Lahaina fire survivors living at the temporary tent shelter across from the Kahului Airport are worried they could be back out on the street after the state opens in September a new village of 62 tiny homes being constructed on the same 1.5-acre property.
The state-run shelter called Pu'uhonua o Nēnē opened two years ago to house Lahaina residents who were houseless before the August 2023 wildfire, and eventually expanded to include anyone on Maui experiencing homelessness. Currently, the shelter is at capacity with 66 people living there, including 24 fire survivors.
However, not everyone living at Pu'uhonua o Nēnē will be able to meet the qualifications for residency at the new housing project that's slated to open Sept. 24. And those qualifications are still unclear -- the state had not responded to questions by deadline on Thursday afternoon about what requirements residents would have to meet and how much they would have to pay to live in the new project.
Last week, a group of fire survivors represented by Mālama Law Group sent a letter to Hawai'i Gov. Josh Green calling for answers about the future of the temporary housing site.
"Maui's housing crisis has left working-class families with few options," said attorney Lance Collins of Mālama Law Group. "The shortage of affordable rentals has only worsened with recent forced removals carried out by state and county agencies. If Pu'uhonua o Nēnē is closed without secured alternatives, many Lahaina fire survivors will be pushed into houselessness and onto the streets."
The state Department of Human Services says that Pu'uhonua o Nēnē was only supposed to be a temporary solution, created to house people who couldn't qualify for the federally funded non-congregate shelter program at local hotels because they couldn't verify their address in the burn zone.
"It was never designed to last more than a year, but because of the need, we had extended it now to two years," Deputy Director Joseph Campos told the Hawai'i Journalism Initiative on Tuesday.
Campos said the state now is working with local agencies such as Family Life Center to assess the needs of the people living at Pu'uhonua o Nēnē to see if they qualify for the new housing project or require other services such as mental health counseling or substance abuse programs.
Survivors represented by Mālama Law Group said they were told Pu'uhonua o Nēnē would be closing next month; however, Campos said it will still be operational for a time so people can move into the kauhale (tiny village with communal facilities) or into another program.
"We're anticipating that we may need to have about a three-month kind of transition period just to make sure that we're able to find all of the alternative housing solutions necessary for the residents that are currently there," Campos said.
The military-grade communal tents at Pu'uhonua o Nēnē have been deteriorating. The state has been planning for months to transition to a tiny home village known as Kīpūola Kauhale, which will offer private units with shared facilities for bathrooms, showers and cooking.
Privacy has been a major concern at Pu'uhonua o Nēnē, with community advocates saying that forcing a group of strangers to live together in a tent was risky. Last year, officials with Project Vision Hawai'i, which managed the site for the state, acknowledged that three people had died there.
Campos said the deaths all were related to "underlying health conditions" but couldn't comment further on the details.
However, there now is 24-hour security around the site.
Kīpūola Kauhale will be the first kauhale on Maui under Green's Kauhale Initiative, which aims to set up a series of affordable communal living spaces across the state to address homelessness.
However, the project in Kahului is much smaller than the originally anticipated 125. Campos said the state determined that 62 units "would be sufficient at this point in time."
The construction contract for the kauhale was $7.9 million, which came from state general funds appropriated to the Statewide Office on Homelessness and Housing Solutions, according to Jun Yang, director of the office. So far $5.3 million has been expensed to the state.
As for why the state was reducing the size of the project, especially after Maui County kicked nearly 50 people out of a makeshift homeless community along nearby Amala Place last month, Campos said, "There's a variety of issues at play."
He said if the project were built out fully, Pu'uhonua o Nēnē would have to be decommissioned right away. Once the tents are taken down, however, the state isn't sure it plans to expand the kauhale at the current site because space is limited. Campos said it depends on whether they find another, more permanent location.
When asked why the state is spending time and money on building the tiny village at a site that might not be its permanent location, Campos said, "because it's what we have currently."
"Homelessness is an issue that all islands are facing, right? And so I would say that this is the best solution at the current time."
Community advocates helping out people living at Pu'uhonua o Nēnē are worried about the transition period and uncertainty over where people will go next if they don't qualify for the kauhale.
"It's unconscionable for the State to implement a program that will essentially remove the limited stability and safety these vulnerable folks currently have if they don't qualify under the new parameters," Noelani Ahia of Maui Medic Healers Hui said via text. "Making the houseless more houseless is not the answer."
Ahia said if people end up on the street, they risk being traumatized again by a county and state sweep similar to the one at Amala Place.
"We need low barrier shelters, not more hoops to jump through," Ahia said. "The state could have used another parcel for the new program and kept the shelter intact because there's literally nowhere for these folks to go now..."
But Campos said the kauhale is not designed for everybody. Some may need services that the site cannot provide.
"Some people need additional assistance for a very specific type of housing program, and so we want to make sure that we give them the most appropriate housing solution for their needs at this moment in time," he said.
"We want to make sure that we have the most appropriate space available for them. Because the kauhale is really a bridge to housing programs for people transitioning out of homelessness and can pay a modest fee."
Yang said the goal is "no displacements to the streets."
"The state will maintain short-term services at (Pu'uhonua o Nēnē) to accommodate participants actively engaged in transition assistance with (Family Life Center) until suitable alternatives are identified and offered," Yang said via email on Thursday.
Communicating with residents and making sure they have a place to go will be crucial moving forward, Collins said.
"For survivors already enduring profound loss, uncertainty over housing deepens the trauma," he wrote in the Aug. 20 letter. "Ensuring clarity and secure relocation options is essential to prevent survivors from becoming houseless once again."