After the wildfire destroyed 3% of Maui homes in August 2023, many local health care workers have felt the strain of what was an already chronic housing shortage.
On an island that was already 14,000 housing units short, the wildfires displaced approximately 5,400 households. Kyle Mouery, a family medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente on Maui, and his family of six have moved five times since the fires destroyed their home.
The shortage has impacted Maui’s ability to attract and retain health care workers, Kaiser Permanente notes. To address this, Maui Health Foundation’s Housing for Healthcare aims to help the urgent need for affordable housing, both for health care providers impacted by the wildfires and as a way to help recruit health care professionals to Maui.
Utilizing a land donation from the county of Maui to Maui Health Foundation, the foundation is building an affordable housing development and will own it in perpetuity. The project was made possible in part by a $10 million construction loan from Kaiser Permanente through a social impact investment from the East Bay Community Foundation.
“Kaiser Permanente is proud to support Maui Health Foundation and Maui County, and their commitment to developing affordable housing for health care workers. Their partnership is an example of a successful solution to support health care workers who want to live and thrive in the communities they provide care for,” says Bechara Choucair, executive vice president and chief health officer at Kaiser Permanente.
“A development like this allows us to attract, retain, and support the health care workers who serve and support the people of Maui for years to come.”
In early November, the first tenants moved in, including Dr. Mouery and Leah Pyle, a nurse with Maui Memorial Medical Center. Pyle and her family of five also lost their home, car, and all their belongings to the fire. “Moving into this home is so important to us,” says Pyle. “I’ve already had co-workers leave the island because the rent is too much and they’re not able to afford to live here. We are so thankful we get to live here until we’re able to rebuild.”
The homes from this first-of-its-kind housing project on Maui are located in the Maui Lani Fairways development, minutes from Maui Memorial Medical Center in Kahului, as well as many other central Maui medical facilities. Construction is slated for completion by mid-2025.
Once completed, the homes will provide transitional rentals with no income restrictions for full-time patient-facing health care workers living on Maui while they search for or rebuild homes.
“All of our team in Lahaina lost something. Some of us lost family members, some of us lost our houses, we all lost our community,” says Dr. Mouery. “I am grateful to be among the first to be selected for this housing project and hope that others soon get the chance as I did. So many people are struggling to find housing security. My family and I have moved five times in this past year since the fires, but we have been lucky to have been welcomed into the homes of my fellow colleagues and other rentals that have enabled us to live closer to our kids’ schools.”
Health care professionals who are living and working on Maui or are planning to live and work on Maui may submit their interest online at mauihealth.org/H4H.
