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On Aug. 8, when her community in Lahaina was already on fire, Amanda Vierra grabbed her two sons, Isiah, 4, and Konner, 9, as well as their two pets, dog Alohi and cat Bagheera, and fled. which, fortunately, had 4×4 traction to be able to triumph over the felled trees that blocked the roads.
But getting protection for his family is just the beginning of a hearth with no end in sight.
On Oct. 23, two days before his 35th birthday, Vierra will have to move for the seventh time in two-and-a-half months, as the fireplace destroyed nearly all of his belongings in his rented three-bedroom apartment, the Pioneer Mill, which burned to the ground.
He doesn’t know where his circle of relatives will live next. He learned that this time getting around would be less difficult because he would have trash cans.
To help others like Vierra, Hawaiian Matt Jachowski used his skills as a software developer to create the website Maui Hale Match, which he hopes will make it easier for displaced fire survivors to connect with homeowners and landlords in need of housing. can afford it.
Jachowski knows all too well how complicated it is to make this combination, but in his case, it comes from the owner’s side. He and his wife had a 3-bedroom family home near the Pā’ia Elementary School that they wanted to build. Hire a displaced family with keiki.
But locating the right circle of family members turned out to be more complicated than expected.
“We wanted to have a large enough circle of relatives, with young people of that age,” he said. “Even though we’re all members of the community, it’s been difficult to find the right circle of family members. “
Nicole Huguenin, co-director of the nonprofit Maui Rapid Response, which is sponsoring the online page as a project, said Jachowski’s housing application was desperately needed.
He said it like the dating app Match. com.
But instead of trying to find soulmates, the online housing page is designed to connect displaced survivors of the fire with landlords or asset owners who provide them with homes of the right size, in the right place, and at the right price.
More than 8,000 more people were displaced when more than 2,200 structures in Lahaina and 19 structures in Kula were destroyed in the August 8 fires, along with other houses rendered uninhabitable due to a lack of electricity, water and sewage. Most still live in transient accommodation.
While having a roof over your head is the first step in the onset of a disaster, as days turn into weeks and months, other displaced people and their families need more permanent and convenient living situations for their families. families with young children.
On the Maui Hale Match website, displaced fire survivors report the type of housing they need, their situation, and what they can afford. Homeowners and homeowners imply the type of housing they can offer and any other applicable information.
When there is a match, the user looking for the accommodation and the user providing it are informed each other via email. Then, either party must do the rest, resulting in a lease.
The site was filed on Oct. 7 and as of Tuesday evening already had 499 housing applications registered, representing another 1,616 people in need of long-term housing. So far, 42 landlords have submitted 112 sets for rent.
There have been 30 connections where they both “stick together,” Jachowski said.
While he doesn’t know if those connections resulted in the signing of rentals, he said, “I don’t think those connections would have happened without the website. “
The State has tried to establish its own housing connection.
While Hawaii Governor Josh Green announced it as Hawaii’s Fire Relief Housing Program, in reality, it’s nothing more than a position where Hawaii’s homeowners and asset owners can list homes that anyone can access. You can also simply fill out a form.
But it is up to the displaced fire survivors to go through the long list and touch the landowners or landlords.
Gordon Y. K. Pang, Housing Information Officer, Hawai’i Housing Finance
“We’re just trying to establish ourselves quickly,” he said.
The state initiated the directory six days after the Aug. 8 fires, when thousands of people were desperate to find housing and the use of hotel rooms for lodging through the American Red Cross had not yet begun.
When the Hawaii Fire Relief Housing Program launched, a press release said it was designed to “unite those who were in dire need of housing due to the Maui fires with Hawaiian homeowners willing to help by providing them with temporarily vacant rooms, units, or homes. “”
In the first four days, about 700 programs were presented to house about 2,200 people. In the same period, homeowners and landlords have made available more than 900 homes in the state’s four counties, according to a state news release.
But, as Jachowski discovered, it proved difficult to find affordable housing near Lahaina’s schools or (for those who still had jobs).
As of Oct. 17, there were still 600 homes on the state’s available housing lists, of which only 124 were located west of Maui.
According to state figures provided as of Oct. 11, the public program has won bids for 1,357 units, but only 370 “are full or occupied. “
It is also unclear whether, of the 370 complexes that have been destroyed, how many have been through displaced residents.
“While it is expected that fire survivors will be prioritized, our list is public and allows access,” said Gordon Y. K. Pang, Housing Information Officer for Hawai’i Housing Finance.
He added that the company is reaching out to other government agencies, including nonprofits such as the Council for the Advancement of Native Hawaiians and the Hawai’i Community Foundation, about how to increase the number of long-term housing opportunities for others displaced by the fires.
“Now that we have this platform that makes it easy for other people to connect, the challenge is convincing owners to sign up,” Jachowski said. “I think we want to get homeowners and homeowners to hire other wealthy people from the mainland. “
But the biggest hurdle now turns out to be price.
Look at the inventory, there are some on this island,” said Huguenin of Maui Rapid Response. “It’s just not inventory. “
Jachowski analyzed the data he collected on his online page, with average unit prices based on active listings of long-term rentals on Craigslist, Trulia and Realtor. com, “ridiculously high” hires of more than $10,000 per month. As expected, there is a significant gap between the market value of rentals in Maui and the rent displaced families say they can afford.
But what’s the difference?
Jachowski’s data shows that the median monthly rent for a 2-bedroom home in Maui is currently $3,495. But of the 186 families who have signed up for Maui Hale Match for a 2-bedroom home, the median rent they say they can is only $2,400 a month. That’s a difference of nearly $1,100 per month.
The difference is smaller but still giant for one-bedroom sets ($700) and higher for 3-bedroom ($1500) and 4-bedroom sets ($1400).
“Everyone knew the rent was too expensive, but they didn’t know what the rent gap was in particular for the 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom and 4-bedroom apartments,” Jachowski says.
Vierra was given a match, but said it didn’t work because he couldn’t. Vierra lost her job as a cashier and training tourists to fish at West Maui Sporting Goods, which burned in the fire.
On the state’s availability list, many games are also available for 3 months or less, which is rarely the kind of stability other individuals and families are looking for, especially those people who have moved between shelters and hotels. .
“I don’t have cash to make up this hiring gap, but the government does,” Jachowski said. “This will help the government know how much cash it needs to make up for the hiring gap. Right now, all I can do is make an emotional appeal to the owners and say: they’re asking too much.
Sandi Loakimi is one of those homeowners who is willing to hire a circle of family members displaced by the fire at a below-market price.
“I’m in the cabin to make room for a family,” she said. “Others give money. That’s all I have to give. “
He’s rapidly renovating his 1,600-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom main home in Kīhei and will rent it out, Dec. 1, for $3,500 a month, adding utilities, Wi-Fi and streaming services. about $1,000 less than the average rate for a 3-bedroom apartment in Maui.
Pets are allowed.
Finding the right position, which is also pet-friendly, has been a challenge in matchmaking. On Jachowski’s website on Tuesday, 168 families seeking a place to live had pets, adding up to seven families with at least 4 pets.
Cajudoy said he used the novelty to put up for sale a 300- to 350-square-foot studio in Kihei with a shared kitchen for $1,100, accommodating up to two people.
“It’s a deal,” he said. We try to be reasonable. “
She said she had contacted some matchmakers, but they didn’t need to fill out the applications.
“So I still have a spot, even though it’s small,” he said.
Cajudoy said they also rented one of their vacation rentals to a displaced family of five through the Airbnb program with Maui Economic Opportunity, but the family didn’t need to stay more than a month because they “were looking to be back on Lahaina’s side.
“I think that’s part of the problem. People need to be in Lahaina. I don’t blame them. It’s your home. But I will continue to propose.
Most families applying for housing must remain on Maui, although a small number are open to receiving housing on O’ahu, Kaua’i, the Big Island, Lāna’i, and Moloka’i. Maui Hale Match encourages the other islands to sign up and see if they can help.
The affordable housing market is only getting worse with the federal “Safe Harbor” program for spaces affected by the fires that ended Sept. 29, meaning only those qualified for Red Cross or FEMA crisis relief would continue to get housing assistance.
Those who are eligible for housing assistance can continue to stay in hotels until “additional housing features are finalized. “
But others have been forced to leave, which will only make the housing market more complicated for housing.
For Vierra, he hopes to be in the “property cleaning” industry for rent relief with an asset control company. So far, every time you find yourself faced with not having a place to live, anything has happened. One day, two tourists gave her $300 when they saw her crying on the last day of her last contract.
Although Vierra would qualify to live in a hotel, he said, without a kitchen, it’s not a smart scenario for raising kids who eat all the time, even if they get 3 meals a day.
His eldest son lives with his father in Kihei so that he can have a strong position and be able to go to school. But he stays with her, with her boyfriend, the father of her youngest child.
“In case of need, if we have to live in a hotel room, we will,” he said. “Do whatever it takes to survive. “