Governor Josh Green, M.D.

The Hawai‘i Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC) received recognition from national housing experts for launching the Hawai‘i Fire Relief Housing Program just days after last year’s wildfires that destroyed much of Lahaina and other parts of Maui.

HHFDC Housing Finance Manager David Oi (left) and Executive Director Dean Minakami (right) accepted the Award of Excellence for Special Achievement. The Hawaiʻi program took top honors from a field of 18 nominees. Photo courtesy: HHFDC.

The Award of Excellence for Special Achievement was announced last month by the National Council of State Housing Agencies at its annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. The award recognizes programs and practices that respond in an outstanding manner to an important state need, have a significant impact on the community and cuts across traditional program lines.

Approximately 600 families found immediate housing through the program, which provided those displaced by the disaster with shelter options from a pool of roughly 1,400 properties that were offered by neighbors on Maui and elsewhere. The fire relief program was established at the request of Governor Green, who asked HHFDC to move expeditiously on the program to help the families, couples and individuals who lost loved ones, their homes, jobs and other cherished aspects of their lives.

HHFDC put the call out to homeowners on Maui and throughout Hawai‘i to make available their vacant homes, bedrooms and even spare beds. This information was curated in an electronic database that provided the survivors with options available
to them at a glance.

Modern technological advances helped make the database more “searchable” so families and individuals could easily identify those options more suited to their unique needs and circumstances. This included a highly popular interactive and continually updated map that was developed in partnership with the state of Hawai‘i’s ArcGIS (Geographic Information System) office.

“I’m extremely proud of the effort that our staff put into this program,” HHFDC Executive Director Dean Minakami said. “Our agency’s core mission is to provide assistance to those in need of housing and this program put on full display our dedication to fulfill this mission. With no additional personnel or other resources — and without a playbook to use as a guide — our staff responded to the call to assist those whose homes and whole neighborhoods were destroyed.”