Tale of two temporary projects: In state’s housing, Maui fire survivors have 5 years; in FEMA’s, residents face uncertain timeline

In November, Lafaele Folaumoeloa wiped away tears of happiness as he walked inside his family’s new home at Kilohana, the 167-unit housing complex funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for survivors of the 2023 Lahaina wildfire.

For the previous 15 months, his family had crammed into hotel rooms without kitchens after the fire destroyed their rented home on Komo Mai Street, most of their possessions and life as they knew it.

The Folaumoeloas were the first of 155 households who now fill the bright colored modular homes of Kilohana, which is located on a 34-acre parcel of state land near Lafaele’s work at the Old Lahaina Lūʻau and the school of their three youngest kids, ages 5, 11 and 12.

While the Folaumoeloas are happy at Kilohana, they and the other households don’t know how long they can stay. The complex is only temporary. This also is the case of the adjacent, 450-unit Ka Laʻi Ola, which was built by the State of Hawaiʻi for fire survivors not eligible for FEMA housing.

The state plans for Ka Laʻi Ola to house people for five years, but it is not clear how long Kilohana will remain funded and housing people.

Despite all of the Kilohana units now being occupied (with some large households having multiple units), the complex is slated to close in less than eight months, on Feb. 10, 2026, when FEMA’s direct temporary housing assistance is scheduled to end, FEMA said.

However, FEMA Hawaiʻi spokesperson Nicole Timon-Shipman said Friday: “FEMA housing is temporary and will remain available for eligible participants while they continue to seek permanent housing solutions.”

Like many other FEMA deadlines, the date Kilohana closes could be extended if the state requests an extension and FEMA grants it, according to FEMA. However, available federal disaster funding could play a factor, with the emergency agency on the cutting block under the Trump administration.

Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green’s office said Thursday evening it is still determining whether to request an extension, saying: “We understand the importance of clarity around timelines and are working with our federal and local partners to assess what’s needed to support displaced residents.”

Before FEMA made the decision to build the temporary complex, officials called it a “last resort,” primarily because it is so costly. And when plans for Kilohana were first announced in March of 2024, FEMA officials said the complex likely would provide housing for three years, with the potential to extend it.

Timon-Shipman said Thursday that providing a precise number for the cost of Kilohana was not possible. But she did say FEMA had a “no-cost lease agreement” with the state for the land, and provided the breakdown of the modular units: $164,937 for a one bedroom, $210,201 for a two bedroom and $227,396 for a three bedroom.

In June 2024, FEMA said the project was expected to cost at least $100 million. A major reason is the extensive site preparation on hard rock and infrastructure installation, which was led by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps entered into a $95.3 million contract with Honolulu-based Dawson Solutions just for this part of the project, which required blasting and heavy earthwork to install the water and sewer lines, electricity and streets.

At just the $100 million price tag, the average cost per unit is almost $600,000 (about half the current median price of a Maui home).

If Kilohana does close in February 2026, those costly temporary homes will have housed people for only 16 months or less. The first units were finished and ready for tenants in November 2024, but the complex wasn’t completed until February of this year.

Timon-Shipman said that the modular homes at Kilohana will be sold or donated when the direct assistance program ends.

When the Folaumoeloas, like most of the other fire survivors, moved into Kilohana, they already had lived in multiple places during the nearly two years since the fire. But from the start, a requirement of living in Kilohana was to provide documentation each month that they were actively seeking somewhere else to live.

Ane Folaumoeloa, Lafaele’s wife, said this has kept her busy most days, with an affordable housing market that was in crisis mode well before the fires wiped away 2,200 structures, a majority of them rental housing.

“I try every day,” she said. “I’ve been looking on the marketplace to try and find something in Lahaina. I’m working hard trying.”

She also meets with her FEMA representative at least once a month to go through the recertification process.

After providing 18 months of rent-free housing, FEMA began charging fair market rent on March 1 to all households in its direct lease program, which includes Kilohana. FEMA said 91% of households in this program were renting when they lost their homes.

The rates are based on fair market rent rates on Maui from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They are $1,750 per month for an efficiency unit, $1,762 for a one bedroom, $2,309 for a two bedroom, and $3,103 for a three bedroom.

But FEMA said it limits the amount of rent the survivor households have to pay to 30% of their gross income. And occupants who provide documentation of their post-disaster income that met or was below HUD’s very low-income limit qualify for fully reduced rent of $50 per month.

The size of the Kilohana units are 480 square feet for a one bedroom, 770 square feet for a two bedroom and 980 square feet for a three bedroom.

Through June 17, FEMA has approved more than  $73.1 million in federal assistance for 7,164 survivors of the wildfires and high winds on Maui. This includes $50.6 million approved for housing assistance, of which $44.3 million has been for rental assistance. Another $22.5 million has been approved for other needs. Those numbers do not reflect the costs for Kilohana, according to an email from FEMA Hawai’i on Friday evening.

In March, Sissy Rogers, a school administrative services assistant at Lahainaluna High School, her husband Liko and their 20-year-old daughter Puliki moved from an apartment in Mā‘alaea into a unit at Kilohana.

“It was more for my sanity, after being out of Lahaina,” Sissy Rogers said. “I liked living in Mā‘alaea, but Liko and Puliki wanted to move back home to Lahaina.”

The Rogers’ home on Kahena Street burned in the Lahaina fire. They are rebuilding, but the new home is not expected to be done for another year, meaning they would have to move again if Kilohana is shut down in February.

“It’s a race to get our home done by then, but I don’t want to get my hopes up so high and then get disappointed. And, we’ll see what happens in February of 2026,” Sissy Rogers said. “We were told that the FEMA program will be done, but I don’t know what they’re going to do with the homes if everybody has to leave. It’s very confusing.”

The Folaumoeloas also hope an extension will be granted and that they can continue to live at Kilohana past February.

Ane Folaumoeloa said it’s important for their family to stay in Lahaina, with her husband working back-to-back shifts at the lūʻau. He gets to work at 6 a.m. to help put the pig in the ‘imu for the feast each night. He returns home at about 1 p.m. to rest for a few hours before going back to the lūʻau where he demonstrates wood carving to the visitors from about 4 to 8 p.m.

Staying in Lahaina also is important because the Folaumoeloa’s three youngest children attend Sacred Hearts School and they all regularly attend Maria Lanakila Church, both near Kilohana.

Tamara Paltin, who holds the West Maui seat on the Maui County Council, noted FEMA funds originally were appropriated by President Joe Biden’s administration and federal funds have been cut back since Donald Trump became president.

Like everyone else, she does not know what is going to happen at Kilohana.

“I’ve said this from the county to the state to the federal level, we need some sort of continuity on basic things like emergency response and needs like housing,” Paltin said. “I understand the political aspect of things and wanting change, but some things, if you don’t have that continuity, it’s like wasted resources.”

Paltin noted it is extremely difficult for families the size of the Folaumoeloas to find suitable housing, especially in Lahaina.

“It’s hard to say, ‘you don’t qualify for this, you don’t qualify for that’ — people start to lose hope,” Paltin said.

At Ka Laʻi Ola, the state-run temporary complex next door, Ronda Colleen Pali lives in a one-bedroom unit with her dog Kahiko. She was one of the first residents to move into the 450-unit complex meant to house fire surivors who were not eligible for FEMA assistance, due to a variety of reasons.

Pali and her husband Ruben lost their residence in the Front Street Apartments and their music business building in the fire.

Pali suffers from Fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue and tenderness in specific areas of the body. When she received notice that she was accepted into Ka Laʻi Ola, she said it was a godsend.

“My health has deteriorated significantly since the fire,” Pali said.

But she is happy at Ka Laʻi Ola, where there is a growing sense of community, with quarterly events to create a neighborhood.

“You feel it,” she said. “There is definitely a commonality amongst us.”

Ka Laʻi Ola has amenities that Kilohana does not, including modest landscaping in and around the units, picnic tables and laundry rooms. Soon, it will have a community center, which currently is under construction. Kilohana residents are allowed to use the laundry rooms.

Pali said she wants to live at Ka Laʻi Ola until the program runs out.

The first residents at Ka Laʻi Ola moved into the first completed units on Aug. 9, 2024, with other units being made available when finished. Capacity is expected to be reached this Aug. 9, and when it does, the complex will be home to about 1,500 people, said Joe Campos, deputy director of the state Department of Human Services who is leading the project.

The state is not charging rent now, but will begin doing so on March 1, 2026. Rates will be announced next week.

“It’ll be very affordable, probably something to the effect of a small percentage of HUD’s fair market rate,” Campos said.

Blake Ball, a sixth-grade math teacher at Lahaina Intermediate School, lives in a one-bedroom unit at Ka Laʻi Ola. He said residents at the state-run facility do not have to recertify with any government agency to remain in Ka Laʻi Ola.

“It’s a blessing to not have to kind of look over my shoulder and make sure that I have my ducks in a row and I’m constantly providing proof,” Ball said. “That’s an added stress to an already stressful situation of trying to rebuild.”

While Ka Laʻi Ola is being overseen by the Hawai’i Interim Housing Program, the state worked with homeless housing developer HomeAid Hawaiʻi on the $185 million complex, which was paid for with $40 million in funding from the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation and the rest by the state. It works out to about an average of $411,000 per unit. (The state’s location had less extensive site preparation).

Kimo Carvalho, CEO of HomeAid Hawaiʻi, said: “After the wildfires hit, part of our scope involved land assessments, screening, vetting different housing providers, and coordinating the builder industry to actually reduce the cost of construction, which is a big part of our mission.”

The state complex costs about $5 million per year to operate, according to Campos.

The state land, Ka La’i Ola infrastructure and buildings will be transferred to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands when the five-year program ends in August 2029, Campos said.

Arica Lynn, a biology teacher at Lahainaluna High School, and her family of five live in Ka La’i Ola, in a 600-square-foot, three-bedroom unit, which is much smaller than FEMA’s 980-square-foot, three-bedroom unit.

“You can basically reach out your arms and touch each wall,” Lynn said of the bedrooms.

Lynn said their family home that is being rebuilt in Lahaina should be done by January 2026, although they are hoping to be able to spend Christmas in it.

Lynn and her husband Matthew Souza have been paying their mortgage and housing association fees nonstop for their home in Kahoma Village that burned in the fire.

“We didn’t qualify for FEMA,” Lynn said. “For now we’re not paying rent, which is great for families like mine. … Ka La’i Ola was a Godsend because they took us almost immediately (after it opened). I called them and told them we have no housing option. And they speed tracked our application and got us in here.”

Ane Folaumoeloa whispers and smiles when asked how her 5-year-old daughter is coping. “OK,” she says quietly. She also has to take her son Lafaele Jr. to Honolulu every three months for a medical condition.

Eleven-year-old Anne Folaumoeloa, who is entering sixth grade in the fall, smiled when asked about living in Kilohana: “I love it. The AC, that’s the best part. And my brother and I get our own rooms. I don’t have to share my room with my little sister either. It’s very big in here.”

Lafaele Jr., who is also going into sixth grade and already is 5-foot-10, said of his own room, “Oh yeah, that’s comfortable.”

He hopes to stay in Lahaina because he dreams of doing what many young boys do in the community: “I want to play football for the Lunas.” 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The date that rent will begin to be charged at Ka La’i Ola has been changed to March 1, 2026, due to new information received from the state Department of Human Services on July 4. In the original date that rent was to be charged was Sept. 1, 2025.