Medical students get housing at Maui Lani Fairways while they work on Maui

Three University of Hawaiʻi medical students have taken up residence at a new, four-bedroom, three-bath Kahului home in the Maui Lani Fairways, as part of the “Housing for Healthcare” initiative by the Maui Health Foundation. The home is less than a 10-minute drive from Maui Memorial Medical Center where the third-year residents are conducting their hands-on medical training.

Previously, the high cost of housing on Maui has made it difficult to find a place to live for students studying at the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu, but staying on Maui for their third-year medical rotations, school officials said. The Kahului house can accommodate seven students, which is more than half of the dozen medical students and residents studying on Maui. Previously, students would need to stay with relatives while working on the island, which limited the number of students able to practice medical care on Maui.

“This house is a blessing for our program because for the first time on Maui we’ve had stable housing that we know will be there, reserved just for our learners,” said Dr. Travis Hong, the medical school’s director of Rural Health. “Having this here will make future endeavors on Maui much, much easier.”

“Housing is a really big issue, and it contributes a lot to the physician shortage, especially here on Maui,” said medical student Tynell Ornellas. “So just having these houses just encourages a lot of people to come and hopefully they fall in love (with Maui) and stay.”

Medical student Angela Phillips said she didn’t know if she’d be able to come to Maui without housing.

“I have a lot of financial responsibilities,” she said. “Being in medical school is not a walk in the park when it comes to finances. However, this really is a step forward in supporting medical students in this current economy and really investing in the future of Hawaiʻi.”

The house blessing was conducted Saturday by Kahu Kanani Franco, and that was followed by a pāʻina (small dinner party).