Nearly 1,000 households displaced by catastrophic wildfires in Maui are anxiously awaiting word on whether federal assistance helping them stay housed will be left to expire, forcing them to find new housing or pay more for it in one of the tightest and most expensive rental environments in the country.
For two and a half years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been key to assisting those residents. But FEMA — facing a broader Trump administration effort to diminish the agency's role and shift more responsibility to states — is set to choose in the coming weeks whether to end the funding.
Advocates say evicting renters and taking away financial assistance will undermine progress toward bringing residents back to Lahaina, the West Maui town that was largely razed by a massive fire on Aug. 8, 2023, and could lead to a new wave of homelessness and more departures from the island.
“All of them entering into our already impacted rental market in February scares me a lot,” said Nicole Huguenin, executive director and co-founder of the mutual aid organization Maui Rapid Response.
The fires in Lahaina and Kula, in Maui's upcountry region, destroyed 2,200 structures and killed 102 people. Then-President Joe Biden declared a major disaster, unlocking FEMA assistance to help 12,000 displaced people, 89% of whom were renters at the time of the fires. His administration eventually extended the 18-month program until February 2026.
But with few homes rebuilt and rental inventory nearing zero, the state requested another extension last May with a decision due before the end of January.
The uncertainty comes against the backdrop of greater upheaval surrounding FEMA’s future role in disaster recovery. President Donald Trump has frequently floated the idea of eliminating the agency, saying he wants states to take on more responsibility handling disasters.
While it’s not clear whether that change in approach will influence the decision on the housing assistance, it is weighing on residents.
“It falls into the hands of the current administration and I’m not sure if they’re fond of the amount of money we’ve had to use," said Kukui Keahi, a Lahaina fire survivor who rents an apartment through FEMA after living in her car and couch-surfing after the fire.
If the program expires, all housing-related financial assistance to fire survivors would cease and any units being leased directly through FEMA must be vacated, according to an agency notice.
Maui County spokesperson Laksmi Abraham said the county was “working with the state and FEMA toward an extension and is optimistic that an extension will be granted.” FEMA declined to comment.
While megafires in other states have destroyed more homes, Maui's fires created a unique crisis. Limited housing stock and the island’s remote location from the mainland U.S. made relocating survivors and rebuilding exceptionally difficult.
FEMA, the state, county, and nonprofits all scrambled to find solutions to house the displaced, most of whom were desperate to stay near Lahaina to be close to work, schools and the community.
After working with the Red Cross to house 8,000 residents in hotels and other temporary shelters in the initial weeks, FEMA slowly transitioned families to other forms of housing assistance.
It offered money for rent, installed temporary shelters on burned properties, and leased thousands of units itself to rent back to survivors, though some complained of burdensome eligibility requirements and having to move several times.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helped FEMA build Kilohana, a 167-unit modular housing complex on a lot overlooking Lahaina town. The massive investment required blasting hard rock to grade the state-owned land and installing new electric, water and sewer infrastructure. The first family moved in 14 months ago.
If rental assistance ends, the roughly 190 households living in modular units, 470 in the direct lease program and 280 relying on financial assistance will be thrust into an already stressed housing market that has seen little improvement since the fires.
Maui's rental vacancy rate is under 2% and as of mid-2025 there were zero available units priced at or below what the federal government deems fair market rent, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, or HIEMA.
Displaced survivors faced rent increases of 50-60% after the fires, according to the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. Two- and three-bedroom units still cost nearly double what they did before the fires.
Critics have partially blamed those increases on FEMA’s own housing programs, which often leased properties for well above fair-market prices to incentivize landlord participation, though the island's housing shortage predated the fires.
“My goal is to (pay) what I was before and I can’t, there’s no way," said Keahi, the displaced resident who is also program deputy at the Hawaiian Council, a nonprofit administering multiple recovery initiatives on Maui.
The slow recovery of Maui's tourism-dependent economy is also limiting what tenants can afford.
To confront the supply challenges, the county passed a bill last month banning short-term rentals in apartment-zoned properties beginning in 2029, despite strong opposition from some concerned about the impact to tourism and jobs.
Rebuilding is also gaining momentum, with 109 residential construction projects completed and about 300 in process.
“The tough part on the island is everything needs to be shipped in,” said HIEMA Administrator James Barros.
Barros said if an extension is granted, FEMA could impose some new “milestones” for the state to meet to speed along its recovery.
FEMA has taken on prolonged housing assistance missions in the past, for both large disasters like Hurricane Katrina and smaller events, depending on the needs. Extensions are typically based on factors like unit availability and the number of households in need, as well as progress made by both households and local governments to find alternative solutions.
The county and state have been working on contingency plans “for months” if FEMA assistance ended, including possibly taking over Kilohana, Barros said.
Next door to Kilohana is Ka La'i Ola, another community of 450 modular units created through a state-philanthropic partnership. Its residents do not pay rent yet, and they are allowed to stay up to five years.
Kimo Carvalho, CEO of the housing nonprofit Home Aid Hawaii which manages Ka La’i Ola, said a Kilohana resident recently called saying his housing might expire and asking if he could apply to Ka La'i Ola.
The community is already full, Carvalho told The Associated Press, with a long waitlist.
FILE - Burned cars and propane tanks with markings on them sit outside a house destroyed by wildfire, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
FILE - A general view of the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal officers dropped tear gas and sprayed eye irritant at activists Tuesday during another day of confrontations in Minneapolis, while students miles away walked out of a suburban school to protest the Trump administration's bold immigration sweeps.
Meanwhile, the fallout from the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an immigration agent reached the local U.S. Attorney's Office: At least five prosecutors have resigned amid controversy over how the U.S. Justice Department is handling the investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.
Separately, a Justice Department official said Wednesday there's no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation. An FBI probe of Renee Good's death is ongoing.
Strife between federal agents and the public continues to boil, six days since Good was shot in the head while driving off in her Honda Pilot. At one scene, gas clouds filled a Minneapolis street near where she died. A man scrubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help after agents in a Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove off.
It’s common for people to boo, taunt and blow orange whistles when they spot heavily armed immigration agents passing through in unmarked vehicles or walking the streets, all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they’re watching.
“Who doesn't have a whistle?” a man with a bag of them yelled.
Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support neighborhood friends, said she was “incensed” to see agents in tactical gear and gas masks, and wondered about their purpose.
“It felt like the only reason they’d come here is to harass people,” Anderson said.
In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, students protesting the immigration enforcement operation walked out of school, as students in other communities have done this week.
Later, a large crowd gathered outside a hotel in Minneapolis banging drums and blowing whistles as officers wearing helmets and carrying batons stood guard just inside. Meanwhile, confrontations erupted between protesters and officers guarding the federal building being used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.
The departures in the U.S. Attorney's Office include First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, who had been leading the sprawling prosecution of public fraud schemes in the state, according to people who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge.
The lawsuit says Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.
“What we are seeing is thousands — plural — thousands of federal agents coming into our city. And, yeah, they’re having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said.
A judge set a status conference for Wednesday.
Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the lawsuit, accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.
In a different lawsuit, a judge said she would rule by Thursday or Friday on a request to restrict the use of force, such as chemical irritants, on people who are observing and recording agents' activities. Government attorneys argued that officers must protect themselves.
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, saying he acted in self-defense. But that explanation has been widely panned by Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.
State and local authorities are urging the public to share video and any other evidence as they seek to separately investigate Good's death after federal authorities insisted they would approach it alone and not share information.
In Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is proposing that the state ban civil immigration enforcement around courthouses, hospitals, health clinics, schools, churches and other places. She is hoping to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, who is not running for a third term.
“We can take a look at that, but I think banning things absolutely will ramp up the actions of our folks in Washington, D.C.,” Evers said, referring to the Trump administration. “They don’t tend to approach those things appropriately.”
Associated Press reporters Ed White in Detroit; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.
CORRECTS FROM A PROTESTER TO A PERSON - A person is detained by federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
CORRECTS FROM A PROTESTER TO A PERSON - A person is detained by federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Monica Travis shares an embrace while visiting a makeshift memorial for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A protester is detained by Federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A protester grabs a tear gas grenade deployed by federal immigration officers near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A protester is sprayed with pepper spray by a Federal agent Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Tear gas is deployed amid protesters near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)
EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - Tear gas is deployed amid protesters near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A protester is detained by Federal agents near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Adam Gray)(AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A protester grabs a tear gas grenade deployed by federal immigration officers near the scene where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Fireworks are set off by protesters outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Federal immigration officers detain a demonstrator outside Bishop Whipple Federal Building after tear gas was deployed Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Federal immigration officers are seen outside Bishop Whipple Federal Building after tear gas was deployed Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Federal agents drive through smoke from tear gas dispersed during a protest, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Minneapolis (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
A protester's face is doused in water after he was pepper sprayed outside of the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - A man gestures as he walks toward a cloud of tear gas that was deployed by federal immigration officers Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Protesters try to avoid tear gas dispersed by federal agents, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Minneapolis (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Federal agents get ready to disperse tear gas into a crowd at a protest, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Minneapolis (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
