But a chronic housing shortage and an influx of second-home buyers and wealthy out-of-towners have displaced residents like Palalay, who give Lahaina its spirit and identity.
A raging bushfire that incinerated much of the compact coastal settlement last week has multiplied concerns that homes being rebuilt there will be destined for wealthy strangers seeking a tropical retreat. That would fuel what is already one of Hawaii’s biggest and most serious challenges: The exodus and displacement of Native Hawaiians and local residents who no longer have the means to live on their land.
“I’m more concerned that big developers come in and see this burned-out land as an opportunity to rebuild,” Palalay said Saturday at an evacuee shelter.
Hotels and condominiums “that we cannot afford, that are out of our reach, that is what we are afraid of,” he said.
Palalay, 25, was born and raised in Lahaina. He started working at an oceanfront seafood restaurant when he was 16 and worked his way up to becoming a kitchen supervisor. He was preparing to be an assistant chef.
Then came Tuesday’s wildfire, which ripped through its wooden homes and historic streets in a matter of hours, killing at least 93 people to become America’s deadliest wildfire in a century.
Maui County estimates that more than 80% of the more than 2,700 structures in the city were damaged or destroyed and 4,500 residents require shelter.
The fire consumed the restaurant where Palalay worked, his neighborhood, the houses of his friends and even the four-bedroom house where he pays 1,000 a month to rent one of those rooms. He and his roommates have not had a chance to return to examine it themselves, though they have seen footage showing his neighborhood in ruins.
Palalay noted that the city, once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Hawaii in the 19th century, made him the man he is today.
“Lahaina is my home. Lahaina is my pride. My life. My joy”, she said in a text message, adding that the people have given her “lessons of love, of struggle, discrimination, passion, division and unity that they could not imagine”.
The median home price on Maui is $1.2 million, making a single-family home out of reach for the typical wage earner. For many, it is not even possible to buy a condo, with an average price of $850,000.
Sterling Higa, executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more housing in Hawaii, said the city has many homes that have been in the hands of local families for generations. But it has also been subject to gentrification.
“So a lot of the newcomers — generally from the mainland who have more money and can buy houses at a higher price — were to some degree displacing local families in Lahaina,” Higa explained. It’s a phenomenon he’s seen along Maui’s west coast, where a modest home two decades ago now sells for $1 million.
Residents with insurance or government assistance can get funds to rebuild, but those payments could take years and recipients may find that it won’t be enough to pay rent or buy alternative property in the meantime.
Many Kauai residents spent years fighting for insurance payments after Hurricane Iniki hit the island in 1992 and said the same thing could happen in Lahaina, Higa added.
“As they deal with this — the frustration of fighting with the insurance companies or fighting (with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA) — many of them may as well leave because there are no other options,” Higa lamented.
Palalay vows to stay.
“I don’t have money to help rebuild. I’ll put on a construction helmet and help get this ship running again. I’m not leaving this place, where would she go?” she pointed out.
During a visit to Lahaina with FEMA, Gov. Josh Green told reporters that he will not let Lahaina become too expensive for local people after it rebuilds. He said he is thinking of ways for the state to acquire land to use as workforce housing or open space as a memorial for those who lost their lives.
“We want Lahaina to be a part of Hawaii forever,” Green said. “We don’t want it to be another example of people being left out of paradise.”
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McAvoy reported from Wailuku, Hawaii.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
