Hawaii's buyout program concludes by 2025 for residents

A buyout program in Hawaii for properties damaged by the 2018 Kilauea eruption is set to end this year. The Voluntary Housing Buyout Program was started in 2021. It aimed to help residents in Puna whose homes were destroyed or isolated by the lava flows. So far, more than 750 property owners have applied to the program. Most buyouts should be finished by the end of 2025, but this depends on how quickly remaining applicants can complete the process. The program had three phases. Phase one focused on primary residences, with 311 people applying. As of February, only three applications from this phase are still pending. Phase two involved secondary homes with around 200 applicants, while phase three was for vacant land owners, with about 300 applications. There are currently 41 phase two and 282 phase three applications still open. The spokesperson for County Recovery, Jen Myers, mentioned that legal issues and unique property cases have complicated the processes, causing delays. Initially, the program was scheduled to conclude by the end of 2024. The total budget from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was $83.8 million. As more applicants joined the program, the maximum payout for phase three applicants decreased from $230,000 to $22,000. Myers believes that there will be enough federal funds to assist all eligible phase three applicants.