MAUI, Hawaii (KHON2) — After listening to more than 300 testifiers and meeting for more than four days over the past few months, the Maui County Council voted on July 24 to pass the bill that would phase out thousands of vacation rentals to hopefully provide much needed housing for residents.
But lawmakers say this still leaves lots of questions.
Maui is in a dire housing crisis, and county councilmembers say Bill 9 is their line in the sand.
“Too long, our municipal, our state, our federal governments have put profits before people,” said Councilmember Gabe Johnson. “Well the times are changing brothers and sisters. I’m telling you it’s now time for people over profits and I’m here for it.”
In a 6-3 vote, the council’s Housing and Land Use Committee passed Bill 9. Introduced in May 2024 by Mayor Richard Bissen, the proposal calls to phase out transient vacation rentals, or TVRs, in Hana, south and west Maui and Molokai.
The county says it’s been in a housing crisis and the Lahaina wildfire made it worse. It destroyed 5,400 homes and displaced 12,000 people.
“In theory, this is gonna provide housing, and in theory, this is gonna work,” said Councilmember Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins. “I’m supportive of that concept and I’m supportive of that theory, but what I wanted to see from you folks, was all the other tools you said belongs in the toolbox that this is just one tool.”
“It’s clear from the comments we’ve heard from the members themselves, where we have to have a TIG to work on the issues that were not covered in this bill,” said Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee. “That shows you what we received was a half baked bill.”
The bill targets TVR’s in areas zoned for apartments. But there’s no clear procedure right now for possible rezoning opportunities.
“The administration stands in support of working with the council to move this bill forward and to find a pathway if the need presents itself to allow property owners to apply for rezoning,” said Laksmi Abraham, Maui County director of Communications & Government Affairs.
A report from UHERO found that even if these vacation rentals were put up for sale, only 20% of local buyers could afford them. The report also says a drop in tourism could cost Maui up to 3,800 jobs.
“We still haven’t answered any of the questions having to do with the loss of revenues — nothing to replace it,” Lee said. “And please don’t talk about taxing somebody else to replace those funds.”
The proposal calls for the phase out by July 2028. Bill 9 will now go to the full council for a vote.