Our Maui is changing fast.

This site exists to help residents, and anyone who cares about this place, understand what's happening, why, and why it matters. Especially in and around Lahaina. No spin. No agenda. Just information, sourced and explained.

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Election 2026

Maui County votes November 3.

The mayoral debate side by side, every date that matters, how to vote from any of our islands, and what is on your ballot.

  • “Government can never be fast enough.”

    Richard Bissen on Front Street

  • “I don't know of a single commercial property owner that has a building permit.”

    Yuki Lei Sugimura on Front Street
Watch the Debate →
  1. Coming up
  2. September 10 Insights on PBS Hawaiʻi: the three OHA at-large trustee seats
  3. September 18 Overseas ballot deadline
  4. October 14 Ballot drop boxes open across Maui County
  5. All dates →
Lahaina.

Thousands are still struggling to come home.

The fire took a town in a single afternoon. Three years on, about a quarter of the destroyed homes are back, not one destroyed business has reopened, and hundreds of families are still living somewhere that is not Lahaina.

Before the numbers.

Hear it from a neighbor who lived the fire and is still waiting to rebuild.

Coming soon We are recording neighbor interviews now.
Their stories will live right here.
Coming soon We are recording neighbor interviews now.
Their stories will live right here.
1 of 3

Cannot rebuild. Lahaina fire survivor, Front Street homeowner for 30 years · 45 sec

Share your story

Where Lahaina stands today.

102
lives lost
2,746
housing units destroyed
~25%
of destroyed homes rebuilt
~6%
of non-residential rebuilt
0
permits to rebuild destroyed Front Street businesses
2
commercial permits issued
702
households still on FEMA housing aid
$5.52B
estimated rebuild cost
Three years of rebuilding

The homes are coming back.
The town's economy is not.

County figures at the three-year mark put about a quarter of Lahaina's destroyed homes back, with roughly 600 occupied again and hundreds more under construction. The commercial side has barely moved: about 6% of non-residential property has been rebuilt, and not one recovery building permit has been issued for a business destroyed on Front Street.

Source: Maui County, via Civil Beat, August 2026; Maui Now, August 2026.

All part of a bigger story.

The road reopened.
The town did not.

Front Street reopened to traffic August 1, 2026 · 2 commercial permits in three years · Maui Now and Grassroot Institute

Then, and now.

AccuWeather flew the same lines over Lahaina in August 2023 and again in August 2026. The top of the frame is the week of the fire. The bottom is three years later: the roads are back, the lots are clear, and almost nothing has been rebuilt on them.

Lahaina Wildfire, 3 Years Later AccuWeather. August 2023 footage: Javier Cantellops, Brian Schatz and Jordan Mack Kaimikaua via Storyful; AFPTV and Justin Sullivan via Getty Images. August 2026 footage: Aaron Rigsby. Watch on Facebook →
Locals struggle to rebuild PBS NewsHour. Watch on Facebook →

The Response.

What government said it would do about Lahaina, next to what the record shows.

To Lahaina
What was said.

At a July 1, 2026 community meeting, Maui County officials celebrated that Lahaina’s commercial reconstruction was finally on track.

Grassroot Institute of Hawaiʻi, August 2026
The reality.
2

commercial rebuilding permits issued in the three years since the fire. The one completed project was site work and a concrete pad at a gas station.

Grassroot Institute, August 2026
0

recovery building permits issued for a commercial property destroyed on Front Street, in those same three years.

Maui Now, August 2026

What's actually going on.

Houses are moving. Businesses are not.

About a quarter of the destroyed homes are rebuilt and roughly 600 are occupied again, according to county figures at the three-year mark. On the commercial side, not one recovery building permit has been issued for a commercial property destroyed on Front Street.

Maui Now: Front Street, three years on →

Two permits in three years

As of the county's July 2026 meeting, two commercial rebuilding permits had been issued out of dozens awaiting approval. The one completed project was site work and a concrete pad at a gas station. The gas station itself has not been rebuilt.

Grassroot Institute, August 2026 →

Why the paperwork takes years

The State Historic Preservation Division requires archaeological surveys even for exact rebuilds of what burned. One Front Street project waited from July 2025 to June 2026 for survey approval alone. Every day of delay adds roughly $100 to $200 in construction cost.

Washington Post: rebuilding and red tape →

The shoreline rules

Special Management Area setbacks along the water require multiple public hearings before a rebuild can proceed. Grassroot's asks go to Gov. Green: prioritize historic-preservation reviews, set deadlines on them, and widen the emergency waivers.

Grassroot Institute: what would speed it up →

Hundreds of families are still not home

702 households were still relying on FEMA temporary housing assistance at the three-year mark, and 482 families remained in FEMA direct housing. Displacement is not a phase of this disaster that has ended.

Star-Advertiser: still waiting for a home →

What a reopened street looks like

Front Street reopened to traffic in August 2026, the first time since the fire, and tour boats returned to the harbor in December 2025. The street beside them is still largely graded gravel lots.

Read Our Homes →

Continue to Homes.

Lahaina is the sharpest version of a problem the whole island shares: the people who make Maui work cannot afford to live on it.

Continue to Homes →
Homes.

The people who make Maui work cannot afford to live on it.

Why a teacher cannot afford to live where she works, what Bill 9 will and will not change, and why families keep leaving for the mainland.

Where housing stands today.

$1.445M
median single-family home price on Maui
February 2026
Source: Maui Now, 2/19/26
1 in 5
households can afford a median home
affording it takes 180% of the state median income
Source: UHERO Factbook 2026
6,000+
short-term rentals to be phased out by Bill 9
signed December 2025
Source: KITV, 12/16/25
20,000+
net residents lost to the mainland, July 2020 to July 2024
net domestic migration has been negative in 23 of the past 25 years
Source: U.S. Census, via Spectrum News
30%
of Maui renters pay more than half their income in rent
"severely rent-burdened," worst rate in the state
Source: UHERO Factbook 2026
49%
drop in Maui single-family home sales since the 2021 peak
the largest decline of any county
Source: UHERO Factbook 2026
192 / 5,500
Lahaina homes rebuilt and habitable, out of units destroyed in 2023
57% of damaged lots show no permit activity yet
Source: UHERO Factbook 2026
A decade on Maui

Half could afford a home in 2012.
One in five can today.

The share of Hawaiʻi households earning enough to afford a mortgage on the median single-family home has fallen by more than half since 2012. Even with the slight 2024-25 improvement, the bar has moved far out of reach for working families.

Source: UHERO Hawaiʻi Housing Factbook 2026. Affordable = 30% of household income covers a 30-year mortgage at prevailing rates with 20% down.

One of those people.

What the housing math does once you are inside it.

Share your story

All part of a bigger story.

Most of us can't afford
to live where we were born.

Median home: $1.445M · UHERO, 2026

The Response.

What government said it would do about housing, next to what the record shows.

To Housing
What was promised.

To address Maui's housing deficit for the resident population at every income level, before allowing additional luxury housing for off-island absentee owners.

Maui County 2030 General Plan, Countywide Policy Plan (adopted 2010, amended 2021)
The reality.
$1.4M

Maui's median single-family home price in early 2026.

Maui Now, February 2026
192 / 5,500

homes rebuilt and habitable two and a half years after the Lahaina fires.

UHERO Factbook 2026

What's actually going on.

The math doesn't work

Wages haven't caught up to housing. Affording the median single-family home now requires a household earning more than 180% of the state's median income, a bar only about one in five households on Maui can clear.

UHERO Hawaiʻi Housing Factbook 2026 →

Bill 9 and short-term rentals

The December 2025 law phasing out more than 6,000 vacation rentals in apartment-zoned buildings, with the West Maui phase-out taking effect January 1, 2029 and the rest of the county January 1, 2031.

KITV: Bill 9 signed into law →

Why families are leaving

Hawaiʻi lost a net 20,000 residents to the mainland between July 2020 and July 2024, and net domestic migration has been negative in 23 of the past 25 years. UHERO's analysis follows where they're going, mostly California, Washington and Texas, and why.

UHERO: Hawaiʻi migration trends →

Lahaina's housing problem

5,500+ housing units were destroyed by the 2023 wildfires. Two and a half years later, 192 rebuilt homes are habitable and 57% of damaged lots have no permit activity at all.

Read Our Lahaina →

The waitlist no one talks about

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands holds a multi-decade waitlist of Native Hawaiians waiting for land promised under the 1921 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. This is the constitutional ground every housing conversation stands on.

DHHL: applicant waiting list →

The rental ceiling keeps rising

Maui's median asking rent now leads the state. The post-fire scramble pulled long-term rentals off the market and into short-term listings, concentrating families into a smaller, pricier pool. More than half of Maui renters spend over 30% of their income just on rent.

UHERO Factbook 2026: rent & rent burden →

Continue to Costs.

Housing is the biggest line in the cost-of-living story, but it isn't the whole story. Hawaiʻi imports most of its food, and power, gas, and groceries all run well above the mainland while paychecks have not kept up.

← Back to Lahaina Continue to Costs →
Costs.

Everything costs more here, and the gap keeps widening.

Groceries, fuel, shipping and electricity. Why the basics cost more on an island, and which of those costs are choices rather than facts of geography.

Where costs stand today.

#1
Hawaiʻi is the most expensive state in the U.S. to live in
cost-of-living index of 184.8, vs 100 nationwide
Source: MERIC Cost of Living Index, 2025
~90%
of Hawaiʻi's food is shipped in from somewhere else
leaving prices exposed to freight and shortages
Source: State of Hawaiʻi DBEDT
2.2×
the national average electricity price, the highest in the U.S.
42.23¢/kWh on Hawaiʻi, vs 18.83¢ nationally
Source: EIA Electric Power Monthly, March 2026
Up to 53%
property-assessment jumps some Maui homeowners saw on their 2025 tax notices
the County cut residential rates, the bills still went up
Source: Maui Now, March 2025
Powering paradise

Hawaiʻi pays more for power
than any other state.

The average Hawaiʻi household pays 42.23¢ per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity. Even the priciest mainland states, California at 33¢ and New York at 29¢, pay much less. Our households use less power than most, but the monthly bill, around $213, still leads the country.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly (March 2026 data, released May 2026).

The people paying for it.

A reader on California's coast wrote in: the same squeeze is pushing their families out too.

Share your story

All part of a bigger story.

The paycheck is local.
The prices are not.

Hawaiʻi: most expensive state in the U.S. · MERIC

The Response.

What government said it would do about the cost of living, next to what the record shows.

To Costs
What was promised.

A statewide renewable portfolio standard, written into state law to rein in the highest electricity prices in the country: "30% by December 31, 2020; 40% by December 31, 2030; 70% by December 31, 2040; and 100% by December 31, 2045."

Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes §269-92 (Act 97, SLH 2015)
The reality.
42.2¢

per kilowatt-hour, 2.2× the U.S. average and the highest electricity price in the country.

EIA, March 2026
$213

average Hawaiʻi monthly residential electric bill, the highest in the country.

EIA Today in Energy

What's actually going on.

The cost-of-living math

Wages on Maui are set by a tourism-and-service economy. Prices are set by an island 2,500 miles from the nearest mainland port. When UHERO adjusts incomes for the cost of living, Hawaiʻi's real purchasing power ranks near the bottom of U.S. states.

UHERO: high prices or low incomes? →

The price of food

Roughly 85 to 90% of what we eat is imported. A barge delay or a fuel spike shows up at the checkout within days. The state's own food security strategy estimates we send hundreds of millions of dollars off-island every year for groceries we could grow here.

State of Hawaiʻi: food self-sufficiency strategy →

The highest power bills in America

Hawaiʻi households pay more per month for electricity than households in any other state, even though we use less power. The 100% renewable transition is meant to bend this curve. Residents are paying the premium in the meantime.

EIA: highest residential electric bills in the U.S. →

Why families get priced out

When rent, food, gas, and power all run well above the mainland and wages do not, the math eventually forces a choice. For 23 of the past 25 years, more residents have moved away than have moved in.

UHERO: beyond the price of paradise →

The "paradise tax"

Gas, cars, building materials, everyday goods, all carry a surcharge for crossing an ocean to get here. The Jones Act limits shipping to a small set of U.S.-built carriers and quietly adds to every household budget.

Civil Beat: the Jones Act's grip on shipping →

The property tax squeeze

Maui's homes are worth more on paper, so the County is taxing more. Some residential assessments jumped by a third to more than half on the 2025 notices. The County lowered owner-occupied rates in response, but for many households the lower rate did not offset the higher assessment, and the bill still went up.

Maui Now: as values climb, rates drop →

Continue to Health.

Cost is not just rent and groceries. It's the bill that comes when there is no doctor on your island, the flight to Oʻahu for specialty care, the wait at a Kula Hospital that has been closed since March.

← Back to Homes Continue to Health →
Health.

One acute-care hospital for the whole island.

Why residents fly to Oʻahu for routine procedures, why doctors cannot afford to practice here, and what that means when something goes wrong.

Where healthcare stands today.

41%
more doctors needed on Maui, a 179-physician shortage
and the state's worst primary-care shortage
Source: Civil Beat / JABSOM Workforce, 2026
Closed
Kula Hospital, since March 2026 storm damage
no reopening timeline; a renovation could run $50 million
Source: Hawaiʻi Public Radio
40,000
Hawaiʻi residents projected to lose health coverage
under looming federal Medicaid and ACA cuts
Source: Healthcare Assn. of Hawaiʻi, 2025
2 in 3
Maui County residents who delayed medical care in the past year
a 21% jump from 2022; even medical workers cannot get appointments
Source: Civil Beat, August 2024
The doctor gap, by island

Maui's physician supply
needs to grow by 41%.

The JABSOM 2026 Physician Workforce Report finds Hawaiʻi 833 doctors short statewide. The gap is concentrated on the neighbor islands: Maui needs 179 more doctors, Hawaiʻi Island needs 224, Kauaʻi 50, and Honolulu 379. Honolulu has the largest absolute shortage; the neighbor islands have far higher percentage gaps. Maui's primary care shortage is the worst in the state.

Source: Civil Beat, January 2026, citing the JABSOM 2026 Physician Workforce Report.

What that means for one neighbor.

One routine procedure, two islands away, told by the person who made the trip.

Share your story

All part of a bigger story.

The hospital is closed.
The doctors are leaving.

Kula Hospital closed since March 2026 · Maui short 179 doctors

The Response.

What government said it would do about healthcare, next to what the record shows.

To Healthcare
What was promised.

Access to health services is one of nine state priorities in Hawaiʻi's 2030 health improvement plan, with stated objectives to grow the physician workforce and reduce gaps in care across the neighbor islands.

Healthy Hawaiʻi 2030 State Health Improvement Plan, Hawaiʻi Department of Health
The reality.
179

more physicians needed on Maui, a 41% gap, with the state’s worst primary-care shortage.

Civil Beat / JABSOM, Jan 2026
2 in 3

Maui County residents delayed medical care in the past year, a 21% jump from 2022.

Civil Beat, August 2024

What's actually going on.

The hospital map

Maui County has five hospitals across three islands. Maui Memorial in Kahului is the only acute-care hospital on Maui. Kula Hospital has been closed since the March 2026 storm, displacing more than 100 patients. Lānaʻi Community Hospital handles 24-hour urgent care only; mothers cannot give birth on Lānaʻi.

Maui Now: Kula Hospital patients displaced →

The doctor shortage

Statewide, Hawaiʻi is 833 doctors short. Maui is 179 short, a 41% gap, and Maui's primary care shortage is the worst in the state. The post-fire physician exodus has not been replaced. Doctors cannot afford to live here.

Civil Beat: Hawaiʻi's physician shortage →

Inter-island care, and the NICU we do not have

Maui Memorial has no neonatal ICU. Complex cardiology, oncology, neonatal care, and high-risk obstetrics require a flight to Oʻahu. Civil Beat found more than two-thirds of Maui County residents delayed care last year, a 21% jump from 2022.

Civil Beat: even medical workers struggle to get care →

The 2026 insurance squeeze

On July 1, 2026, HMSA reverts from capitated payments to fee-for-service, a change physicians warn will further destabilize independent practices. Federal cuts under H.R.1 are projected to drop 40,000 Hawaiʻi residents from coverage. The HMSA-HPH merger remains contested.

Civil Beat: the HMSA-HPH merger debate →

Post-fire mental health

UHERO's 2025 follow-up found 51% of Lahaina children screened positive for some level of depression, with 22% in the severe range. One in three has elevated blood pressure. The crisis is intensifying, not fading.

UHERO: from crisis to recovery →

Rural and Native Hawaiian disparities

Life-expectancy research in Hawaiʻi finds a gap of nearly nineteen years between the longest- and shortest-lived groups: Chinese residents average 88.2 years, Native Hawaiians 77.4, and other Pacific Islanders 69.6. Hāna District depends on a single federally-qualified health center.

UH Mānoa: life expectancy in Hawaiʻi, 2025 →

Continues in Our Dangers

The care we have left is exposed to the next storm. In March 2026, back-to-back Kona lows dropped four feet of rain on Kula, damaged most of the building, and forced 112 patients and residents off-island. Climate risk and aging infrastructure are now the next chapter of the healthcare story.

Read Our Dangers →

Continue to Dangers.

A thin health system is one exposure. The fires, storms, and aging infrastructure it has to answer for are the other.

← Back to Costs Continue to Dangers →
Dangers.

Hurricane Lala was a warning.

Fire seasons that keep getting longer, storms that take out power for weeks, and infrastructure that was not built for either.

Hear from the neighbors who lived it.

The fire seasons, the outages, and the roads, from the people they happened to.

Coming soon We are recording neighbor interviews now.
Their stories will live right here.
Coming soon We are recording neighbor interviews now.
Their stories will live right here.
1 of 3

No water in the hydrants. Lahaina fire survivor, Front Street homeowner for 30 years · 2 min

Share your story

Where the risks are today.

400%
increase in the area burned by wildfire in Hawaiʻi over the last century
driven by invasive grasses and lost grazing
Source: Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization
102
lives lost in the 2023 Lahaina wildfire
the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century
Source: Maui Fire Department official report, October 2024
192 / 5,500
Lahaina homes rebuilt and habitable, of housing units destroyed in 2023
57% of damaged lots show no permit activity yet
Source: UHERO Hawaiʻi Housing Factbook 2026
$5.5B
estimated total damage from the 2023 Maui wildfires
Moody's RMS range: $4B to $6B in economic losses
Source: CNN / Moody's RMS, August 2023
2 trillion
gallons of rain dumped on Hawaiʻi in the March 2026 storms
two back-to-back Kona lows
Source: UH News / Hawaiʻi Mesonet
$1B+
in estimated damage from those same March 2026 storms
catastrophic flooding, landslides, evacuations
Source: UHERO Hawaiʻi Housing Factbook 2026
1960s
the rainfall era our drainage and bridges were designed for
not the storms we get now
Source: Engineering News-Record
One road
in and out of West Maui at the Lahaina pali
a final realignment route was just selected; the new road is years away
Source: Maui Now, September 2025

All part of a bigger story.

Lahaina burned in a day.
Three years later,
we are still waiting.

2,746 housing units destroyed · ~600 rebuilt and occupied · Maui County, Aug 2026

The Response.

What government said it would do about the dangers we live with, next to what the record shows.

To Dangers
What was promised.

To identify and prioritize areas for hazardous fuel reduction, structure protection, and community wildfire risk reduction. Finalized December 2024, in partnership with the State and the Hawaiʻi Wildfire Management Organization.

South Maui Community Wildfire Protection Plan, DLNR Division of Forestry & Wildlife
The reality.
400%

increase in the area burned by wildfire in Hawaiʻi over the last century, the risk the CWPP is meant to lower.

Hawaiʻi Wildfire Mgmt. Org.
$1B+

in estimated damage from the March 2026 Kona-low storms across the islands.

UHERO Factbook 2026

What's actually going on.

The next fire season

Invasive grasses (guinea, buffel, molasses) and the loss of grazing turned Maui's leeward slopes into tinder. The wet 2025-2026 winter grew an enormous fuel load that dries out by summer. The conditions that produced 2023 have not gone away.

HPR: managing Maui's fire-prone vegetation →

What changed after 2023

The questions raised by the Lahaina fire (the silent sirens, the single evacuation road, the power lines, the water pressure) are partly addressed and partly not. Hawaiian Electric is hardening the grid. The warning system and the roads are still works in progress.

Civil Beat: a cascade of breakdowns →

The 2026 floods

Two back-to-back Kona lows in March 2026 dumped roughly two trillion gallons on the islands. Kahului broke its all-time daily rainfall record. Kula Hospital was evacuated. Retention basins overtopped above design, threatening Lahaina recovery housing.

UH News: the Mesonet flooding data →

Built for 1965, failing in 2026

Our culverts, bridges, and storm drains were engineered for a rainfall regime that no longer exists. The 2026 storms didn't just exceed capacity, they exposed how far behind the infrastructure has fallen.

Engineering News-Record: roads collapse, bridges fail →

The one road out

When a fire or a flood closes Honoapiʻilani Highway at the Lahaina pali, all of West Maui is cut off. There is no second route, and the state has only just selected a final realignment route. In a disaster, that single road is the whole ballgame.

Maui Now: Honoapiʻilani Highway realignment →

Warning and readiness

Sirens, cell alerts, Firewise communities, evacuation planning, defensible space. We track what the county and state are doing to warn residents and harden neighborhoods, and where the gaps remain.

HWMO: Firewise USA Hawaiʻi →

Water, and who controls it

In September 2025 the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court reaffirmed advocates' rights to challenge stream water diversions on East Maui. Water here is a public trust, not private property, and the fight over who gets it, for farms, homes, and fire response, is far from settled.

HPR: Hawaiʻi Supreme Court on water rights →

Continue to Our Stories.

Behind every number on this page is a neighbor who lived it. Read what they told us, in their own words.

← Back to Health Read Our Stories →