Doing what we can to Help our Maui Ohana

by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D., President / CEO, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii

As most of us are acutely aware, Thursday was the one-year anniversary of the terrible wildfires that swept through West Maui and destroyed the town of Lahaina.

Many of us have family and friends on Maui, and those first few weeks after the disaster were marked by fear and sorrow as we came to terms with what happened.

But amid our collective grief and disbelief, the people of Hawaii came together to help. Volunteers, philanthropists, elected officials, community leaders, government agencies, private organizations and so many more offered what they could to help the people of Maui.

In my role as president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, I felt it was Grassroot’s kuleana to give its best to the people of Maui as well.

As a policy research organization, Grassroot has the capacity to suggest how government policies can be adjusted to make Hawaii a place where we all can thrive and prosper.

So as rebuilding efforts began, it became clear that Grassroot could best help by supporting policies that could speed up homebuilding and lighten the financial burden for the thousands of residents who lost their homes to the fires.

One of the initial proposals that we supported was to extend tax relief to all damaged properties, which was enacted last December.

In January, Gov. Josh Green unveiled the Maui Interim Housing Plan. In response, I sent a memo to him, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, all state and Maui County lawmakers and the regional Federal Emergency Management Agency director praising the plan and presenting five additional policies that would encourage faster homebuilding for Maui's displaced residents.

Those proposals included updating the county’s emergency permitting law, which the Maui County Council approved in March.

And just last week, Grassroot released a follow-up brief recommending six more ways lawmakers could speed up the recovery and rebuilding of Lahaina. Those included waiving permitting fees, expediting permits in special management areas, granting nonprofit organizations exemptions from certain building and zoning rules, and allowing the reconstruction of nonconforming buildings and the restoration of nonconforming uses.

But the recovery of Lahaina, and Maui as a whole, is not about us. Our policy recommendations and testimonies before the Maui County Council come from conversations with the very people who are trying to rebuild and get back on their feet.

A year ago, we were overwhelmed with sorrow and the enormity of the challenge before us. Since then, it has been an honor and a privilege to be part of the broader community working together to help Lahaina rebuild.

I know there will be more challenges ahead, but we will continue to do what we can to help our Maui ohana.

E hana kākou! (Let's work together!)