Monthly cash payments are reaching some Lahaina fire survivors through a Maui mutual aid nonprofit that says it is targeting a gap left by slower, uneven long-term recovery. The program, run through what it calls the Kahua Card, sends households payments for one year as they work through needs that can persist even after emergency attention has faded.
Mari Younger is among those receiving help. The 49-year-old said she began receiving $700 monthly on a special Mastercard last December after a case manager suggested she apply for the cash assistance for people impacted by the Maui fires.
Younger described how the fires upended her life in West Maui and left her far from financial stability. She said a health emergency forced her to stop working and that when the Lahaina fires destroyed what she knew, she eventually found herself about 30 miles away in a converted hotel room and struggling to afford groceries. She said her disability payments could not cover health insurance, car payments, and the food she needed to gain weight.
Her account of the cash program’s effect is tied to choices about everyday needs. Younger said she mostly used the payments for food and supplements, including supplies for her cat, and that the money helped her put other income toward health insurance and paying down debt she had accrued before help. She also said the payments reduced pressure and eased anxiety about replacing spoiled groceries during a power outage.
The program’s designers say the approach is meant to stabilize people at higher risk of falling through cracks. Nicole Huguenin, executive director of Maui Rapid Response, said letting survivors choose how to use cash helps “unwind the trauma and gets them out of survival mode faster.” Huguenin said demand for the program points to a longstanding problem in disaster recovery: some people continue to face urgent unmet needs years after a disaster while funding and attention shrink.
Maui Rapid Response first launched the Kahua Card as a six-month pilot to see whether cash could help households still struggling after the August 2023 tragedy that killed at least 102 people, destroyed 2,200 structures and displaced 12,000 residents. In that pilot, Huguenin said the nonprofit sent 18 households up to $1,100 per month, depending on family size, using donations gathered after the fires.
The pilot collected spending and self-reported outcomes. Huguenin said spending data showed participants mainly used the money for food, transportation, utilities and personal items. She said that by the pilot’s end, 80% of recipients reported feeling less anxious or stressed, and for one-third, the financial boost gave them breathing room to seek better jobs; she also said participants described increased control as part of the effect.
The pilot also underscored limits of cash alone, particularly on housing. More than half of participants said they still had unmet housing needs at the program’s end, and less than 20% were able to use the extra income to pay rent. Huguenin said one-third felt anxious about the payments ending, and she described the effort as a step toward a broader safety net rather than a complete solution for recovery.
Research cited in support of cash assistance suggests payments can address specific problems even when other forms of aid fall short. Stacia West, co-founder and director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research and an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, said disaster cash assistance programs across the U.S. typically reduce food insecurity and help people shore up finances, while impacts on mental health are less conclusive. West said cash programs have not shown a strong ability to ease rent burdens, citing rising housing costs, and Huguenin said the need for long-term recovery remains.
The nonprofit behind the Kahua Card said it is looking to scale lessons beyond the pilot, including toward other disaster-affected families. Huguenin said sustained cash assistance after disasters is still rare, citing examples that include $1,000 payments for six months to survivors of the 2016 Tennessee fires supported by Dolly Parton’s foundation, and a 2023 effort that paid 8,100 Maui survivors $1,200 for six months. She said she hopes the Kahua Card can become a blueprint for organizations that can provide resources similar to the program’s model.
In parallel, Hawaii officials have moved on other forms of financial support, which organizers said could complement cash assistance. The Maui County Council approved a $12 million cash assistance program for working households living above the poverty line but still unable to make ends meet, and Jeeyun Lee of Maui United Way said that program will administer assistance for a different demographic with a similar objective. Lee said the organizations involved are trying to build systems that can help activate a “really extensive safety net” during future disasters—before crises spread through the economy and into households’ ability to stay fed, housed, and secure.
For Younger, the immediate benefit is also measured in planning time. She said the cash has helped her gain about 10 pounds and that money is still tight, but “nothing like when she could barely feed herself.” She said she may need to find new housing for herself and Stella by August, but that she now feels able to make moves with more “traction.”