By Yiming Fu, Report for America corps member
Congress has approved more than $2 billion for Lahaina’s wildfire recovery with a focus on low-to-moderate income residents and $1.6 billion for housing. The money comes from a community development block grant.
The other funds are dedicated to rebuilding water infrastructure, repairing roads, and supporting child care, small business loans, agriculture and conservation efforts.
The money, coming in 2025, can change lives in a community still trying to rebuild and struggling with food, housing, household goods and water access. Local Filipino activists hope the county will listen to community needs when implementing aid.
“I’d say that the next step is to bridge the line of communication between government officials and our Filipino community so that we can include their voices into legislation, a bill or a program that they’re trying to start up,” Krizhna Bayudan said.
Bayudan, who is the Lahaina organizer for Hawaii Workers Center and a Lahaina fire survivor, said Lahaina’s Filipino community often has no line of communication with the county despite making up around 40% of Lahaina’s population. There are no Filipinos that work in government or in legacy media on Maui. And the Filipino community is often busy working, tending to family and often don’t feel comfortable speaking up in government settings.
Nadine Ortega is the founder of Tagnawa, an organization that empowers Filipino immigrants in Lahaina and helps with fire recovery needs. Tagnawa released a report describing Filipino survivor needs earlier this month. The report found 94.7% of Filipino survivors said they needed financial aid, with 49.7% reporting they need housing help.
“We are hopeful with that funding that a big chunk of it would go to housing. A lot of people’s big concern is housing. And when they say they need financial assistance, they say they are wanting financial assistance because they would use it for housing.”
Filipino fire survivors constantly think about housing, don’t know where they’re going to go and can’t afford to pay rent, Ortega said.
These funds come after a Maui coalition traveled to Washington D.C. in mid-December to advocate for long-term recovery funds. The coalition of working-class Filipino and Hawaiian community leaders held a press conference, met with representatives and knocked on the Congresspeople’s doors.
Bayudan, who was part of the D.C. coalition, said she was able to talk to disaster survivors across the country who were facing the same hurdles. At the same time, she realized how the people make Lahaina special.
“Lahaina has got so much attention nationally, and that’s because people love coming here and love the people. Our community holds it down strong. We like to honor the people that make the community, and that’s our Filipinos, our working class, our immigrants and Native Hawaiians. It’s a very intricate mix of cultures.”
To manage the incoming funds, the County of Maui said in a press release they established a CDBG-DR Program Office within the Department of Management’s Office of Recovery. The county said they spent months preparing an action plan and readiness protocols to ensure efficient roll-out and use of the funding.
A tentative schedule on the county’s website says the mayor will approve a spending plan in January that will be open for public comment and submitted in April. Then the funding is expected to come summer of 2025.
“We are profoundly grateful for this vital disaster relief, which will allow us to begin the critical work of rebuilding and fortifying our community after the worst wildfires this nation has seen in a century,” Mayor Richard Bissen said. “This CDBG-DR funding will not only help our most vulnerable wildfire survivors, but also enable us to invest in projects that will make Maui County more resilient and better prepared for future challenges.”
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