A red-letter day for the developmentally delayed community of Maui was the opening of La’a Kea Village, with gifted funds used to purchase Mele House in Paia.

Presently, there are 1,600 developmentally delayed people on Maui. It took 18 months to get a state license for Mele House to be a group home,

Today La’a Kea is closing the home and evicting the residents.

Their reasoning is that they cannot find workers to manage it.

Maui Hope, a licensed provider for the developmentally delayed population, offered to manage it for them. They do not like Maui Hope’s executive director and would prefer to leave it empty.

Au’wae, so petty. It takes 130 percent of a monthly stipend to rent a studio on Maui.

According to one of the staff of La’a Kea, a meeting was held in December telling them that Mele House was going to be rented to Federal Emergency Management Agency. They would bypass having to “manage” Mele House and use the money for the day program at the farm.

It is a sad day for Maui, taking housing from our most fragile sector of population. My heart is broken.

Donna P. Ting

Kula