It’s been more than a month since the Federal Emergency Management Agency moved Randy Dadez and his family into a house in the Lahaina burn zone — and then, in an about-face two days later, urged the family to move out as questions swirled about the safety of the water.
Randy still has the house keys. He says he’s been given no instructions on how to return them.
And he has no clearer picture now than on the day his family moved back into the same FEMA-funded condo they’ve inhabited since October about what the near future holds for his family’s long-term housing prospects.
Lahaina, a town of 13,000 people before the Aug. 8 fire that killed at least 101 people and dispersed thousands of survivors, was primarily a town of renters. With much of the town’s residential real estate burned down and, elsewhere on the island, a worsening affordable housing crisis that long predates the deadly Lahaina fire, families who lost their homes are finding it difficult to move on from the government-sponsored hotel rooms and resort condominiums that FEMA and the state have been providing.
Early this year the agency launched an effort to move fire survivors out of hotels and into homes with up to 18-month leases. As of Friday, FEMA officials said the agency has secured about 1,300 properties for fire survivors, but only about 677 families have been placed in them. The agency is having difficulty moving families into homes for a wide range of reasons, from homeowners pulling their properties out of the program to a shortage of landlords willing to rent to families with pets.
Roughly two-thirds of the properties are outside of West Maui. Some families, including the Dadezes, have turned down housing in other parts of the island due to long commutes to work and school or a sense of not wanting to abandon their community.
There are still roughly 2,768 people living in 11 Maui hotels and resorts.
Randy says he hasn’t heard from FEMA about how long his family will be able to stay in the government-funded condo that they returned to after last month’s housing fiasco. Eight months after his rental house burned down, he says he’s grown accustomed to living with this kind of uncertainty.
“We’re just trying to live like normal as much as we can,” Randy says. “We don’t have any information about how long we can stay here, about where we can go next. That’s OK. I accept that this is the way it is. We are grateful to have any roof over our heads.”
Beyond the family’s housing issues, Randy and Marilou Dadez busy themselves with work and family obligations.
Work is slow for them both. Marilou, a part-time receptionist at the Marriott’s Spa By The Sea in Kaanapali, says on Friday there were no calls to book treatments from hotel guests. Before the fire, the phone would ring nonstop with guests vying for massage appointments, she said.
Randy, who drives a shuttle for resort guests in West Maui, says it’s not uncommon for an hour to pass without any riders. This affects the family’s finances. While Marilou earns an hourly wage, Randy’s $15-an-hour pay is meant to supplement tips. When no one’s riding the shuttle, he’s not earning any tips.
Marilou is still receiving medical care for chronic migraines that she says worsened after the fire. Her eldest daughter struggles with bouts of depression, which Marilou says have recently grown more difficult.
A doctor who treats her daughter’s depressive symptoms with medication suggested that she stay busy with a job, and Marilou reports that she seems happier since she’s started working.
The doctor also suggested a pet dog to help ease her stress and depression. But the family says pets are forbidden in their FEMA-funded condo.
Earlier this month Marilou’s coworker gifted her family an aquarium fish, with black and midnight blue scales. Kobe, their 9-year-old son, named the fish Boss.
Boss, who lives in a tank on the kitchen counter, replaces Bubbles, the family’s pet fish that perished in the fire.
Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
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