Kyle Mouery, MD, a family medicine physician at Kaiser Permanente on Maui, moved 5 times since the Maui wildfires claimed his home in 2023. The lack of long-term housing options was making it hard to find a place for him and his family of 6.
Dr. Mouery wasn’t alone. After wildfires destroyed hundreds of Maui homes in August of 2023, many local health care workers have faced similar tough decisions. In a recent press release, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green reported that there are about 4,000 health care worker vacancies statewide.
Maui has experienced a chronic housing shortage and a lack of affordable housing. The wildfires worsened the situation by destroying the homes of 12,000 people in 5,400 households. The fire destroyed 3% of Maui’s housing stock, on an island that was already 14,000 housing units short of meeting needs.
The housing shortage has impacted the ability to attract and retain health care workers.
Maui Health Foundation’s Housing for Healthcare initiative is a unique-to-Hawaii collaboration that addresses the urgent need for affordable housing, both for health care providers impacted by the wildfires and as a way to help recruit desperately needed health care professionals to Maui.
Through a land donation from the County of Maui to Maui Health Foundation, the foundation is building an affordable housing development and will own it in perpetuity. This project was made possible in part by a $10 million construction loan from Kaiser Permanente, through a social impact investment from the East Bay Community Foundation.
“Kaiser Permanente is proud to support Maui Health Foundation and Maui County, and their commitment to developing affordable housing for health care workers. Their partnership is an example of a successful solution to support health care workers who want to live and thrive in the communities they provide care for,” said Bechara Choucair, MD, executive vice president and chief health officer at Kaiser Permanente. “A development like this allows us to attract, retain, and support the health care workers who serve and support the people of Maui for years to come.”
On November 2, 2024, the first tenants moved in, including Dr. Mouery and Leah Pyle, a nurse with Maui Memorial Medical Center. Pyle and her family of 5 also lost their home, car, and all their belongings to the fire. After 7 months of living in multiple hotels with her teenage sons, they were able to find short-term rental housing. However, the high cost of rent left them wondering if the best future for them was on Maui or elsewhere.
“Moving into this home is so important to us,” said Pyle. “I’ve already had co-workers leave the island because the rent is too much and they’re not able to afford to live here. We are so thankful we get to live here until we’re able to rebuild.”
The Housing for Healthcare initiative is the first-of-its-kind housing project on Maui. The homes are located in the Maui Lani Fairways development, minutes from Maui Memorial Medical Center in Kahului, as well as many other central Maui medical facilities that employ many of Maui’s health care professionals. Construction is estimated to be completed within 12 to 14 months — October 2024 through July 2025. Once built, the homes will provide transitional rentals while health care providers search for or rebuild homes.
“All of our team in Lahaina lost something. Some of us lost family members, some of us lost our houses, we all lost our community,” said Dr. Mouery. “I am grateful to be among the first to be selected for this housing project and hope that others soon get the chance as I did. So many people are struggling to find housing security. My family and I have moved 5 times in this past year since the fires, but we have been lucky to have been welcomed into the homes of my fellow colleagues and other rentals that have enabled us to live closer to our kids’ schools.”
Health care professionals who are currently living and working on Maui or are planning to live and work on Maui may submit their interest online at mauihealth.org/H4H.
Watch the video story about Maui Health Foundation’s Housing for Healthcare initiative.
