Maui Council advances voluntary deed restriction program, targeting Molokaʻi as pilot

Molokaʻi residents could be the first to benefit from a county-funded, voluntary deed restriction program, a measure that cleared its first hurdle before the Maui County Council on Friday.

Bill 57, introduced by Molokaʻi Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, aims to help residents afford housing by offering county funding with legally binding conditions that ensure publicly subsidized homeownership remains in local hands. The bill adds this deed restriction initiative to the Homeowners Programs Revolving Fund, administered by the Department of Housing.

The deed restriction program would provide county funding to help resident homebuyers afford market-priced homes, but they’ll need to agree (in a deed restriction filed with the Bureau of Conveyances) to a cap on future resale prices or a commitment to owner-occupancy. The program also could be applied to funding for homeowners who want to remodel, repair or build a home extension.

While the county has previously included deed restrictions with shorter terms of five to 10 years for its affordable housing programs, some council members maintain that this practice has not succeeded in providing a long-term solution to housing affordability. Since fiscal year 2008, more than $260 million has been invested from the county’s Affordable Housing Fund.

However, West Maui Council Member Tamara Paltin said households who have been able to buy a home with county assistance for $300,000 to $500,000 can later resell it for up to $1.5 million after the deed restrictions expire.

“It’s like a literal lottery that they’re winning,” she said.

After deed restrictions expire, “we lost affordable housing,” Paltin said. “We’re throwing money into an empty black hole, which allows single families to benefit off of a one-time purchase.”

Rawlins-Fernandez’s deed restriction initiative would pave the way for Maui County to create, through administrative rules, an approach akin to the Eagle County Good Deeds program. Started in 2021, that program has converted more than 147 market-rate homes so far in Colorado. (Program guidelines available here.)

During recent fiscal 2026 budget deliberations, one of Rawlins-Fernandez’s priorities was for the County to commit to spending up to $500,000 from the Homeowner Programs Revolving Fund to conduct a pilot volunteer deed restriction program on Molokaʻi. But that couldn’t happen unless the deed restriction program were included as an allowable expense in the homeowner fund. Program details will come later with administrative rules.

Council Chair Alice Lee said council members should discuss the bill further if it’s applied countywide, and not only to Molokaʻi.

Rawlins-Fernandez said the program would be countywide but limited to Molokaʻi in fiscal 2026 because the Council’s budget only appropriates funding for her residency district. Also, she said, the Housing Department has limited operational capacity. The new department is still “getting off the ground,” she said, and it could only handle three, maybe five, households under the new program.

“It doesn’t have the capacity to do more than Molokaʻi right now,” she said. She joked that she had to “strong-arm our department director to get this.”

Paltin and Lānaʻi Council Member Gabe Johnson said residents of their communities would be interested in participating as well.

Council Member Tasha Kama, chair of the Housing and Land Use Committee, supported a pilot voluntary deed restriction program for Molokaʻi but still would like the issue discussed in committee—to have “people testify they think it’s a good idea, not a good idea, and I think we just have to do that.”

Rawlins-Fernandez said passage of Bill 57 is urgent because, if not, then the $500,000 appropriated for the program would be “stricken from the budget.”

“My compromise is in administrative rules because you will need to pass administrative rules before this program can be launched,” she said. “We’ll restrict the administrative rules to Molokaʻi.”

Lee said she was open to Rawlins-Fernandez’s suggestion, but still cautious.

“I think it has a lot of potential,” Lee said. “But I just don’t want it to turn out to be like the ʻOhana Assistance Program, where it gets all scrambled up and nothing can go forward. So I want to see yours go forward.”

“Of course, yes, I hear your PTSD,” Rawlins-Fernandez said, referring to post-traumatic stress.

The ʻOhana Assistance Program is pending implementation. When established, it will provide grants of up to $100,000 to help resident property owners build accessory dwellings.

When asked about the status of the assistance program Tuesday, the Department of Housing reported: “The program agreements necessary to move forward with the program are under review with the Department of the Corporation Counsel. When the Housing Department receives the approved documents for use by Corporation Counsel, it can proceed with making grant awards.”

Like Maui, Eagle County in Colorado’s Central Rocky Mountains has a community housing crisis. In the town of Eagle, the median list price of a home was nearly $1.3 million in March (the same as Maui County’s), according to Zillow. A 30-mile drive away from Eagle in Vail, Colo., the median price of homes was $2.4 million, also in March.

Eagle County Housing Department Outreach Coordinator Matt Andrews told the SummitDaily that his county with nearly 56,000 residents has invested around $13 million into Good Deeds program since 2021. Also, his department is building dozens of workforce housing units and has a rental aid program and incentives for the use of accessory dwelling units as long-term rentals.

In the state Legislature’s recently concluded lawmaking session, House Bill 739 House Draft 2 would have established the Kamaʻāina Homes Program within the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corp. to provide state funds for counties to purchase voluntary deed restrictions. However, that measure stalled in the Senate Housing Committee and died there.

Bill 57 advances to Council’s second-and-final reading on May 16. If enacted into law, an administrative rule-making process would follow.