In a significant development for Maui's wildfire recovery, the County of Maui and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) signed a grant agreement on Friday, unleashing a much-needed $1.6 billion in Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds. According to County of Maui officials, this financing aims to address unmet needs from the devastating 2023 wildfires, with plans to direct the money primarily toward housing and infrastructure around the affected areas.
"This agreement marks a major milestone in ensuring these much-needed funds are on their way to Maui," Maui Mayor Richard Bissen stated, expressing the readiness of the county to start funneling these federal funds into building back a stronger, safer, and more resilient community, the funds were appropriated by Congress in December 2024, subsequently allocated by HUD in January 2025, according to the County of Maui.
The sheer magnitude of this allocation, the largest to a single municipality to date, highlights the scale of wildfire impact on the island. Of the $12 billion allocated in total to 47 grantees in the latest round of CDBG-DR funds, Maui's receipt of this grant places it among the front-runners in moving from agreement to action. "I want to extend our deepest aloha and mahalo to all who made this moment possible,” shared Mayor Bissen, while thanking federal and state partners, the Hawaiʻi delegation, and local community organizations like Hawaiʻi Community Foundation for their contributions in the prolonged recovery efforts which is a testament to the widespread collaboration that has characterized post-disaster Maui, as per the County of Maui.
The county has signposted mid-August as the anticipated timeframe for initiating the intake process for the CDBG-DR-funded housing programs, while it urges affected residents, those who lost homes or renters displaced by the fires, to begin readying necessary documentation, such as income statements and receipts detailing use of previous disaster assistance awards, according to County of Maui instructions; the aim is to facilitate a smooth application process for all parties involved. "It will be a significant undertaking to distribute these funds, and we are committed to making sure they deliver the maximum benefit to our community," said John Smith, the County’s Office of Recovery administrator, addressing the beginning of a recovery that will, undoubtedly, require an orchestrated and diligent effort from every stakeholder.
