Photo Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen (left) attends a blessing earlier this month to mark the opening of an initiative to provide below-market housing to health care providers who lost their homes in the Lahaina wildfire. The initiative is designed to keep health care providers on Maui. One of the first recipients was family physician Kyle Mouery and his family. Courtesy photo/Maui Health Foundation

Maui Memorial nurse Leah Pyle, who lost her home in the Lahaina wildfire, was worried her family of five wouldn’t be able to stay on Maui in light of rising housing prices.

But a housing initiative sponsored by a number of groups is providing her family an affordable home at below-market rents.

“I am so thankful to finally have some stability and know we can stay here until we are able to rebuild,” Pyle said.

Pyle and family physician Kyle Mouery are the first two benefitting from the development of 31 homes being built in Maui Lani by the Housing for Healthcare initiative.

Designed to stem the tide of health care providers leaving Maui because of an affordable housing shortage, the development includes 16 four-bedroom housing units and 15 ohana dwellings.

“There are 81 people on the lottery list,” said Melinda Sweaney, the Maui Health Foundation chief philanthropy officer.

Sweaney said a similar initiative has taken place in the Napa Valley in order to stabilize services by health care providers.

Mouery, who has a family of six, said his family has moved five times in the past year since the fires.

“We have been lucky to have been welcomed into the homes of my fellow colleagues and other rentals that have gotten us closer to our kid’s school,” he said. “Some of us lost family members, some of us lost our houses, we all lost our community.”

County Mayor Richard Bissen said these homes honor the selfless dedication of these health care workers who continued to care for people in the community despite enduring great personal loss.

The gift of the land was approved by Maui County, and the foundation’s donors and community supporters have raised more than $9 million.

The inspiration for the project came from local developer Everett Dowling, who suggested to then-mayor Mike Victorino the idea of the county offering 16 unused lots near Maui Memorial Medical Center to the Maui Health Foundation to create transitional housing for health care professionals, according to the foundation.

Health care professionals who live on Maui may seek more information at www.mauihealth.org/H4H or contact Emerald Club Realty Inc. at (808) 242-6629.