Maui has always been a place where community means everything—where neighbors care for each other, and ‘ohana extends far beyond the family we were born into. That spirit of aloha is what sustains us, especially in times of hardship. And right now, many of our friends and neighbors are still facing extreme housing insecurity. We’re not just in a housing crisis anymore—we’re in a housing emergency.

Rental assistance programs are one of the most effective, immediate ways we can provide relief to families across the island. These programs don’t just help individuals—they strengthen our entire community.

What Rental Assistance Does for Maui

1. Keeps Families Housed
At its core, rental assistance is about preventing displacement. When families can stay in their homes, kids can stay in their schools, kupuna can age in place, and parents can keep showing up to work. It prevents the destabilizing effects of eviction and homelessness.

2. Supports Economic Recovery
The economic impact of the August wildfires wasn’t fenced in to Lahaina. It swept across the island without boundaries, hurting small businesses, workers, and families everywhere. Add that to the long tail of COVID-era economic hardship, and you have a perfect storm for families teetering on the edge.

Rental assistance helps people make ends meet. It allows families to focus on recovery instead of survival.

3. Reduces the Reliance on Social Services
When people lose housing, they’re more likely to need emergency services, healthcare, and other safety net programs. Rental assistance is preventative care for our community—it keeps people stable, which saves resources in the long run. Right now, the social safety net is more strained than ever with mass federal layoffs and defunding. Help has to be strengthened at the local level.

4. Helps Those Who’ve Been Left Out
While FEMA assistance has helped many families on the road to recovery, many others have found FEMA support to be unreliable, inconsistent, or inaccessible. Folks are still waiting for determinations in the most recent changes to assistance or were deemed ineligible for the help they truly need. Others received support that wasn’t nearly enough to match the real cost of housing in Maui.

What often gets lost in the aftermath of the disaster: not all families in need are fire survivors. Families who weren’t directly burned out of their homes have still lost income, lost jobs, lost tenants, or had to move to make space for displaced relatives. These families are struggling too—and most of them are ineligible for FEMA help.

Rental assistance fills these gaps.

Maui’s Housing Emergency

Before the wildfires, Maui was already in a housing crisis. Long-term residents were leaving because they couldn’t afford to stay. Workers were commuting from other islands. Multi-generational families were being pushed into overcrowded or unstable housing.

The fires turned a crisis into a full-blown emergency.

Now, more than ever, we need local solutions—and rental assistance is one we can act on right now.

Here’s How You Can Help

Community members have a powerful opportunity to make a difference. The Maui County Council is currently holding budget hearings, and they need to hear that rental assistance must be included in the County Budget.

You can show your support in two ways:

1. Show Up in Person

Speak at your regional County Budget Meeting and ask for rental assistance funding:

• April 8th – Lāna‘i, ILWU Hall
• April 10th – West Maui, Lahaina Civic Center
• April 11th – Moloka‘i, Mitchell Pau‘ole Community Center
• April 14th – South Maui, Kihei Community Center
• April 15th – Makawao-Ha‘ikū-Pā‘ia, Pā‘ia Community Center

We need voices to flood these meetings with the message: Rental Assistance is essential NOW!

2. Submit Written Testimony

If you can’t attend in person, you can submit your testimony in writing to the Maui County Council. Ask them to prioritize rental assistance funding in the FY 2026 budget. Share your story, or simply state that our community needs this support now more than ever.

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Let’s make sure our neighbors don’t face this emergency alone. You don’t have to be in need of rental assistance, personally, to fight for those who do. Please use your voice to lift up your neighbors and give our community the help we all deserve.

Together, we can help keep Maui families housed and supported. Mahalo for standing with us.

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