‘We are still in a crisis’: 1,500+ families believed to have left Maui since August wildfires

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – A new number to help understand the exodus from Maui. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement says more than 1,500 families have moved off-island since the August fires. Mayor Richard Bissen says the fires displaced 5,400 families, and more than a quarter have left Maui.

Kuhio Lewis, CEO of the nonprofit Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, says families leaving Hawaii has long been a problem but made worse by the Maui wildfires.

“We believe strongly that there’s over 1,500 families that have already left Maui,” said Lewis.

He says that figure represents people who have moved from Maui to other islands or elsewhere.

“We are still in a crisis. We are still in an emergency. We need to get people houses so they can find stability so they can return to some degree of normalcy,” said Lewis.

“We don’t know if that’s permanent or temporary. We know they’ve relocated. They’ve gone somewhere other than Lahaina, but we don’t know if they are coming back,” said Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen.

Bissen says the county and its partner nonprofits like the CNHA are working to keep families on Maui. He says because of new tax incentives, there’s been 1,560 conversions from short-term to long-term rentals.

CNHA says it’s housing 700 displaced survivors and hopes to have 34 units built by March or April.

“It’s costing us $72,000 a day to house them, so it’s not cheap, but again, keeping our people in Hawaii is so important,” said Lewis.

Two months after the fire destroyed Kathy Sicard’s home, she moved to Kailua-Kona.

“I knew that I could transition more easily than people with children,” said Sicard.

She had lived on Maui for 14 years and sadly believes that soon more people will be saying a permanent “aloha” to the Valley Isle.

“I’m not surprised. I think that’s a very small number. I think over time, the number will grow because there is no long-term housing opportunity for many people,” said Sicard.

CNHA says it has a data-sharing agreement with Red Cross and FEMA that cannot be disclosed, but it also has its own data.

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