Key Highlights
- officials have granted a request to extend housing assistance for survivors of catastrophic 2023 wildfires, Hawaii Gov.
- Josh Green said Friday.
- Nearly 1,000 households displaced by fire were anxiously awaiting word on whether federal assistance helping them stay housed will be left to expire, forcing them to find new housing or pay more for it in one of the tightest and most expensive rental environments in the country. U. S.
- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem approved Hawaii’s request to extend Federal Emergency Management Agency temporary housing assistance for Maui wildfire survivors until February 2027, Green said in a news release.
- FEMA did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation of the extension.“It lifted a weight I did not even realize I was carrying, and I know many other families were carrying that same weight too,” Kukui Keahi, a Lahaina fire survivor and associate director of Kako’o Maui Programs at the nonprofit Hawaiian Council, said after learning of the extension. The fires in Lahaina and Kula, in Maui’s upcountry region, destroyed 2,200 structures and killed 102 people.
