U‘i Kahue-Cabanting was teaching a series of cultural workshops to Hawaii expats in Oregon last week when she received a text message from the American Red Cross asking for her whereabouts.

Before she left Maui for Portland, U‘i had informed the disaster relief agency that a business trip would cause her to miss one of her required in-person check-ins with Red Cross workers. She arranged to check in by phone instead. 

So she was shocked to receive a text message the day before her planned phone check-in directing her to contact hotel security to retrieve her belongings from her government-funded room at the Royal Lahaina Resort.

“It basically said I had been locked out of the room and to come get my stuff,” U‘i explained.

Displaced Lahaina wildfire survivors housed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s temporary sheltering program are required to check in twice a week with the Red Cross, which is managing the program. People housed by the program are also expected to proactively document their own attempts to find stable housing. 

Non-compliance with the rules — should participants fail to provide documentation to FEMA or vacate their room for more than the allowed seven days, for example — is grounds for being kicked out of the program.

FEMA spokeswoman Jenny Campora referred questions to the Red Cross. Red Cross spokeswoman Mary Simkins declined to comment specifically on U‘i’s case.

U‘i’s apparent ouster from the program comes at a time when the government is trying to wind down the emergency sheltering program, which for nearly 10 months has temporarily housed wildfire survivors in pricey resort hotels and condos. 

As of Wednesday, there were still 956 fire survivors from 379 households, as well as 95 pets, living in seven hotels and resorts across Maui. The government is trying to move people who are eligible for FEMA’s direct-lease program out of the hotels and condos and into homes and apartments with more economical long-term leases. But the process has been plagued by challenges.

U‘i said she knows the Red Cross check-ins are mandatory, which is why she arranged to hold hers remotely while traveling for business. She said she can’t identify any other reason why she’d be kicked out of the hotel housing program before it expires, now set for June 10 thanks to FEMA’s latest extension.

She was so irked by the situation that she waited a day to respond to the text message: “How is this possible?” she replied. “You told me to do this, this, this and this, and I did exactly that. Plus, I followed up.”

She is eligible for FEMA’s direct-lease program, but she has declined to participate because she’s already planning for her own housing recovery with her business partner Mario Siatris. The pair plan to live in a custom trailer RV that they’re in the process of shipping to Maui from the mainland.

U‘i said she didn’t think she’d be able to rectify the situation with the Red Cross remotely. So she decided she’d deal with it when she returned to Maui. 

In the meantime, she had a busy schedule to keep in Oregon. In addition to teaching a series of coconut-weaving workshops, she and Mario had a long-awaited personal errand to make. The pair drove nearly three hours to an RV retailer near Mount St. Helens to view their newly assembled trailer — a creative temporary housing solution that they view as the next step in their recovery.

To comply with the loss-of-use coverage rules set by Mario’s homeowners insurance, U‘i’s husband Ronald Cabanting, who was also on the Oregon trip, signed the purchase agreement for the 26-foot trailer. U‘i lined up a company to transport the rig to Oakland, California, where it’s scheduled to board a barge and set sail to Maui on June 19. 

With land and sea shipping fees, the trailer will cost about $53,000. Mario plans to rent it from Ron using payouts from his homeowners insurance, and both he and U‘i plan to live in it while Mario rebuilds his burned-down home in the heart of Lahaina on Mela Street. 

The trailer is expected to arrive on Maui sometime between July 10 and 17. U‘i and Mario aren’t exactly sure where they’ll park it, but they think they’ll stay mobile, rotating between public beach park parking lots and friends’ residential properties.

U‘i and Mario were supposed to fly back to Maui from Portland last Tuesday. Mario was able to get on a delayed flight just before midnight that day, but bad weather forced U‘i and Ron to spend two extra nights in Portland.

“We got back and we were sick, we were broke,” U‘i said. “So we went to couch surf with my daughter in Kihei and then I hit the ground running.”

She worked a double shift Friday and attended her granddaughter’s graduation from Hawaiian immersion elementary school Saturday.

“I had just had a huge week and I wasn’t ready to deal with the Red Cross,” she said.

But this week U‘i said she plans to meet in-person with Red Cross workers to figure out why she’s apparently been kicked out of the hotel housing program, and to collect her belongings. 

She can’t continue to stay with her daughter in her apartment in Kihei because it’s part of a subsidized workforce housing development with strict rules about overnight guests. But until the trailer arrives in July she can stay with Mario, who’s still living at a Kaanapali condominium resort.

Even after the FEMA hotel and condominium housing program ends, Mario will be able to remain in the unit he’s occupied for the last nine months. He said the owner of the unit has assured him he can stay in place for as long as he needs. This offer has been extended to U‘i, too.

“The bottom line is I can shack up with Mario, so it’s not like I won’t have a roof over my head,” U‘i explained. “It’s just a really shitty thing, and if they did it to me they’re probably doing it to others.”

U‘i said she probably won’t spend too much energy trying to convince the Red Cross to let her stay in her room at the Royal Lahaina Resort. Not with the hotel housing program winding down anyway.

“Even if for some bizarre reason they turn themselves around, I should just get my stuff and remove myself from that situation,” she said. “I don’t need the added stress.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.