Maui wildfire survey uncovers alarming rise in poverty, housing instability for fire survivors

Maui households living below the poverty line has more than doubled since the August 2023 Maui wildfires, one of the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization’s findings in a new survey of fire-affected residents. The full report is available here.

The August 2024 survey shows most fire-impacted households pay 43% more rent for the same or fewer bedrooms, and nearly one in five brings home less half their pre-wildfire incomes. The data stems from 402 individuals representing 374 households.

The survey results are presented in UHERO’s Maui Recovery Dashboard: Housing & Jobs. The study’s co-authors are ​​UHERO data scientist and housing researcher Trey Gordner and UHERO research economist Daniela Bond-Smith.

“This dashboard is a critical tool for measuring and accelerating Maui’s recovery,” said UHERO Executive Director Carl Bonham. “It provides key insights into housing and economic challenges.”

The data comes from an initiative launched one year after the August 2023 wildfires that killed at least 102 people and destroyed more than 2,000 structures, mostly homes. The survey provides continuously updated data after individuals and households who lived, worked or owned businesses in fire-impacted areas at the time of the wildfires. They complete monthly surveys about their current situation.

According to UHERO, the survey findings reflect “the ongoing challenges fire-impacted households face. Poverty, unemployment, rent costs and housing instability have risen dramatically, and these increases are persisting more than a year after the disaster. This suggests that gaps in assistance are still widespread and disproportionately affect the most vulnerable population groups.”

Key survey findings:

Housing

Fire-impacted households typically pay 43% more rent for the same or fewer bedrooms.

• At least 14% of surveyed households live in crowded conditions.
• The proportion of fire-affected households living with family/friends or unhoused has nearly doubled since the wildfires.
• 80% of West Maui residents from the sample were displaced from their homes and almost half had to leave West Maui.
• Displacement has not only affected residents of West Maui and Kula. More than a third of those who worked or owned businesses in West Maui or Kula, but lived elsewhere, were displaced from their homes following the disaster. 
• Almost a third of households currently living outside of West Maui plan to move back within the next year.

Economic Impact:

29% of fire-affected households now live below the poverty line, compared to 14% before the fires and 9% for Maui County in 2023

• Nearly 1 in 5 survey participants have seen their income drop by more than half.
• Fire-impacted individuals face reduced job stability. Many work fewer hours, earn less income, or have lost their jobs entirely.
• Only about 70% of the survey participants who were employed in the tourism industry before the fires still have jobs in the sector. Less than half kept their full-time employment in the tourism industry. 
• Many survey respondents report ongoing unmet needs: more than 45% require financial support, more than 30% need housing assistance, and more than 20% lack adequate food. 
• Gaps in assistance persist. Individuals who are not receiving government support are more likely to report unmet needs.

UHERO says that the “ongoing, frequently updated nature of this survey is critical to assessing the progress of Maui’s recovery. For example, the poverty rate for the survey cohort is more than three times higher than the most recent available poverty data for Maui County in 2023. This staggering disparity underscores the importance of collecting data in real time and on an ongoing basis.”

“There’s a lack of timely data on how fire-impacted individuals are coping,” Bonham said. “Without this information, it’s hard to fully grasp the true pace of recovery or identify unmet needs. This is why we launched the survey.”

According to UHERO, most of the existing data about the fire-affected community is held by federal and state agencies. It is often not publicly available, not updated on a frequent basis and not shared among agencies.

“This lack of transparency hampers public accountability and effective coordination among stakeholders,” UHERO says. “Most publicly available data is only released with a substantial time lag, limiting usefulness for timely decision-making. The Maui Recovery Survey contributes to filling this data gap.”

For further details and to explore the dashboard, visit this website.

This UHERO project is run in partnership with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and is part of their shared commitment to Maui’s recovery and statewide resiliency.

UHERO is housed in UH Mānoa’s College of Social Sciences.