Maui locals worry wealthy outsiders will buy out their destroyed town after wildfires

Real Estate

A tattoo with the words “Lahaina Grown” is inked on Richy Palalay’s forearms — a marking he has had since he was 16, emblematic of his love for his Maui hometown.

In the last decade, with a persistent housing shortage, many residents like Palalay have been displaced as wealthy transplants and second-home buyers buy up the island.

Then, on Aug. 8, wildfires swept throughout Lahaina in an instant, burning the entire area to a crisp, with a death toll now up to 99 people and only 25% of the burn area searched.

The catastrophic event, combined with the previous struggles of Native Hawaiian and local-born residents, have left a huge question mark on their future.

“I’m more concerned of big land developers coming in and seeing this charred land as an opportunity to rebuild,” Palalay told local Los Angeles station KTLA on Saturday at a shelter for evacuees.

Hotels and condos “that we can’t afford, that we can’t afford to live in — that’s what we’re afraid of,” he explained.


People watch as smoke and flames fill the air from raging wildfires on Front Street in downtown Lahaina, Maui on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.
Children watch as smoke and flames fill the air from raging wildfires on Front Street in downtown Lahaina, Maui on Aug. 8, 2023.
AP

A neighborhood destroyed by the deadly wildfires.
A neighborhood destroyed by the deadly wildfires.
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

This photo provided by County of Maui shows fire and smoke filling the sky from wildfires on the intersection at Hokiokio Place and Lahaina Bypass in Maui, Hawaii on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.
This photo provided by County of Maui shows fire and smoke filling the sky from wildfires on the intersection at Hokiokio Place and Lahaina Bypass in Maui, Hawaii on Aug. 8, 2023.
AP

Palalay, 25, was born and raised in Lahaina and began working at an oceanfront seafood restaurant in town at 16, eventually working his way up to be kitchen supervisor and most recently training to be a sous chef, he told the outlet.

His life came to a halt when what is now known as the deadliest wildfire the United States has seen in a century took place.

Maui County estimates more than 80% of the more than 2,700 structures in the town were damaged or destroyed with some 4,500 residents now in need of shelter.


Waiola Church in Lahaina engulfed in flames on August 8, 2023.
Waiola Church in Lahaina engulfed in flames on Aug. 8, 2023.
Matthew Thayer/The Maui News via AP

The remains of the Waiola Church after the fire.
The remains of the Waiola Church after the fire.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

Palalay told KTLA the restaurant where he worked, his neighborhood, his friends’ homes and possibly his four-bedroom house where he pays $1,000 per month in rent were torched in the blaze.

“Lahaina is my home. Lahaina is my pride. My life. My joy,” he said, adding that the town, which was once the capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom in the 1800s, gave him “lessons of love, struggle, discrimination, passion, division and unity you could not fathom.”

Home prices in the last two decades have skyrocketed in Maui, averaging $1.2 million today and putting the typical wage-earner out of reach for a home. Even a condo holds a median price of $850,000.


Local residents and elected officials said the reality in Maui is far worse than what's being reported.
Local residents and elected officials said the reality in Maui is far worse than what’s being reported.
Sandy Hooper-USA TODAY/Sipa USA

Volunteers unload donations at a distribution center for those affected by the Maui fires at Honokawai Beach Park on Monday.
Volunteers unload donations at a distribution center for those affected by the Maui fires at Honokawai Beach Park in Napili-Honokowai, west of Maui, Hawaii, Aug. 14, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images

Sterling Higa, the executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more housing in Hawaii, said the town is home to many properties that have been in the hands of local families for generations.

“So a lot of more recent arrivals — typically from the American mainland who have more money and can buy homes at a higher price — were to some extent displacing local families in Lahaina,” Higa told KTLA.

There are options for residents with government aid or insurance who may have access to funds to rebuild, but they might not see those payouts for years, leaving many in a stalemate in the interim.

“As they deal with this — the frustration of fighting insurance companies or fighting [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] — many of them may well leave because there are no other options,” Higa said.


A Mercy Worldwide volunteer makes damage assessment of charred apartment complex in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on August 12, 2023.
A Mercy Worldwide volunteer makes damage assessment of a charred apartment complex in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on Aug. 12, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images

Cicchino embracing his family after surviving the deadly blaze.
Mike Cicchino with his wife Andreza Cicchino, his mother Susan Ramos and their dog Raine after reuniting at a shelter following the wildfire on Maui.
Mike Cicchino via AP

Charred remains of an apartment complex in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on August 12, 2023.
Charred remains of an apartment complex in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, western Maui, Hawaii on Aug. 12, 2023.
AFP via Getty Images

Palalay, however, vows to stay.

“I don’t have any money to help rebuild. I’ll put on a construction hat and help get this ship going. I’m not going to leave this place,” he said. “Where am I going to go?”

During a FEMA visit to Lahaina, Gov. Josh Green told journalists that he won’t let Lahaina get too expensive for locals after rebuilding.

“We want Lahaina to be a part of Hawaii forever,” Green said. “We don’t want it to be another example of people being priced out of paradise.”

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