Lahaina residents stake out housing

LAHAINA, Hawaii — A group of Lahaina wildfire survivors is vowing to camp on a popular resort beach until the mayor uses his emergency powers to shut down unpermitted vacation rentals and make the properties available for residents in desperate need of housing.

Organizers with the group Lahaina Strong are focusing on 2,500 vacation rental properties they’ve identified in West Maui that don’t have the usual county permits to be rented out for less than 30 days at a time. For years their owners have legally rented the units to travelers anyway because the county granted them an exemption from the standard rules.

Lahaina Strong says the mayor should use his emergency powers to suspend this exemption.

“I’m kind of at the point where I’m like ‘too bad, so sad,’” said organizer Jordan Ruidas. “We never knew our town was going to burn down and our people need housing,”

The group says they are staying on Kaanapali Beach, exercising their Native Hawaiian rights to fish 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They planted fishing poles in the sand and are calling their action “Fishing for Housing.”

Lance Collins, a Maui attorney, said the mayor has the authority to suspend the county ordinance that has allowed the 2,500 shortterm vacation rentals. Similar action was taken during the covid-19 pandemic when Hawaii’s governor prohibited landlords from raising rents and when both the federal and state governments banned evictions, Collins said.

“Temporary alterations to the market to protect the common good and the welfare of our community as a whole is permitted on a temporary basis in the face of an emergency,” he said.

Permanently eliminating the exemption would require the county council to pass new legislation.

Ruidas said the 2,500 units at issue could house a large share of the 7,000 Lahaina residents who are still staying in hotels months after the Aug. 8 fire destroyed their town.

Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said in a statement that he is considering all options, but declaring a moratorium on short-term rentals would invite legal challenges and could have unintended consequences. His office is working with property managers who handle a significant number of short-term rentals, and Bissen said he has been encouraged by their willingness to cooperate.