Lahaina Community Land Trust and County outline programs to keep residents in place as CDBG‑DR intake opens Aug. 11

Lahaina Community Land Trust and Maui County officials on Wednesday detailed programs meant to keep longtime Lahaina residents in their homes as federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG‑DR) funding moves into implementation.

"We can be the first community in the continent that comes out of a disaster of this magnitude stronger than we went in," said Autumn Ness, executive director of the Lahaina Community Land Trust, describing a three‑lane approach that combines an insurance‑gap program, traditional land‑trust acquisitions and foreclosure intervention.

The Land Trust presented the Keep Lahaina Home program, which pays a household’s insurance gap so owners can rebuild while placing a permanent deed restriction (described in the presentations as a kamaaina easement) on the property. Under that restriction the trust and future qualified Lahaina buyers retain purchase priority and the price of a protected home is set to appreciate at 1.5% per year.

Autumn Ness said the program is designed to preserve pre‑fire equity for families while preventing investor‑driven sales. She used a worked example in which a family with pre‑fire home value of about $678,000, rebuild cost of $615,000 and $344,000 in insurance coverage had an estimated gap of about $270,000; after the trust’s subsidy and an SBA loan the household’s new monthly payment in the example was roughly $1,100. "Every single home we can put this protection on builds an inventory of perpetually affordable homeownership opportunities in Lahaina," Ness said.

Carolyn Avelo, director of operations for the Land Trust, explained the three program paths in more detail: 1) the Keep Lahaina Home insurance‑gap assistance that leaves title with the homeowner but records a deed restriction; 2) traditional CLT acquisition of land with sale of the house and a ground lease; and 3) a foreclosure‑intervention lane the trust can use to negotiate with lenders to retain long‑term affordability and create a first right for occupants to repurchase homes built on trust‑retained land.

Ness and Avelo said the average rebuilding gap they have seen is around $400,000, while the Land Trust’s initial seed for the insurance‑gap approach was a roughly $3.5 million county‑backed pool that the trust has used to leverage philanthropic and partner support. Partners named during the presentation included Hawaii Community Lending, the Long‑Term Recovery Group (LTRG), Habitat for Humanity, Mennonite Disaster Services and others; the trust said partners use a shared intake and paperwork system so that grants or in‑kind support above a threshold (described in the presentation as $100,000) carry the same deed restriction language.

Maui County Managing Director Josiah Nishita and John Smith, who was introduced as an Office of Recovery administrator, outlined the county’s CDBG‑DR launch and larger recovery picture. The county said the HUD CDBG‑DR allocation for Maui totals about $1.6 billion and that roughly $900 million of that block is focused on housing programs. The Office of Recovery said it will open intake for three initial programs on Aug. 11: single‑family homeowner reconstruction, a reimbursement pathway for projects already underway, and a first‑time homebuyer program aimed at keeping new owner households affordable long term.

"The mayor has given us really one marching order here and that's to keep our people at home," Nishita said. He and other county staff stressed the CDBG‑DR process must meet HUD rules and environmental reviews, which shaped program design and timing. County staff said intake will remain open at least six months and may be extended to accommodate applicants who have already begun rebuilding under other funding sources.

County presenters also highlighted infrastructure and mitigation work tied to recovery: a permanent debris site (presenter update: roughly 50% of debris transfer complete), water lateral replacements (presenter estimate: about 650 laterals replaced so far), and a $213 million mitigation set‑aside within the CDBG‑DR allocation for resilience projects. Officials said water supply and infrastructure constraints are central to where new housing can be built and that early CDBG‑DR programs are intentionally focused on properties that already have water allocations.

Public testimony at the meeting featured several homeowners and funders who described participating in the Land Trust program. Jessica Stanley, who testified that her family is a Keep Lahaina Home participant, said the deed restrictions guarantee a family anchor: "It's protected in perpetuity. It's protected forever. They would never fight about this." Ginger Prince, a longtime Lahaina resident and kupuna advisor, said the land trust was "our guarantee" to keep properties available to local families and to prevent outside investors from displacing residents.

Philanthropic partners also spoke in favor: Marissa Castueta Hayase of the Harriet and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation said her foundation has funded land‑trust work nationwide and contributed early grants to the Lahaina Community Land Trust. Habitat for Humanity Maui executive director Matt Bachman described an existing partnership that meets weekly with the trust to coordinate family intake and construction plans.

Council members pressed county staff on details including how applicants will be prioritized, the length and enforceability of deed restrictions, and how the county will pair CDBG‑DR funds with other federal, state and philanthropic sources to close infrastructure gaps. John Smith and other recovery staff said priority will be given to impacted properties and that programs include AMI (area median income)‑based preferences for some funding categories; staff said some program dollars can serve households that do not meet HUD AMI limits and that additional philanthropic and county funds will be used where CDBG‑DR eligibility or amount is limited.

On water and infrastructure, county staff said some proposed new water sources are in early stages of study (presenters said proposed wells labeled H1 and H2 are in planning with FY‑26 funding anticipated to begin site work) and cautioned that larger projects such as reservoirs or buried power lines require multi‑agency strategies and blended funding. The Office of Recovery said it is assembling a funding strategy team to pursue federal and state programs alongside CDBG‑DR so that large infrastructure projects can be completed over a multi‑year timeline.

No formal council votes were taken at the meeting. Committee members and staff agreed to present full program eligibility details to the public at a planned Aug. 9 community briefing (county staff said a detailed webinar and outreach schedule would be published in advance of intake). The committee chair closed testimony and deferred further action on the agenda item for follow‑up.

What is next: county staff said the CDBG‑DR intake portal will open Aug. 11; the Land Trust encouraged residents who may need help to contact its intake channels now. County presenters recommended applicants begin gathering documentation and, where appropriate, prequalification for mortgages to speed eligibility determinations once the portal opens.

Why it matters: the programs aim to lock in long‑term affordability on homes that survived or will be rebuilt after the Aug. 7, 2023 Lahaina fire and are explicitly designed to prevent investor buyouts and intergenerational displacement. The combination of an owner‑retained deed restriction, constrained resale appreciation (1.5% annually in the Land Trust model), and targeted subsidy is presented by local advocates and funders as a way to preserve place‑based wealth and workforce housing in Lahaina.