A year after Maui wildfire, chronic housing shortage and pricey vacation rentals complicate recovery

abcnews.go.com:

Thousands of displaced residents on Maui have faced a year of anxious uncertainty since the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century devastated Lahaina

LAHAINA, Hawaii — Josephine Fraser worried her young family's next home would be a tent.

Fraser and her partner, their two sons and their dog had moved nine times in as many months, from one hotel room to another, since the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century razed her hometown of Lahaina, on Maui. They would sometimes get just 24 hours to relocate, with no immediate word where they were headed.

Now, the Red Cross was warning that the hotel shelter program would soon end and Fraser was having trouble explaining to her 3-year-old why they couldn't just go home.

“He just kept asking, ‘Why?’" she said. «It really broke me.”

Like Fraser, thousands on Maui have faced a year of anxious uncertainty since the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire brought apocalyptic scenes of destruction to Lahaina, the historic former capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, forcing some survivors to flee into the ocean. The fire killed at least 102 people and displaced 12,000.

Government and nonprofit groups have offered temporary solutions for displaced residents, including providing hotel rooms, leasing apartments, assembling prefabricated homes and paying people to take in loved ones.

Disaster housing experts say the effort, expected to cost more than $500 million over two years, has been unprecedented in its cooperation among federal, state, county and philanthropic organizations toward keeping the community together.

But on a tourism-dependent island where affordable homes were in short supply even before the fire, a housing market squeezed by vacation rentals is undermining attempts to find long-term shelter for