18 Months After Wildfires Destroyed Some 2,000 Homes on Maui, Only 3 Have Been Rebuilt
As California looks to rebuild from the wildfires that ripped through the Los Angeles area, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has reportedly been in conversations with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green about how to best go about the process.
If California’s efforts replicate Hawaii’s, the road to recovery will be long indeed.
In August 2023, wildfires devastated the island of Maui, completely destroying the town of Lahaina and dealing severe damage to other communities on the island.
Over 2,000 properties with residential structures were either destroyed or suffered major damage, according to data collected by Maui County’s Real Property Assessment Division. Those properties include multifamily buildings, meaning the number of individual units damaged or destroyed is likely higher.
All told, 3 percent of the island’s housing stock was destroyed in the fires, according to a housing dashboard published by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization.
As of last week, roughly a year and a half since the fires, a total of three of those homes have been rebuilt, according to data shared by the county with Reason. Two of those homes are in Lahaina, and the third one is in the island’s Upcountry area.
An additional 228 building permits for wildfire reconstruction have been issued, and 112 homes are under currently under construction.
“Hawaii used to be great at this,” says Joe Kent, the executive vice president of the Honolulu-based Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and former Lahaina resident.
After Hurricane Iniki destroyed some 2,000 homes on the island of Kauai in 1992, most of those homes were rebuilt within a year, says Kent.
“Since then, there has been a lot more regulations,” Kent explains. “Those regulations have made their way into a bureaucracy that’s made it difficult to lift things, even for emergencies.”
The Grassroot Institute published a report in July 2024 detailing some of the regulatory hurdles to rebuilding on Maui. Those include high permitting fees and long permitting wait times.
Permit fee
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