First came the Maui wildfires. Now come the land grabs: ‘Who owns the land is key to Lahaina’s future’
As ‘disaster capitalists’ text survivors with offers to buy their ruined homes, a land trust is trying to help residents keep them
Nina Lakhani in West Maui
Fri 15 Mar 2024 15.00 CET
Mere days after wildfires tore through Maui last August and leveled the historic town of Lahaina, community organizers warned that longtime residents were vulnerable to predatory land grabs.
And they were right. As search and rescue teams painstakingly combed through the scorched ruins, traumatized survivors began receiving texts, voice messages, and letters from speculators and realtors offering to buy their burnt-out homes.
“Week one, we knew that whatever happened we would have to protect the land because they would be coming for it,” said Autumn Ness, who moved to Maui from Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which led to mass displacement.
The Lahaina fire killed 100 people and razed 1,200 buildings, mostly residential properties, displacing around 11,000 residents, mostly working-class families. The trauma was compounded by a stark financial reality: most homeowners were underinsured, and many still had mortgages to pay on houses that would take several years to rebuild.
Some survivors lost their homes and jobs, and found themselves stuck in hotels unable to find affordable long-term rentals as tourists returned to the island. The Red Cross and Fema asked survivors whether they’d consider moving off island, which many found deeply offensive and insensitive.
But desperate people do desperate things – which is why investors often swoop in after major disasters like fires and hurricanes. Communities end up excluded from reconstruction plans, and old residents get priced out as neighborhoods are gentrified or transformed in some other irrevocable way.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... land-trust