I was struck by the term “dignified housing” when I received an email from a group called Lahaina Strong.   

Lahaina Strong’s email announced its news conference Friday at Kaanapali Beach to demand that evacuees from the Aug. 8 fire — housed in hotel rooms for the last three months on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s tab — be moved into more permanent housing.

The advocacy group, which includes members who lost everything in the Lahaina fire, erected tents and fishing poles on Kaanapali Beach next to the touristy shopping center Whalers Village. They promised to stay put until Maui Mayor Richard Bissen and Gov. Josh Green met their demand for “dignified housing.”

They called their camp-in: “Lahaina Strong Hui: Fishing for Dignified Housing.”

That made me wonder. How many people in the entire state of Hawaii — crushed by soaring property values and a dearth of affordable homes — can say they live in “dignified housing?”

The word “dignified” is generally defined as commanding respect. How much respect can someoneʻs house or condo command when it eats up most of their salary in mortgage payments or is a rented studio in a scary, crime-filled neighborhood, or worse, if the home is a blue tarp flapping in the wind under the freeway?

In Lahaina, the aftermath of the fire that killed at least 99 people and decimated more than 2,200 homes and other buildings has laid bare many of the problems people face all over Hawaii: the shakiness of an economy dependent on tourism, the failure of the Hawaii government to protect its people from physical harm, low-paying jobs and undignified housing.

Of course, for the people of Lahaina struggling to cope with the deaths of close relatives and friends and the loss of jobs, homes and family pets — it’s not about inadequate housing. It is about not having a house at all.

At the rally, Lahaina Strongʻs leaders demanded that the Maui mayor and the governor use their emergency powers to convert West Mauiʻs thousands of short-term rentals into long-term rentals for fire survivors to live in while they await their return to Lahaina to rebuild — a wait that could take many years.

More than 6,000 Lahaina residents were displaced by the fire.

They also called for an extension of protections against rent increases and evictions for at least a year and immediate deferment of mortgage payments for all homes destroyed in the fire.

Lahaina Strong did not directly define its term dignified housing but spoke about stable housing — places where a person can live free from worrying about getting kicked out.

FEMA has promised Lahainaʻs displaced residents housing through Feb. 10, but many government leases on hotel rooms for the fire victims expire on Nov. 30.

“Although we are extremely grateful that these hotels have opened up their doors to all the displaced residents … we need something stable. Our community needs stability, dignified housing,” said Lahaina fire survivor Courtney Lazo.

Lahaina Strong rally organizer Jordan Ruidas spoke of the difficulty displaced families face being crowded into single hotel rooms “especially as the holidays approach. Families want to cook, have visitors and create a sense of normalcy, which is often constrained in these hotel environments.”

“In this already tight housing market, there is simply no place to go,” she said.

Ruidas founded Lahaina Strong as a Facebook fundraising page after the 2018 fire in Lahaina, driven by Hurricane Lane, destroyed 21 homes, 30 cars and burned 2,000 acres.

At the “Fishing for Dignified Housing” rally, speakers made their demands surrounded by Hawaiian flags turned upside down, a symbol of a Hawaiian nation in distress.

Upside down Hawaiian flags were a ubiquitous symbol at protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope at Mauna Kea.

Some members of Lahaina’s large Filipino community worry about having a lesser place in the conversation about rebuilding the decimated town.

They are not as organized and vocal as Hawaiian groups now moving forward with political experience gained from the Mauna Kea protests and other recent political movements.

In a text sent Monday, Ruidas said Lahaina Strong is not just Hawaiian-led and she herself is a Filipino American. “Anyone and everyone is invited and welcomed,” she wrote.

At the rally, leaders mentioned only once the importance of including all the different racial communities of Lahaina in the quest ahead for “dignified housing.” 

“Lahaina was built by all different ethnic groups. Hawaiian, Haole, Filipino Hawaiian, Samoan. All of ’em,” said Leonard “Junya” Nakoa. “But we all came together. Look at this today. Awesome.”

Nakoa waged an unsuccessful attempt last year on the Aloha Aina party ticket to win the 14^th District- West Maui seat in the state House of Representatives. He was defeated by Democrat Ellie Cochran.

Interestingly,  Nakoa was a vocal opponent of the governor’s effort to fast-track the construction of thousands of housing units for Hawaii’s residents who are currently in need of up to 40,000 more affordable (dignified) units.

For Lahaina to thrive going forward, all voices must be respected in government efforts to help create dignified housing — first and foremost for Lahainaʻs suffering population — but also, in the years ahead, for the rest of Hawaiiʻs residents plagued by housing insecurity.