08/27/2024
Aloha to all. Here is the Maui vacation rental update band and an explanation on why locals, note not all locals that are trying to ban all vacation rentals on Maui. You may wish to cut and past this, email to yourself and print out.
I have been a local resident here on Maui for 26 years and am also a vacation owner. This provides us our retirement income while providing an enormous amount of taxes and retail income to our community each year, around 50K just from our rentals alone not including local buying. As a local and vacation owner, it now pains me to see so much anger among our people, our O’hana and now wanting to divide our community into two separate parties into a Red and Blue party. We are O’hana and should not be divided, no matter our race, what we own or our incomes, we all need to work here together, not against each other.
Many may know that tourism is down by 54% as of 8/24/24 of Maui news. We all are in much need of tourism and vacation rentals for all to survive here. The media has depicted us as an island that does not want tourism. This is far from the truth. It has been a Ghost town since the fire and sadly, locals, again not all, have created a new group to divide our people, our O’hana now called “Lahaina Strong,” created by opposing locals of rentals and tourism, some born and raised on Maui. This “group” now asked to be the “Red” party is against progress, want to go back in time and reverse laws, sound familiar? They to take Maui back in time and try to reclaim the land they say is all “theirs” that all their ancestors sold off hundreds of years ago. We local Americans, the Hale, the investors from other counties purchased this land from their ancestors hundreds of years ago and it has been resold over and over. So how can they say it is their land and try to reclaim it? Read on!
“Lahaina Strong” say they are tired of the Hale coming to the islands, the tourism, however these younger kids in their teens, 20’s and 30’s that testified do not understand that tourism has saved the islands and provided many jobs and opportunities they never would have for their parents and grand/great parents and so on. They do not understand how the economy works and how strong Hawai’i’s economy is. Lana’i and Moloka’i are prime examples of the lack of this, with no growth and sadly most all residents there are living off the government on food stamps and welfare. In turn would then happen to all locals here on Maui if this law is passed and still not being able to afford a lovely place to rent or buy and not even be able to rent an affordable housing unit.
Their other complaint is the tourists are trashing the island, leaving trash everywhere and not picking it up after themselves. The old expression states, “Those that live in glass houses, shouldn’t throw stones” Many, not all locals are known for their trash around their homes, in their cars and are the first ones to toss a refrigerator, washer/dryer, furniture, car parts, abandoned car with missing doors/tires/engine in their front yards and carports and even on the side of our highway roads and residential neighborhoods which their most known for. Our dump fees are $25.00, not a bank breaker. Shame on all, including tourists. Pick up your trash then, and do not complain about it when you have four fingers pointing back at you!
As for the vacation owners, the vacation rental organization asked us, the opposer to wear “Blue” at the council hearing, which we did. This now turned our O’hana and community into a divided one. Again, sound familiar? first a country divided, now an island, seriously? I testified at the hearing with other owners and thousands of locals that testified in person or in an email and oppose this law. When “Lahiana Strong’s” the red side got up and testified, they stated, “We want the council to Abolish all vacation rentals in the county of Maui, to include Lana’i and Moloka’i. The council needs to vote and turn all vacation rentals into long term affordable housing and lower the 1500-2000 a month HOA dues to 150 a month”. Yes, this was stated and all recorded and seen on local tv here on Maui. In other words, “You have it, We want it” their testimonies came across as hateful, vengeful, angry, jealous, and became racist. We were called immigrants and foreigners. Again, sound familiar? Vacation owners are not trying to take anything from anyone. We are truly trying to save our community and save it for the locals as well to secure their jobs and help them in building affordable housing in providing them back up support, yet they fight this and do not comprehend the outcome.
Believe me, I know where they come from as housing is extremely expensive here on Maui, and they should have a place to live. I am angry at the council that our locals do not have affordable housing to live in, it is wrong, and they should have a place to call home. However, with what they are asking for, “Maui Strong “ does not see the economic damage this would incur. They should be upset about having no affordable housing, and not come after vacation owners because they are mad at the county for not providing them a place to live and swept it under the carpet for decades leaving their only option, to abolish rentals.
We here on the island have been begging for over 40 years for it and our council has ignored it while letting corporations come in and build huge hotels and time shares. Now, due to the fire last year, all these fire victims went homeless, so all they could think about was the vacation rentals and wanting to kick out vacation rentals creating a havoc for vacation owners to lose their homes now, their income and not think about the financial travesty that the locals would incur within the community.
As for the economics here on Maui. This band would cost the county of Maui $22 billion a year in gross revenue. This is inclusive of everything that is purchased from locals and tourists, including taxes, HOA dues, resale and hotel tax car rental agencies, local activities among everything else. 42 million of it just comes from vacation, renter’s property tax, resale and hotel taxes called GET / TAT tax on top of the nightly rates for each vacation rental that is booked. Unfortunately, the council does not see or comprehend this travesty, all they want to do is “SAVE FACE” among the local community and receive their votes that are running again this November for reelection. Still sounds familiar, right?
As those with a real estate, bookkeeping or economic background or just economic common sense of this, we know this would be impossible to kick owners out of their homes they own, or lower HOA’s and turn them into affordable housing. However, they can make it difficult and currently are, and if this law is passed real estate values on Maui will drop in half, foreclosures/short sales will go into effect and 10K homes/condominiums will be on the market for investors to buy up and rent out, but not as vacation rentals. Nor will locals to be able to afford to buy these rentals, even at half their value. Jobs are needed to make a livelihood, which jobs would be no more if vacation rentals are gone. Not to include that HOA dues will still go up including taxes, insurance has tripled as well. Our fire insurance is going up $482.00 per month starting in January 2025. Our monthly costs are $7,238.53 per month to operate and secure our two-bedroom condominium, locals cannot afford that, nor can we if this goes into effect, we will have to sell or lose it and pay capital gains on top of it.
What the locals do not see is that driving the values down will also affect the appraisal of their new homes they need to rebuild. A lot of insurance companies go off current value, current replacement costs of their home. If it was worth 1.1 million before the fire, then it could go down to 500K affecting their rebuild, unless they have a set rebuild cost in their policy. Also, they state, they do not want the “rich” man here, but do not realize most are not rich here and saved for what they have, I did over 35 years to get back to Maui in 1995. They will drive the “RICH” man here to buy up all the old vacation rentals because they can afford them, not the local. Then we will see the shops changing to HIGH END and expensive cars etc. and values then escalate again. This law is NOT a win/win.
Locals cannot afford to pay 3000-8000 a month to the investors that will buy it all up, for a studio, one or two bedroom. I know we would not be able to live here with high rents. Also, all the vacation rentals were originally built to be as such. There are no yards, no long-term storage, no additional parking, no garages to house all their stuff, and all vacation rentals only offer one parking space. Most locals live together to save costs and have anywhere from 2 to 6 cars in the driveways of homes they either rent or own. So, then what?
There was a show on ABC about Maui this past week. A local “Lahaina Strong” women stated untruthful, “Tourists should not be coming after the fire, exploring the fire, going into the harbor where bodies were still being looked for.” Not one body was ever floating in the ocean especially 10 months later, a body would not be found in an ocean it would have floated out to sea. No one ever died in the water during the fire, only jumped in to save their live, but not die. Everything is blocked off and tourists cannot just go on a tour through the burn zone or in any of the residential areas. The other lady said, there are 6000 unplaced people, and they are in tents on the beach, this is not at all true. Everyone has been temporarily housed if not in vacation rentals and homes, and in luxury hotels resorts, while our community and their homes are being rebuilt.
Those that were insured are receiving housing costs to stay where they have been placed. Sadly, those that did not have insurance, were unable to be housed unless they could afford it or received FEMA assistance, and others moved in with family/friends or left the island by choice. We do not currently have a housing crisis as it may state on the news. There are thousands of vacation homes and condominiums available right now, but many cannot afford them, and insurance companies will not pay for them. However, our crisis still stands for not having affordable housing or enough of it. They have restarted building the affordable housing tower that burned down last year that had just opened. They are now on the third floor since June. The other housing complex is just about complete above the Lahaina Gateway Mall, so at least 600 residence or more will be permanent housing within months with more to come as soon as the council gets their act together.
It is sad and horrific for all owners of vacation rentals here on Maui to see all our neighbors go through this pain and heartache. Though those that have received temporary housing assistants are still moving forward with trying to pass this law. All that would be left would be the large hotel and hotel condominium resorts. Once again, letting corporation succeeded the middle-class little guy and not caring about their Values, income, and or survival. However, we are keeping our fingers crossed it will not affect us and we can continue to be here to help rebuild our community I have loved since 1973.
What “Lahaina Strong” is doing is only hanging themselves by omitting the rentals and will take away over 8000 jobs will be lost that do maintenance, housekeeping, plumbing electrical, front desk, servers, Furniture stores, cashiers, carpet stores, car rentals, ocean activity jobs etc. The vacation rentals keep these businesses running that would be no more then causing locals to leave island due to no work to survive. Many of my crew would have close their business down and need to leave island if this goes into effect.
If this passes this year, The council will provide vacation owners time to finish out their rentals before it would go into place in the next two to three years. However, this may be pushed out further from the class action lawsuits currently being filed against the county. However, it would affect Maui drastically and the average middle class and below tourist that save years will not be able to afford to rent a hotel room for $400.00 to $700.00 a night in a high-rise plus taxes, resort fees, booking fees, parking and internet fees, Especially without a kitchen they all love having. We will see how it plays out, time will tell, and we will know more after the election in November here on Maui.
We ask anyone that may be interested in helping save our community to please send an email to our Maui Council. Here is the address [email protected]
If you are a tourist here on Maui, please send your letter stating you are a tourist and oppose this vacation rental band and you including many of your friends would not afford to be able to return to Maui and stay in any of these luxury hotels should all the vacation rentals be abolished.
We would appreciate your letters being sent to help Maui rebuild and save our vacation rentals throughout the entire county of Maui, which includes Maui, Molokai, and the island of Lana’i and save Maui’s economy from a major crash and recession.
Mahalo.
