Residents of Maui are experiencing heightened distress in the aftermath of devastating fires that have left hundreds missing, many of them children.
This anguish has been compounded by a new crisis: evictions. On a recent episode of his show, Jesse Watters explored this disturbing development.
Many Maui residents are feeling frustrated and suspicious as they face eviction orders which appear to be intended to benefit landlords and property developers.
The timing of an emergency housing proclamation signed by Hawaii’s Democratic Governor three weeks prior to a devastating wildfire has raised questions regarding who truly benefits from such policy decisions, further fueling the fire.
“Hawaiians are being evicted from their homes so landlords can cash in,” Watters said in his report.
“We’ve been receiving call after call of people who are being asked to be evicted by their landlords, people who are being displaced during a time of emergency when their house was like the only house standing in their neighborhood, simply because the owner of the house realized that their investment is no longer a sound investment,” said one local resident during the Maui County Council emergency meeting.
The timing of an emergency housing proclamation signed by Hawaii’s Democratic Governor three weeks prior to a devastating wildfire has raised questions regarding who truly benefits from such policy decisions, further fueling the fire.
According to the press release, “The Emergency Proclamation Relating to Housing, signed by Governor Green on July 17, 2023, aims to streamline the development process and empower developers and stakeholders to contribute to the creation of more housing opportunities. The Emergency Proclamation reflects extensive input from state and county agencies that provided details on process maps, application checklists, common areas of approval delays, and recommended touchpoints for engagement.”
“Through the Governor’s Emergency Proclamation, a streamlined process has been put in place to accelerate housing production while maintaining the highest standards of quality.”
Some residents have described the proclamation as highly suspicious.
“To my knowledge, this was the first emergency proclamation in the country that didn’t have a preceding incident,” said another local resident during the council meeting. “This was just from my knowledge, was just to streamline development on Maui and it is allocated all decision-making power to one person, the housing officer of the governor, Nani Medeiros, who’s unelected, who can trump every single thing that you do. They’re meeting with developers, private landowners.”
Governor Josh Green of Hawaii’s Democratic administration has recently announced his consideration of acquiring properties in Lahaina that have been affected by recent wildfires.
“I’m already thinking of ways for the state to acquire that land so that we can put it into workforce housing, to put it back into families, or make it open spaces in perpetuity as a memorial to the people who were lost,” Green said.
“We want this to be something we remember after the pain passes as a magic place. Lahaina will rebuild. The tragedy right now is the loss of life. The buildings can be rebuilt over time, even the banyan tree may survive, but we don’t want this to become a clear space where then people from overseas just come and decide they’re gonna take it. The state will take it and preserve it first.”
Watters expressed his worries that affluent proprietors, such as Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Jeff Bezos, may reap the rewards of this circumstance.
“The emergency housing proclamation was declared weeks before the actual emergency created a housing emergency,” said Watters. “This emergency proclamation has been described as a gift to developers. The residents are apoplectic because of all the emergency powers. They go to a housing czar, and residents get no say. Now, the residents think developers, government officials, and all those billionaires who have bought up land in Hawaii like Zuckerberg, Oprah, Bezos are going to take advantage of the devastation.”
Christine Borge, a 61-year-old Lahaina resident who lost her home in the fire, expressed her dissatisfaction with high-profile individuals such as Jeff Bezos and Oprah Winfrey for exploiting the situation.
“Jeff Bezos, you got what you wanted. Oprah, you got what you wanted — F*** us all over,” she said, implying that the disaster would benefit wealthy individuals who have vested interests in the area.
Republican Representative Diamond Garcia of the Hawaii House of Representatives joined the show, pointing out the lack of clear information from federal and state authorities. “When asked what the death count was for children, the answer was, ‘I don’t know.’ When asking FEMA and calling FEMA for more resources, they get the voicemail,” said Garcia.
WATCH:
Maui residents say they’re being evicted so landlords can cash in and they’re highly suspicious of the Democrat governor of Hawaii signing an emergency housing proclamation 3 weeks before the fires. They say rich developers are the ones winning here, not them..
To make matters… pic.twitter.com/kfpwdNJ5mY
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) August 29, 2023
What can you expect from democrats? Look at the road blocks that caused people to die, the delay in allowing water to fight the fires, and now you have the same democrats who ordered the road blocks and delays wanting to do a massive land grab. Question is, how many of those homes were privately owned and how many land owners did the democrats manage to kill off? Just curious and if Hawaiians are smart they will vote out the democrats and remember what “great help” they were to the citizens.
I agree. Sounds suspicious to me also. Vote the Dems out of office !! All the ones in power.
Liberals like those in the fire zone have fallen for the talking point that the liberal figures they vote in actually care about them. Considering “open space.” Sadly, in my town in CO a bunch fell for the same notion of implementing “open space” to “preserve the city environment for future generations.” A vote created an unelected panel that decides which land to buy with no voter oversight. Gee, buy a property and it is removed from the tax base. Do the same with a few hundred acres across the city, and people’s property taxes go up to pay for city services. A couple years into the open space thing, the panel was caught buying hundreds of acres across CO, KS, and WY. The panel insisted it was consistent with the goal to “preserve open space.” And, if out of city/state tracts of land were being sold by friends and relatives of panel members……