State agency earns national award for housing hundreds of wildfire survivors

The Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation has received recognition from national housing experts for standing up the Hawaiʻi Fire Relief Housing Program just days after last year’s wildfires that destroyed much of Lahaina and homes Upcountry.

The program was established at the request of Gov. Josh Green, who asked the state housing agency to move quickly to help the families, couples and individuals who lost loved ones, their homes, jobs and belongings.

The Award of Excellence for Special Achievement was announced by the National Council of State Housing Agencies at its annual meeting last week in Phoenix. The award recognizes programs and practices that respond in an outstanding manner to an important state need, have a significant impact on the community and cut across traditional program lines.

Approximately 600 families found immediate housing through the program, which provided displaced wildfire survivors with shelter options from a pool of roughly 1,400 properties that were offered by neighbors on Maui and elsewhere, according to the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corp.

The agency put the call out to homeowners on Maui and throughout Hawaiʻi to make available vacant homes, bedrooms and even spare beds. This information was dropped into an electronic database that allowed the survivors the options available to them at a glance.

Modern technological advances helped make the database more “searchable,” so families and individuals could easily identify options best suited to their needs and circumstances.

Adding to the website’s visual appeal was an interactive map developed in partnership with the state of Hawaiʻi’s ARC GIS Office. This tool allowed users to identify the locations of available properties with a click of a computer mouse.

The online database of available properties was updated continuously with downloadable lists published twice a day in the immediate aftermath of the fire.

Nearly all of the 60-person HHFDC staff played a role in the program. Many worked after hours and weekends answering phone calls from survivors, verifying rental listings with homeowners, or coordinating with other organizations.

“I’m extremely proud of the effort that our staff put into this program,” HHFDC Executive Director Dean Minakami said. “Our agency’s core mission is to provide assistance to those in need of housing and this program put on full display our dedication to fulfill this mission. With no additional personnel or other resources — and without a playbook to use as a guide — our staff responded to the call to assist those whose homes and whole neighborhoods were destroyed.”

HHFDC’s entry was one of 18 programs entered in the Special Achievement category.

Jurors evaluated the entries based on their innovation, response to an important state need, success in achieving intended results and ability to provide benefits that outweighed their costs.

HHFDC was praised for “being able to respond quickly to an urgent and unexpected housing need without additional dedicated resources while at the same time facing supply chain challenges.”

Jurors also noted that the program’s success was due in part to the “outstanding coordination among the state’s different housing agencies and strong leadership within HHFDC.”

The jury panel included former housing finance agency executive directors and other senior leaders in the affordable housing community. Panel members said that that while Hawaiʻi’s situation was unique, the HHFDC program offered insights into workable solutions for all states when responding to disasters.

NCSHA’s Awards for Program Excellence honors state housing finance agencies annually for outstanding public-purpose programs and practices. The program mission recognizes exemplary housing agency efforts, encourage innovation, identify industry best practices, and facilitate information sharing among agencies.

NCSHA, which turns 50 this year, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization created to advance, through advocacy and education, the efforts of the nation’s state housing finance agencies and their partners to provide affordable housing.