By locals, for locals: Kakoo Maui Resource Hub opens | News, Sports, Jobs

Kako‘o Maui Resource Hub Operations Manager Kukui Keahi (second from left) talks about the mission of the resource hub alongside Kuhio Lewis, CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, and fellow resource hub staff members Dustin Kaleiopu, Kapili Akima and Hi‘ilei Lu‘uwai. The resource hub was blessed at the Maui Mall on Monday and will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily to offer resources and aid for Maui residents impacted by the Aug. 8 fires. The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photos

KAHULUI — When Maui residents who’ve lost their homes to the Aug. 8 fires walk through the doors of the Kako’o Maui Resource Hub, the staff there will know exactly what they’ve gone through.

Operations Manager Kukui Keahi had gone to buy food in Central Maui when the fire burned down her home on Lahainaluna Road and cut her off from family and friends on the west side.

“Before we could cash out, it was gone,” Keahi said. “It happened that quickly. I’m fortunate to not be in those traumas that a lot of people experienced, but we had left with nothing.”

It’s why Keahi calls it “the biggest blessing” to be able to help fellow Maui residents seek help at the new Kako’o Maui Resource Hub, which is funded by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and opened to the community on Monday. She’s one of four full-time staff, which includes three from Lahaina and one from Upcountry.

Located at Maui Mall just around the corner from T.J. Maxx, the hub will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week and will provide space not only for government and disaster relief organizations like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Red Cross, but also for local agencies that Maui residents are familiar with, such as Imua Family Services, Hawai’i Community Lending, Hawaiian Community Assets, Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, Legal Aid Society of Hawai’i and Papa Ola Lokahi.

Kumu Hula Cody Pueo Pata blesses staff and Maui residents entering the Kako‘o Maui Resource Hub at Maui Mall on Monday morning. The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photos

Kuhio Lewis, CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, explained that the Kako’o Maui Resource Hub will be different from other relief centers because it’s not a one-time pop-up; it will be here for the long haul, staffed by people from the community, and offering more wraparound services.

“People need to feel connected to that resource. They have to trust. And I think that’s been lacking is trust with the people that can help,” Lewis said. “So the hope here is that we ground this space in values, in culture, so that they feel comfortable navigating the process forward. And people are at all different levels too, and so a system that supports them where they’re at, versus the standardized way of doing business.”

Lewis said the standardized way is to “come to a booth at a gymnasium.” He said people are understandably wary of the federal government, which is “spurred a lot by social media,” but also from the long-standing mistrust following the government’s overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Lewis hopes people still apply for FEMA aid but says the hub is here if they need to find other services as well.

“We have to work with them. There’s no question about that,” he said of the federal government. “But we also have to do it in a way that is comfortable for our community.”

The hub will provide assistance with services that include: FEMA applications, food and financial assistance, health insurance, grief counseling/funeral support, insurance/loss mitigation, legal counseling, housing counseling and foreclosure prevention, document replacement, kupuna care, and rent and utility aid for those who do not qualify for FEMA.

Abcde Rosa (left), health care navigator with Imua Family Services, and Puanani Crabbe Parker, health care outreach manager with the Med-QUEST Division of the state Department of Human Services, work outside the Kako‘o Maui Resource Hub on Monday morning. The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photos

Later this month, the resource hub also plans to announce free courses on commercial driver’s licensing and occupational safety training to help prepare Maui residents for the jobs that will be coming in the cleanup and rebuilding of Lahaina, Lewis said.

They also plan to launch a mobile support team on Maui to take services to the community.

The hub’s Maui staffers and resources are what put 17-year-old Mason Pang and 19-year-old Kaina Pawai-Pang at ease. The brothers lost their home behind Fleetwood’s on Front Street and were looking for financial aid on Monday.

“It’s for locals,” Pang said of the resource hub. “I feel like I can put my trust more into them than these out of state places.”

On Aug. 8, the brothers had been with a friend at the beach when the fire began and the roads to get back home were closed.

The Kako‘o Maui Resource Hub was packed with local residents looking for assistance and agencies offering disaster relief resources on Monday morning. The Maui News / COLLEEN UECHI photos

“Just lost. We had no clue what was going on,” Pawai-Pang said of how they felt that day.

After staying at Pang’s girlfriend’s house in Honokowai, they left Lahaina and got in touch with their families. They haven’t been able to get back to their place since. Pang said they’ve seen pictures of the house, “and obviously there’s nothing left there.” Now they’re trying to figure out what’s next — Pawai-Pang is looking for a mechanic job, and Pang, who would’ve been a senior at Lahainaluna, is trying to figure out how he can stay on Maui and finish high school.

“We moved in with our dad and his wife,” Pang said. “Taking on two boys isn’t very easy. It’s more food for the house, and it’s hard to find work right now. So we’re trying to find a little financial assistance until we can get ourselves back on our feet.”

The Akiona family also came to the hub on Monday hoping to finish paperwork for a SBA disaster loan. Tamara Akiona said she had been trying to do the paperwork at the Hyatt Regency when a brush fire forced her to evacuate on Aug. 26.

“That was a big trigger,” Akiona said. “Lights went out, power went out, and I wasn’t able to finish it. Went back the next day and they weren’t there. So this is our third attempt to complete it.”

On Aug. 8, the Akionas lost their Wahikuli home, displacing 10 people. The morning had started out full of laughter — with school closed and the internet down, the family had pulled out a board game that Tamara Akiona had gotten for her birthday in June.

That afternoon, the winds grew “crazy.” Shingles were flying off of people’s homes. When her husband Kawehi Akiona came home, “he walked into chaos” as they rushed to secure fencing and tuck items into corners. Then they saw the cloud of dark smoke rise above their home.

“I seen the smoke, and I listened for explosions, and I could tell something was burning and things were blowing up,” Kawehi Akiona said. “And then we seen flames down our street which was higher than the palm trees. … That was our cue to start packing.”

They loaded three cars full of the kids and one cat and evacuated, first to Hawaiian Homes, then to the chaos of the Lahaina Civic Center, and finally to the Hyatt where family members worked. All 10 of them spent the night in one room.

“The kids eventually fell asleep, but we didn’t,” Tamara Akiona said. “The three of us watched from the balcony and watched Lahaina burn. Listened to every boat blow up. And I kept asking, what’s left to burn? There’s nothing. How can that be? But somehow there was more.”

Her stepdaughter Kaohu Flores-Akiona, who didn’t know where her mom was at the time, was the only kid awake.

“Just so much things going through your mind, you know? I had no connection, so this was kind of useless,” said Flores-Akiona, pointing to her cellphone. “So it was like, OK, what’s there else to do? My mind was just broken.”

Even now, “I still don’t think it happened,” Flores-Akiona added. “It just seems like a normal day, but once you pass through Lahaina, you just see all the disaster, and once you hit Kaanapali, it’s like, what happened?”

The family came to the resource hub Monday partly because Tamara Akiona’s son Dustin Kaleiopu is one of the staff members, but also because it felt “more family oriented” and “more inviting” than other places they’d gone.

Keahi, who was born and raised in Lahaina and whose family goes back more than nine generations in the area, said helping other people is what’s helping her cope with her own losses.

“I think the biggest blessing is I get to give back,” Keahi said. “It’s heart filling. It’s na’au filling. Being able to give back to the community who gave to me and help us rise and be together as one and to just remind them that we’re all in this together. We’re all here together in the long run. We’re not going anywhere.”

* Managing Editor Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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