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By Audrey McAvoy

The Associated Press

HONOLULU 鈥� Hawaii Gov. Josh Green last week said he wants 3,000 condos and homes that are normally rented to Maui tourists converted to long-term housing for displaced wildfire survivors who are now living in hotels.

Green said he鈥檚 prepared to use the 鈥渉ammer鈥� of post-fire emergency orders to make sure owners of short-term vacation rentals change them to long-term units if enough spaces aren’t converted voluntarily by mid-January.

The governor said that as of Dec. 13, there were 6,297 residents still living in hotels more than four months after the聽聽wiped out historic Lahaina. The vast majority don鈥檛 have anywhere else to go given the extreme housing shortage on Maui.

The lack of stable housing has been a source of stress for Lahaina residents, some of whom have had to聽聽multiple times since the fire. One group is聽聽on Kaanapali Beach in front of resort hotels and vows to stay there until short-term rentals are converted to accommodate residents.

A combination of county tax incentives and generous rent subsidies offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency should help, Green said.

FEMA last week sent letters to 13,000 short-term rental operators across Maui informing them the agency would offer to pay them the same rent they earned during the previous year for their units, Green said.

In addition, the Maui County Council is currently considering legislation for property tax breaks promoted by the mayor.

鈥淪o, there is no reason at all for people not to take this opportunity provided they want to be a helpful part of the solution,鈥� Green said.

The aim is for these measures to provide interim housing for two years, while more housing is built on Maui, Green said.

Currently, there are between 12,000 and 14,000 units legally rented on a short-term basis on Maui, according to Green. Including illegal ones, he estimated there could be nearly 25,000.

鈥淪o, we really only need to get about 10 percent, maybe 12 percent, of all the available short-term units on Maui,鈥� he said.

Ideally, officials could rent out an entire building or an entire time-share property, he said.

FEMA will pay for units rented to about 2,000 families. The state of Hawaii and private philanthropists will cover rent for the remaining 1,000 families who are undocumented or are citizens from so-called聽 and who aren鈥檛 eligible for FEMA aid, Green said.

He didn鈥檛 have an estimate for how much this would cost. He said it would depend on how many rentals become available.

Green said it currently costs $350 to $500 per day to house one family in a hotel room, including food and services.