Hawaii lawmakers take aim at vacation rentals after Lahaina wildfire amplifies Maui housing crisis

SFGATE— HONOLULU (AP) — A single mother of two, Amy Chadwick spent years scrimping and saving to buy a house in the town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. But after a devastating fire leveled Lahaina in August and reduced Chadwick's home to white dust, the cheapest rental she could find for her family and dogs cost $10,000 a month. Chadwick, a fine-dining server, moved to Florida where she could stretch her homeowners insurance dollars. She’s worried Maui’s exorbitant rental prices, driven in...

Honolulu Star-Advertiser—Hawaii lawmakers advance vacation rental bill to final votes. A bill that gives counties the clear authority to regulate short-term vacation rentals, including the power to ban them, unanimously passed out of a joint House-Senate conference committee today ahead of a vote by the full House and Senate next week.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser—Bissen proposes ban on West Maui vacation rentals. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen plans to take advantage of a newly passed state bill awaiting Gov. Josh Green’s signature to seek to phase out 2,200 vacation rentals in West Maui apartment districts by July 1, 2025 — and eventually all 7,000 units in apartment districts across Maui.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser—Key committee passes Hawaii vacation rentals bill. The full House and Senate will now consider the question of whether to allow each county to determine how — if at all — to regulate short-term vacation rentals on their islands, including the possibility of outlawing them.