After the 2023 Maui fires, Lahaina families face displacement from soaring land prices, foreclosures, and predatory investors. The Lahaina Community Land Trust protects homes and land for generations by helping 'ohana rebuild, preventing foreclosures, and securing property under permanent community stewardship. With a $5M match from an anonymous LCLT donor, every gift is amplified -- to double our impact to keep Lahaina lands in Lahaina hands, forever.
Even before the August 2023 fire destroyed upwards of 2,000 structures and displaced more than 12,000 people, West Maui homes sold for prices 18 times higher than what the typical Lahaina family earned annually, making it the most unaffordable region on the island. As construction costs rise and home prices soar to record highs - Lahaina's median single-family home price last year topped $2.68 million - the community urgently needs solutions that ensure housing remains permanently affordable.
LCLT was formed in the fire's immediate aftermath to safeguard 'aina at risk of being lost to investors and ensure that longtime Lahaina families were supported with the resources to rebuild and hold onto their hand. We do that by: No. 1: Helping families stay by filling the financial gaps to rebuild, No 2: Securing land for permanently affordable housing, and No. 3: Intervening in foreclosure proceedings to save land from investors and pave the way for 'ohana to return to their land.
Our Goal: Create a dual housing market where 20% of Lahaina's housing stock is permanently protected as affordable housing for Lahaina's future generations. By harnessing the urgency of this disaster and the recognition that systemic change was called for long before the fire, LCLT blends disaster relief with permanent solutions - to bring community stability and generational change.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
