HCA Holds First Community Meeting on Maui’s Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan

PC: Hawaiian Community Assets

Hawaiian Community Assets partnered with Akakū: Maui Community Media to launch a series of community meetings that will inform the County of Maui’s Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan. The first community will start tonight (Dec. 8) from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Zoom and will be limited to 100 attendees.

Maui County residents interested in registering for a meeting can find registration information here.

Community meetings will be held for residents in the County’s eight community plan areas with follow-up meetings in plan areas determined most suitable for the building of 5,000 units of affordable housing over the next five years. Community area residents will be able to participate through online and phone call-in options with feedback managed through chat functions and facilitated discussion.

“We are asking for the community to step up and participate. We need your voice to share solutions for affordable housing so we can help create a plan that houses our local people and makes sure we can live and stay in our communities,” said Blossom Feiteira, HCA co-founder and long-time housing advocate who is leading the community meetings for the project. “We welcome all Maui County residents to join us tonight, tune in later, or reach out to us and share your solutions for affordable housing.”

According to Feiteira, meetings will gather community feedback on issues and priorities related to affordable housing, recommendations to improve the County’s workforce housing ordinance, and inform development opportunities. Additional, follow-up meetings will be coordinated with the Pāʻia-Haʻikū, Makawao-Pukalani-Kula, Hāna, Lānaʻi, and Molokaʻi communities to identify development and capacity building opportunities that will help mobilize community-driven housing solutions in those areas.

Akakū will partner with HCA to play the community meetings live on Akakū Green Channel 53. Meetings will also be recorded and played through March 2021 to allow for County residents to view at a later time. Community members who attend the meetings online or view on Akakū will be provided information on how to share solutions.

HCA was awarded a contract from the County of Maui in November to engage the community to develop the comprehensive affordable housing plan that will come before the County Council for review in March 2021 and approval in June 2021. HCA is the lead organization for the project and has assembled a team of experts including Ms. Feiteira, PBR Hawaiʻi and Associates, Austin, Tsutsumi, and Associates, the University of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, Rural Community Assistance Corporation, and Stanley Keasling Consulting.

Additional meetings will be held on the following dates: