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For most of her career at Lahainaluna High School, it’s been difficult for Ashley Olson to live in the same community as her students. To save on rent, Olson initially lived in Kihei and spent over an hour driving between her home and Lahaina every day. When she eventually moved to West Maui, she worked second jobs at Starbucks and Bubba Gump Shrimp Company to cover the cost of housing.

There are few affordable housing options in Lahaina for newly licensed teachers making just over $53,000 each year, Olson said, and many are forced to make long commutes to work or take on additional jobs. The wildfires, which destroyed roughly 2,200 homes and other buildings last year, only made the housing shortage worse.

“That is all time that could be better spent preparing for their students,” Olson said.

The �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ�� Department of Education is trying to tackle this problem by building 47 units of affordable staff housing on Lahainaluna High School’s campus. The $20 million project is slated to open its first units in July and be fully completed by spring 2026. 

This isn’t the first time lawmakers and the DOE have promised Lahaina teachers affordable housing to address staffing shortages, although school leaders and teachers are more optimistic about the new project’s success.

The project will consist of modular housing with one- and two-bedroom units, said Randy Moore, a deputy superintendent at the department. The department hasn’t determined what it will charge for rent yet, but it will likely use a sliding scale based on residents’ income. 

The housing will be prioritized for Lahaina teachers who lost their homes in the fires and new staff members. 

“I think it gets Lahainaluna back to the campus it used to be,” said state Sen. Angus McKelvey, who has advocated for teacher housing in West Maui over the past two years.

Even before the fires, Lahaina schools struggled with teacher recruitment and retention, with the education department designating the region as a hard-to-staff area in 2019. 

The first attempt to build affordable housing near Lahaina schools was in 2022, when the state dedicated $15 million to the project. The site was projected to hold approximately 16 units, but the department never put the project out to bid.

Moore said the fires prevented the department from moving forward with construction, adding that the project was still in its planning stages in the summer of 2023. The Department of Transportation owns the land where that project was planned and the state decided to use the site as temporary housing for families after the fires.

The fire housing project was completed in July and consists of 16 two-bedroom units that will be utilized until 2029. The education department plans to take over the land after that, Moore said, although it’s unclear if the department will also inherit the temporary housing units currently on the site.

A second attempt to build housing came in 2023, when West Maui lawmakers introduced two bills near Lahaina or Kihei schools.

“A campus housing pilot program on Maui may assist teachers in attaining sustainable and stable residency, while staving off crushing debt burdens,” the teachers’ union of the bill.

But both bills died that spring. Lawmakers instead approved $170 million to build teacher housing across the state, but the funding has since been cut to $5 million due to budget constraints following the wildfires.

Olson said she’s hopeful the state will follow through with its plans for affordable housing this time. Gov. Josh Green said in a press conference last month that the project is currently going through the permitting process and already has a Maui-based developer, the Dowling Co., selected for the job.

“It’s really quick building to get this thing done,” he said.

During past delays, the need for teacher housing has only grown, said Mike Landes, a teacher at Lahainaluna High School. that almost a third of Lahaina staff were displaced during the fires, and nearly 70% of new employees say access to housing is a challenge.

“There just isn’t a whole lot,” said Landes. “The housing that is available, the rent has just skyrocketed for people.” 

He added that he’s grateful for the project but knows more housing will be needed in the future.

“It’s just a shame that it took a disaster to make it happen,” he said. 

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.