This 2023 image provided by Amy Chadwick shows where her home used to stand after a wildfire in Lahaina, on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Chadwick moved to Florida where she could stretch her homeowners insurance dollars. She's worried Maui's exorbitant rental prices, which she blames in part on vacation rentals hogging up limited housing supply, will hollow out her tight-knit town by similarly forcing others to leave.
Vacation rentals are a popular alternative to hotels for those seeking kitchens, lower costs and opportunities to sample everyday island life. Supporters say they boost tourism, the state's biggest employer. Critics revile them for inflating housing costs, upending neighborhoods and contributing to the forces pushing locals and Native Hawaiians
Napili is where Chadwick thought she found a place to buy when she first went house hunting in 2016. But a Canadian woman secured it with a cash offer and turned it into a vacation rental. “Every alarm bell we have should be ringing when we’re literally going backwards in our goal to provide more housing in Hawaii,” he said.
Alicia Humiston, president of the Rentals by Owner Awareness Association, said some areas in West Maui were designed for travelers and therefore lack schools and other infrastructure families need. "We are not living in the 1990s or in the 1970s,” said Sterling Higa, executive director of Housing Hawaii's Future. Counties “should have the authority to look at existing laws and reform them as necessary to provide for the public good.”