HONOLULU (AP) — Amy Chadwick spent years saving and saving as a single mother of two to buy a home in the town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. But after a devastating fire swept through Lahaina in August, reducing Chadwick's home to white dust, the cheapest rental she and her now-husband could find for her family and dog. The fee was $10,000 per month.
Chadwick, who worked as a server at a high-end restaurant, moved to Florida where he could take full advantage of his homeowner's insurance. She worries that Maui's exorbitant rent prices, fueled in part by vacation rentals dominating the limited housing supply, will hollow out Maui's tight-knit community.
Most Lahaina residents work in hotels, restaurants and travel agencies and cannot afford to pay the $5,000 to $10,000 monthly rent.
“You're going to displace a whole community of people in the service industry. So no one will be able to support the tourism industry that you're pioneering in your community,” said Chadwick of Satellite Beach on Florida's Space Coast. He spoke by phone from his new home in . “Unless they get serious and seriously regulate short-term rentals, nothing good will come of it.”
The Aug. 8 wildfires killed 101 people and destroyed 6,200 homes, exacerbating Maui's already dire housing shortage and exposing Lahaina's vacation rental juggernaut. The bill reminded lawmakers that short-term rentals are a problem across Hawaii and encouraged them to consider a bill that would give counties the power to phase out rentals.
Gov. Josh Green was so frustrated that he lashed out during a recent press conference.
“This fire reveals a clear truth: There are too many privately owned short-term rental properties on the mainland. That is not true,” Green said. “And our people have a right to live here.”
Vacation rentals are a popular alternative to hotels for those looking for kitchens, low costs, and the chance to experience everyday island life. Supporters say it will boost tourism, the state's largest employer. Critics accuse it of raising housing costs, upending neighborhoods and helping to encourage locals and Native Hawaiians to leave Hawaii for cheaper states.
This migration is a major concern in Lahaina. The Native Hawaiian Advancement Council, a nonprofit organization, estimates that at least 1,500 households (a quarter of those left homeless) have been evacuated since the August wildfires.
The fire destroyed single-family homes and apartments in and around Lahaina's residential core, downtown. An analysis by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Institute found that as of February 2023, the number of vacation rental units was relatively low at 7.5%.
The Lahaina area, which escaped the fire, has a much higher proportion of vacation rentals, and in Napili, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) north of the fire zone, about half of the homes are short-term rentals.
Napili is where Chadwick thought she had found a place to buy when she first went house hunting in 2016. But a Canadian woman secured it with a cash offer and turned it into a vacation rental.
Also outside the fire zone are dozens of short-term rental apartment buildings built decades ago on land designated for apartment use.
In 1992, Maui County explicitly allowed owners of these buildings to rent units for fewer than 180 days at a time without a short-term rental permit. Since November, activists have occupied the beach in front of Lahaina's largest hotel, calling on the mayor and governor to use emergency powers to revoke the exemption.
A strong motive for owners to rent to tourists is money. According to his 2016 report prepared for the state, vacation rentals in Honolulu earn 3.5 times more than his long-term rentals.
State Rep. Luke Eveslin, chairman of the housing committee, said Maui and Kauai counties have suffered a net loss of housing in recent years due to a lack of new construction and too many homes being converted to short-term rentals. Ta.
“Every alarm bell we have should be ringing when the goal of providing more housing in Hawai'i is literally going backwards,” he said.
On Kauai, where he lives, Evslin sees people leaving their homes, becoming homeless or working three jobs to make ends meet.
The Democrat was one of 47 House members to co-sponsor one of the bills that would allow short-term rentals to be phased out. One goal is to give counties more power after a 2022 U.S. judge ruled that the city of Honolulu violated state law when it tried to ban rentals of less than 90 days. . Evslin said the decision leaves Hawaii counties with limited tools to control vacation rentals, such as property taxes.
Lawmakers also considered trying to increase Hawaii's housing supply by forcing counties to build more homes on individual lots. But the government watered down the measure after local officials said they were already considering the idea.
Short-term rental owners said the phaseout would violate their property rights and could result in their property being taken away for free and forced into foreclosure. Some predicted legal problems.
Alicia Humiston, president of the Rent-by-Owner Awareness Association, said some areas of West Maui are designed for tourists and therefore lack schools and other infrastructure that families need. .
“This area of West Maui is kind of a resort condominium area, north of Lahaina, but it was never built for locals to live in,” Humiston said.
Some housing advocates argue that just because a region allowed vacation rentals decades ago doesn't mean it still needs to be.
“We're not living in the 1990s or the 1970s,” said Sterling Higa, executive director of Housing Hawaii's Future. He said the county “should have the authority to review existing laws and amend them as necessary to serve the public interest.”
Courtney Lazo, a real estate agent and member of Lahaina Strong, the group occupying Kaanapali Beach, said tourists can now stay in their hometown, but many locals can't.
“How do you think a community recovers and heals and moves forward when Lahaina, the people who make Lahaina are no longer there?” she said at a recent news conference, her voice shaking. “They move away.”
