Maui fire survivor evicted from emergency hotel shelter while on work trip

U'i Kahue-Cabanting was teaching a series of cultural workshops to Hawaii expats in Oregon last week when she received a text message from the American Red Cross asking where she was.

Before leaving Maui for Portland, U'i had informed the disaster relief agency that a business trip would cause him to miss one of his required in-person check-ins with Red Cross workers. She arranged to check in by phone instead.

So she was shocked to receive a text message the day before her scheduled phone check-in asking her to contact hotel security to retrieve her belongings from her government-funded room at the Royal Lahaina Resort.

“Basically it said I was locked out of the room and I needed to come get my stuff,” U'i said.

Displaced survivors of the Lahaina wildfires housed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Temporary Housing Program must check in twice a week with the Red Cross, which operates the program. Those housed by the program must also proactively document their own attempts to find stable housing.

Failure to comply with the rules – if participants fail to provide documentation to FEMA or leave their room for more than the permitted seven days, for example – is grounds for exclusion from the program.

FEMA spokeswoman Jenny Campora directed questions to the Red Cross. Red Cross spokeswoman Mary Simkins declined to comment specifically on U'i's case.

U'i's apparent ousting from the program comes at a time when the government is trying to end the emergency shelter program, which for nearly 10 months has temporarily housed wildfire survivors in hotels and expensive apartments.

As of Wednesday, there were still 956 fire survivors from 379 households, along with 95 pets, living in seven hotels and resorts on Maui. The government is trying to move people eligible for FEMA's direct rental program from hotels and condos to homes and apartments with more economical long-term leases. But the process was fraught with pitfalls.

U'i said she knew Red Cross registrations were required, which is why she arranged to keep hers off while traveling on business. She said she couldn't identify any other reason why she would be kicked out of the hotel housing program before its expiration, now set for June 10 thanks to FEMA's latest extension.

She was so upset by the situation that she waited a day to respond to the text: “How is this possible? she replied. “You told me to do this, this, this and this, and I did just that. Additionally, I followed up.

She is eligible for FEMA's direct rental program, but she declined to participate because she is already planning her own housing rebuild with her business partner Mario Siatris. The couple plans to live in a custom travel trailer they are in the process of shipping to Maui from the mainland.

U'i said she didn't think she could rectify the situation with the Red Cross remotely. So she decided to take care of it when she returned to Maui.

In the meantime, she had a busy schedule in Oregon. In addition to teaching a series of coconut weaving workshops, she and Mario had a long-awaited personal errand to run. The two men drove nearly three hours to an RV retailer near Mount St. Helens to view their newly assembled trailer — a creative temporary housing solution they see as the next step in their recovery.

To comply with the loss of use coverage rules established by Mario's home insurance, U'i's husband, Ronald Cabanting, who was also traveling in Oregon, signed the contract to purchase the 26 foot trailer. U'i has hired a company to transport the rig to Oakland, California, where it is expected to board a barge and set sail for Maui on June 19.

With land and sea shipping costs, the trailer will cost approximately $53,000. Mario plans to rent it to Ron using his home insurance payouts, and he and U'i plan to live there while Mario rebuilds his burned-out house in the heart of Lahaina on Mela Street.

The caravan is expected to arrive in Maui between July 10 and 17. U'i and Mario aren't sure where they'll park it, but they think they'll stay mobile, alternating between public parking lots at beach parks and their friends. ' residential properties.

U'i and Mario were supposed to return to Maui from Portland last Tuesday. Mario was able to catch a delayed flight just before midnight that day, but bad weather forced U'i and Ron to spend two additional nights in Portland.

“We came home and we were sick, we were broke,” U’i said. “So we went couch surfing with my daughter in Kihei, and then I got to work.”

She worked double shifts on Friday and attended her granddaughter's graduation from Hawaiian immersion elementary school on Saturday.

“I had just had a busy week and I wasn’t ready to face the Red Cross,” she said.

But this week, U'i said she plans to meet in person with Red Cross workers to understand why she was apparently kicked out of the hotel housing program and to get her belongings back.

She can't continue to stay with her daughter at her Kihei apartment because it's part of a subsidized public housing complex with strict rules about overnight guests. But until the caravan arrives in July, she can stay with Mario, who still lives in a condo complex in Kaanapali.

Even after FEMA's hotel and condominium program ends, Mario will be able to stay in the unit he's occupied for nine months. He said the unit's owner assured him he could stay there for as long as he needed. This offer has also been extended to U'i.

“At the end of the day, I can live with Mario, so it's not like I won't have a roof over my head,” U'i explained. “It’s just a really shitty thing, and if they did it to me, they’re probably doing it to other people.”

U'i said she probably wouldn't spend too much energy trying to convince the Red Cross to let her stay in her room at the Royal Lahaina Resort. In any case, not with the end of the hotel housing program.

“Even if for some weird reason they turn around, I should just get my stuff and get out of this situation,” she said. “I don’t need the extra stress.”

Civil Beat's Maui County coverage is funded in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.