mph.
Tides
Kona Low 0.3 feet 08:23 PM HST.
High 1.4 feet 01:56 AM HST.
Kawaihae Low 0.3 feet 08:58 PM HST.
High 1.3 feet 02:21 AM HST.
WEDNESDAY
Weather Mostly sunny. Isolated showers.
High Temperature In the lower 80s.
Winds South winds around 5 mph.
Tides
Kona Low -0.2 feet 08:13 AM HST.
High 1.8 feet 03:04 PM HST.
Kawaihae Low -0.2 feet 08:22 AM HST.
High 2.0 feet 03:20 PM HST.
Sunrise 5:56 AM HST.
Sunset 6:47 PM HST.

Surf along north and west facing shores will remain small tonight before a small bump is possible on Wednesday. An upward trend is then expected during the second half of the week as another northwest swell arrives as early as Wednesday night. This swell originates from a storm-force low that tracked into the Bering Sea this past weekend, as confirmed by scatterometry. Therefore, this swell appears more likely to materialize. Looking further ahead, a storm-force low east of Japan will send a moderate, longer-period northwest swell toward the islands for Friday and Saturday, with surf heights potentially approaching advisory levels along exposed north and west facing shores.

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Surf along south-facing shores will remain small through much of the week, with mainly background south to southwest swell expected. Another south-southwest pulse may arrive by this weekend from recent activity within our swell window east of New Zealand, providing a small increase in surf.

Surf along east-facing shores will remain relatively small and choppy through midweek, with a slight rise possible Thursday and Friday as trades strengthen.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD

NORTH EAST

am        pm  

Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.

Conditions: Semi choppy with ESE winds 5-10mph in the morning increasing to 10-15mph in the afternoon.

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NORTH WEST

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD

am        pm  

Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.

Conditions: Clean in the morning with ESE winds less than 5mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting W 5-10mph.

WEST

am        pm  

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW AD

Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.

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Conditions: Light sideshore texture in the morning with NNW winds 5-10mph. Bumpy/semi bumpy conditions for the afternoon with the winds shifting to the WNW.

SOUTH EAST

am        pm  

Surf: Minimal (ankle high or less) surf.

Conditions: Sideshore texture/chop with NE winds 10-15mph.

Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov and SwellInfo.com

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Idaho

Idaho Steelheads | STEELHEADS ELIMINATED IN 6-3 LOSS TO AMERICANS

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Idaho Steelheads | STEELHEADS ELIMINATED IN 6-3 LOSS TO AMERICANS


BOISE, ID – The Idaho Steelheads (1) fell 6-3 in Game 5 of the Mountain Division Semifinals to the Allen Americans (4) Tuesday night at Idaho Central Arena to end their season with a 4-1 series defeat to Allen. 

Idaho found the icebreaker just under nine minutes into the first period as Brendan Hoffmann sprung Kaleb Pearson for a breakaway tally by Marco Costantini to give the Steelheads a 1-0 lead in Game 5.

Ten minutes later, Allen responded, as the Americans got a power play goal from Danny Katic, who corralled a loose puck at the top of the crease and beat Jake Barczewski to tie the game 1-1.

The response came quickly for the Steelheads in the middle frame, as just 44 seconds into the frame Jade Miller wired a puck by Costantini from the high slot to put Idaho back ahead 2-1.

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Seven minutes later, the Americans tied the game 2-2 as Brayden Watts took advantage of a broken play in front and threw in his fourth goal of the series.

In the back half of the second period, Ty Pelton-Byce struck for Idaho to notch a power play goal for his fourth straight game and put the Steelheads back in front for a 3-2 edge.

In the final seconds of the second period, Allen tied the contest 3-3 as Spencer Asuchak tipped a slot shot through traffic and by Barczewski to bring the teams even heading into the final frame.

Eight minutes into the third period, the Americans took their first lead of the contest, as Mark Duarte ripped a shot into the net from the right circle for a 4-3 Americans lead.

Despite an Idaho push, Allen extended their advantage to 5-3 with just under six minutes left in regulation on a power play goal by Danny Katic.

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Two minutes later, the Americans secured the series with an empty net goal by Katic, who netted his fifth goal of the series and sealed a 6-3 Allen win.

Idaho’s Jake Barczewski made 27 saves in the losswhile Allen’s Marco Constantini turned aside 25 shots in the win.

BOX SCORE

ICCU THREE STARS
1) Danny Katic (ALN, 3-1-4, +2, 7 shots)
2) Kaleb Pearson (IDH, 1-1-2, +1, 6 shots)
3) Sam Sedley (ALN, 0-3-3, +1, 3 shots)

Stay up to date with all things Steelheads on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Watch all Steelheads home games on FloHockey and KTVB 24/7 (Channel 7.2) and listen on the Steelheads flagship station 95.3 FM/ 1350 AM KTIK “The Ticket”.

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Montana

Bring your Treasures to the Montana Appraisal Fair in Billings

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Bring your Treasures to the Montana Appraisal Fair in Billings


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Thank You

Your email address is now confirmed.


You’ll start receiving the latest news, benefits ,events and
programs related to AARP’s mission to empower people
to choose how they live as they age.


You can also
manage your communication preferences
by updating your account at anytime.
You will be asked to register and login.

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