#Water Authority Social Services and Parks Committee

Department of Human Concerns officials will update Maui County Council members Monday morning on the status of a safe parking project aimed at providing homeless people a secure place to sleep in their vehicles overnight.

The Maui County Council voted 7-2 on Friday to raise fines for loud vehicle sound systems, advancing a measure that drops an earlier proposal to seize stereo equipment from repeat offenders.

A Maui County Council committee is considering legislation that would require the County to set aside a portion of its Affordable Housing Fund each fiscal year to provide housing for residents with no income—a population currently excluded from the fund’s eligibility criteria.

A Maui County Council committee voted unanimously last week to send a bill increasing fines for vehicle noise violations to the full Council, even as some members questioned whether the measure would have any real-world impact.

Maui County Council members passed on second and final reading Friday a bill to refund $234,050 to Kamalani Ventures LLC for overpayments related to a 2015 workforce housing agreement. Action on the measure had been postponed from a regular Council meeting on April 2.

The Maui County Council Water Authority, Social Services and Parks Committee will receive updates on eviction mediation and discuss prevention measures for child abuse and human trafficking. The panel will convene at 9 a.m. Monday in the Council Chambers in Wailuku.

Maui County faces a disproportionately high rate of ocean drowning fatalities, driven largely by the high number of visitors lured by the ocean’s beauty but unprepared for its hidden dangers.

The Maui County Council’s Water Authority, Social Services and Parks Committee recommended adoption of a resolution Monday that would authorize the county to execute a park assessment agreement with Waiʻale 905 Partners LLC, the developer of the Waikapū Country Town project.

A bill to establish a process to decommission encampments in Maui County will be discussed in the Water Authority, Social Services, and Parks Committee on Thursday, Sept. 4, Council Member Gabe Johnson announced.

Maui County Council members unanimously gave initial approval Tuesday to a measure that would establish paid parking zones at South Maui beach parks, a move to give residents first priority access to some of the island’s most popular beaches.

A Maui County Council committee recommended approval Monday of a resolution expressing support for conveying public land in the vicinity of the Kahului Community Center and Kokua Pool for a 100-unit workforce rental housing project by Hale Makua Health Services in partnership with Alaka’i Development.

As vehicular homelessness rises across the United States, a 2024 study of one of the nation’s largest safe parking programs suggests that providing designated, secure parking spaces for those living in their vehicles can be an effective tool in addressing homelessness.

More than two years after Maui County Council members unanimously approved a bill to allow homeless people to sleep in their cars in county parking lots, a pilot program has yet to be implemented, even after the J. Walter Cameron Center’s parking lot was initially identified as an appropriate location in the fall of 2022.

It’s been a rocky road for Puʻuhonua o Nēnē, a temporary homeless shelter near Kahului Airport that has provided emergency tented shelter for 120 to 130 people nightly since opening last fall within weeks of the Aug. 8 Lahaina wildfire disaster.

After voting unanimously last month to restrict public access to Holomua Road because of concerns about the threat of brush fires and public safety in Pāʻia, Maui County Council members heard opposition earlier this week from homeless advocates arguing that closing the road would displace people who have nowhere else to live.