I urge Maui County Council to prioritize funding for long-term housing initiatives in West Maui, particularly for the Kaiāulu o Kupuohi and Pulelehua projects. These initiatives hold the key to providing stable housing for our families and individuals affected by the Lahaina fire, and their expedited construction is important.
The devastating impact of the fire has left thousands of West Maui residents in precarious living situations, with many still residing in hotel rooms or unstable accommodations even after almost nine months since the fire. The closure of breakfast and lunch programs in these hotel settings further highlights the challenges faced by our community. Additionally, more than a quarter of displaced individuals have been forced to leave the island due to the huge shortage of housing options.
Given that 87% of displaced residents are renters, the need for affordable housing on West Maui is critically urgent. Since the fire, no funding has been allocated for long-term housing projects in West Maui, exacerbating the housing crisis for affected families and individuals. Please prioritize building stable long-term dignified housing in West Maui.
My name is Motuki Herefenua Drake. I work for OED and OIS and I am submitting testimony on behalf of OED and OIS which was written collectively by our team against Bill 60 regarding transferring the CARP, Environmental Grants and the defunding of Resilience Hubs. Please see below and mahalo nunui for your consideration
We feel that the decision by the Council to transfer CARP, OIS environmental grants, along with Green Building and Resilient Housing funding to EP & S while defunding Resilience Hubs at the urging of Councilmembers Johnson and Paltin is unfortunately fraught with misinformation, misunderstanding, mischaracterization and misrepresentation. CARP has numerous aspects that are deeply troublesome and that simply do not account for key environmental, financial and societal changes in a post-pandemic and post-wildfire Maui County. Despite its best intentions, many of the action steps prescribed in the CARP document do not factor in the long-term feasibility or financial impact on Maui County residents and taxpayers and if implemented in their current form will ultimately increase the tax burden on our people. The CARP utilizes ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and Hawaiian culture as a mouthpiece but does not take a deep enough dive into the longstanding relationship between Kamaʻāina, Makaʻāinana, ʻāina and honua to bring about a truly indigenous lead seachange from the status quo in terms of authentic environmental sustainability and archipelagic resilience. Our Maui people deserve a document that is impactful and rooted in indigenous wisdom and simply put, the current CARP falls short of this. OED and OIS believes that with the recent addition of our Indigenous Innovations Specialist and the fact that OED and OIS are comprised of predominantly Native Hawaiian and Pacific born People, that we are uniquely situated to metamorphose this document in collaboration with our Maui Community from a Western-based generic environmental rhetoric into something truly rooted in ʻāina and culture that will bring about generational change.
Likewise, OIS and OED take their fiduciary obligations to the Maui County taxpayers and residents as one of their primary responsibilities. The Environmental Grants which are housed in our office have been managed in that way to ensure that reports, budgets, scope, performance and impact are all worthy of the hard-earned tax dollars contributed by our County residents. We hold our grantees accountable to the taxpayer and we strive to wean long supported grantees off of the County subsidies by asking them to leverage our funding to create more revenue support streams therefore increasing available opportunities for new grantees and new projects to receive funding. Long-term financial dependence on the County creates an unhealthy reliance and also limits opportunities for the next generation of nonprofits and local innovative sustainability initiatives. That being said, the grantees that we have currently are those that have shown irrevocably their overall community impact to be well-deserved of the funding they receive. We work with each and every grantee to ensure their reports and budgets continue to reflect the great work that they do. Additionally, by choosing to move all OIS Environmental Grants to EP & S at this time for FY25, many of our grantees will now need to reapply through whatever new internal process EP & S develops for them. Notwithstanding, EP & S has little experience managing this amount of grants which may present challenges not only for EP & S who will need to hire and train new grants managers, but also to our grantees who will need to reapply and familiarize themselves with that system.
With regard to our Green Building and Resilience Fund, we have been working with potential grantees who have promising projects that require an injection of capital to get off the ground. We have read through their pre-proposals and have communicated extensively with them. To change the application process four days before the OIS/OED grants deadline presents an undue hardship for our grant applicants, shows little foresight and lacks coordination.
Finally, the implication that OIS has done little with Resilience Hubs is a statement rooted in ignorance. OIS has encumbered $1,050,000 from its FY24 funds to support standing-up Resilience Hubs in Hāna, Molokaʻi and Lahaina. We have 15 containers donated from Matson sitting at the Public Works base yard in Waikapū for this purpose. We ask you to speak with MEMA Administrator Amos Lonokailua-Hewett, as we have coordinated with him over the last two weeks over the Resilience Hubs projects. We have not worked with FEMA on this project who are primarily focused on post-disaster response and recovery, opting instead to work with MEMA, our local nonprofits and community groups as this should be for them and by them. We also have been coordinating with Johnson Controls and American Microgrid Solutions to facilitate the PV, batteries, and deployment of these Resilience Hubs. By cutting the $1,000,000 funding allocated toward this critical Maui Nui endeavor, the council will be shortchanging the multiple community groups and nonprofits who have been working on grant proposals to begin their Resilience Hubs for their communities.
The Office of Innovation and Sustainability (OIS) for the County of Maui, is dedicated to fostering a culture of enduring collaboration, and sustainability within our organization and our Maui County ohana. As an essential hub for forward-thinking initiatives, the OIS is committed to driving intelligent, innovative and sustainable solutions across all facets of our operations, ensuring long-term viability and positive impact on the economic, environmental, social and governance objectives of Maui County. While remaining culturally sensitive to ensure the intellectual properties of the Hawaiian people remain forever of the Hawaiian people. (Sustainability is inclusive of the Hawaiian people). Our primary mission is to identify, develop, and implement practical innovative solutions that address the challenges of our Maui County ohana today, while building a foundation of long-term resilience for the future. Through collaborative partnerships, cutting-edge research, and a commitment to the pursuit of excellence, we will adopt and adapt, where applicable, the long-term sustainable practices of our kupuna who established an effective standard of environmental management and sustainability through the incorporation of the ahupua'a system, which was created by and to preserve the Hawaiian people, from Mauka to Makai.
It is imperative that we ensure a food sovereign future for our Maui Ohana. We need food forests for our children and robust reefs teeming with fish and limu for our grandchildren. We deeply care about these Mokupuni, this Pae ʻĀina, we take our kuleana seriously and none of us joined this Office to sustain the status quo or for any future or current political aspirations, we joined to huli this colonized system and bring about true generational resilience for the people of Maui Nui and Hawaiʻi Nei.
Aloha,
My name is Beth Mathias. I'm am the Board Chairperson for The Maui Farm.
I'm providing testimony in support of Councilmember Johnson's proposal to increase DHHC's Human Concerns Grant Subsidy Program by $3 million dollars. By extension, I specifically support the increase to The Maui Farm's budget from $279,666 to the requested $313,588.
Now, more than ever, the transitional housing and family strengthening programs provided by The Maui Farm are critical to the women and their children we serve.
I respectfully request that you support the increase in funding for The Maui Farm.
Mahalo,
Beth Mathias
Board Chair, The Maui Farm
Aloha Maui County Council,
I urge Maui County Council to prioritize funding for long-term housing initiatives in West Maui, particularly for the Kaiāulu o Kupuohi and Pulelehua projects. These initiatives hold the key to providing stable housing for our families and individuals affected by the Lahaina fire, and their expedited construction is important.
The devastating impact of the fire has left thousands of West Maui residents in precarious living situations, with many still residing in hotel rooms or unstable accommodations even after almost nine months since the fire. The closure of breakfast and lunch programs in these hotel settings further highlights the challenges faced by our community. Additionally, more than a quarter of displaced individuals have been forced to leave the island due to the huge shortage of housing options.
Given that 87% of displaced residents are renters, the need for affordable housing on West Maui is critically urgent. Since the fire, no funding has been allocated for long-term housing projects in West Maui, exacerbating the housing crisis for affected families and individuals. Please prioritize building stable long-term dignified housing in West Maui.
Mahalo,
Nancy Harter, Lahaina, HI
Aloha,
My name is Motuki Herefenua Drake. I work for OED and OIS and I am submitting testimony on behalf of OED and OIS which was written collectively by our team against Bill 60 regarding transferring the CARP, Environmental Grants and the defunding of Resilience Hubs. Please see below and mahalo nunui for your consideration
We feel that the decision by the Council to transfer CARP, OIS environmental grants, along with Green Building and Resilient Housing funding to EP & S while defunding Resilience Hubs at the urging of Councilmembers Johnson and Paltin is unfortunately fraught with misinformation, misunderstanding, mischaracterization and misrepresentation. CARP has numerous aspects that are deeply troublesome and that simply do not account for key environmental, financial and societal changes in a post-pandemic and post-wildfire Maui County. Despite its best intentions, many of the action steps prescribed in the CARP document do not factor in the long-term feasibility or financial impact on Maui County residents and taxpayers and if implemented in their current form will ultimately increase the tax burden on our people. The CARP utilizes ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and Hawaiian culture as a mouthpiece but does not take a deep enough dive into the longstanding relationship between Kamaʻāina, Makaʻāinana, ʻāina and honua to bring about a truly indigenous lead seachange from the status quo in terms of authentic environmental sustainability and archipelagic resilience. Our Maui people deserve a document that is impactful and rooted in indigenous wisdom and simply put, the current CARP falls short of this. OED and OIS believes that with the recent addition of our Indigenous Innovations Specialist and the fact that OED and OIS are comprised of predominantly Native Hawaiian and Pacific born People, that we are uniquely situated to metamorphose this document in collaboration with our Maui Community from a Western-based generic environmental rhetoric into something truly rooted in ʻāina and culture that will bring about generational change.
Likewise, OIS and OED take their fiduciary obligations to the Maui County taxpayers and residents as one of their primary responsibilities. The Environmental Grants which are housed in our office have been managed in that way to ensure that reports, budgets, scope, performance and impact are all worthy of the hard-earned tax dollars contributed by our County residents. We hold our grantees accountable to the taxpayer and we strive to wean long supported grantees off of the County subsidies by asking them to leverage our funding to create more revenue support streams therefore increasing available opportunities for new grantees and new projects to receive funding. Long-term financial dependence on the County creates an unhealthy reliance and also limits opportunities for the next generation of nonprofits and local innovative sustainability initiatives. That being said, the grantees that we have currently are those that have shown irrevocably their overall community impact to be well-deserved of the funding they receive. We work with each and every grantee to ensure their reports and budgets continue to reflect the great work that they do. Additionally, by choosing to move all OIS Environmental Grants to EP & S at this time for FY25, many of our grantees will now need to reapply through whatever new internal process EP & S develops for them. Notwithstanding, EP & S has little experience managing this amount of grants which may present challenges not only for EP & S who will need to hire and train new grants managers, but also to our grantees who will need to reapply and familiarize themselves with that system.
With regard to our Green Building and Resilience Fund, we have been working with potential grantees who have promising projects that require an injection of capital to get off the ground. We have read through their pre-proposals and have communicated extensively with them. To change the application process four days before the OIS/OED grants deadline presents an undue hardship for our grant applicants, shows little foresight and lacks coordination.
Finally, the implication that OIS has done little with Resilience Hubs is a statement rooted in ignorance. OIS has encumbered $1,050,000 from its FY24 funds to support standing-up Resilience Hubs in Hāna, Molokaʻi and Lahaina. We have 15 containers donated from Matson sitting at the Public Works base yard in Waikapū for this purpose. We ask you to speak with MEMA Administrator Amos Lonokailua-Hewett, as we have coordinated with him over the last two weeks over the Resilience Hubs projects. We have not worked with FEMA on this project who are primarily focused on post-disaster response and recovery, opting instead to work with MEMA, our local nonprofits and community groups as this should be for them and by them. We also have been coordinating with Johnson Controls and American Microgrid Solutions to facilitate the PV, batteries, and deployment of these Resilience Hubs. By cutting the $1,000,000 funding allocated toward this critical Maui Nui endeavor, the council will be shortchanging the multiple community groups and nonprofits who have been working on grant proposals to begin their Resilience Hubs for their communities.
The Office of Innovation and Sustainability (OIS) for the County of Maui, is dedicated to fostering a culture of enduring collaboration, and sustainability within our organization and our Maui County ohana. As an essential hub for forward-thinking initiatives, the OIS is committed to driving intelligent, innovative and sustainable solutions across all facets of our operations, ensuring long-term viability and positive impact on the economic, environmental, social and governance objectives of Maui County. While remaining culturally sensitive to ensure the intellectual properties of the Hawaiian people remain forever of the Hawaiian people. (Sustainability is inclusive of the Hawaiian people). Our primary mission is to identify, develop, and implement practical innovative solutions that address the challenges of our Maui County ohana today, while building a foundation of long-term resilience for the future. Through collaborative partnerships, cutting-edge research, and a commitment to the pursuit of excellence, we will adopt and adapt, where applicable, the long-term sustainable practices of our kupuna who established an effective standard of environmental management and sustainability through the incorporation of the ahupua'a system, which was created by and to preserve the Hawaiian people, from Mauka to Makai.
It is imperative that we ensure a food sovereign future for our Maui Ohana. We need food forests for our children and robust reefs teeming with fish and limu for our grandchildren. We deeply care about these Mokupuni, this Pae ʻĀina, we take our kuleana seriously and none of us joined this Office to sustain the status quo or for any future or current political aspirations, we joined to huli this colonized system and bring about true generational resilience for the people of Maui Nui and Hawaiʻi Nei.
Aloha,
My name is Beth Mathias. I'm am the Board Chairperson for The Maui Farm.
I'm providing testimony in support of Councilmember Johnson's proposal to increase DHHC's Human Concerns Grant Subsidy Program by $3 million dollars. By extension, I specifically support the increase to The Maui Farm's budget from $279,666 to the requested $313,588.
Now, more than ever, the transitional housing and family strengthening programs provided by The Maui Farm are critical to the women and their children we serve.
I respectfully request that you support the increase in funding for The Maui Farm.
Mahalo,
Beth Mathias
Board Chair, The Maui Farm