Maui fires (HAWAII) people we got help them we need to get a go fund me something going
0after the wildfire destroyed their home and now they cannot re-enter to search for belongings because of official roadblocks.
Will some property sales in Hawaii be banned after fires?
John Dimuro, who has lived on the island for more than 40 years and works for Marriott in West Maui, said locals don't want big companies or wealthy people buying up land and developing it.
"The government should just say 'No, you're not allowed to develop,'" he said. "Say no, just flat-out no."
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said he has reached out to the state's attorney general to explore the possibility of imposing a moratorium on sales of damaged or destroyed properties. Green said the fires destroyed more than 2,200 structures, 86% of which are residential.
“Moreover, I would caution people that it’s going to be a very long time before any growth or housing will be built," he said. "You will be pretty poorly informed if you try to steal land from our people and then build here."
The governor's words don't seem to have deterred developers, locals say.
Mark Stefl, 67, said he, too, has been approached by developers, and the offer felt like being kicked while he was down. On Monday, Stefl had just tried and failed to get a document from the county that would let him pass the roadblocks and return to Lahaina, the centuries-old former capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The town of about 13,000 people was largely destroyed by flames last week.
"I don't know what the hell's going on. Our government is so inept right now," he said. "I'm so pissed off."
Lahaina resident Mark Stefl, 67, expresses frustration about not receiving a placard to enter West Maui. Stefl, who lost his home in the wildfire, has not returned to Lahaina since the blaze due to roadblocks.
He and his wife have lost their jobs, and he worries that he'll still have to make mortgage payments on the destroyed property and that he won't get federal assistance because he has insurance. Still, he said, he has to rebuild. In the 24 years he has lived in the area, he has had two other homes burn, including once during a hurricane. Each time he has rebuilt.
"I'm not going to sell it. I'm going to stay here," he said. "I love it here, as messed up as it is."
How much does it cost to live in Maui?
Even before the blazes wiped out hundreds of homes in Maui, Hawaii was going through an affordable housing crisis fueled by international demand from people buying second and third homes to vacation in or use for short-term rentals, said Sterling Higa, executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending the workforce housing shortage in the state.
Higa said it's incredibly expensive and difficult to develop new housing in Hawaii, which drives up the prices beyond the budgets of local families, many of whom work low-paying service jobs in the hospitality or tourism industry.
The median price of a Maui home has soared to roughly $1.2 million, and the median condo price is $850,000. The area, where about 65% of residents are people of color, has a median annual household income of about $88,000, according to U.S. census figures.
Some residents who have insurance will be able to receive compensation. But Higa said many of the homes in Lahaina were old and not up to code, which made them "difficult to impossible to insure."