Maui already needed an estimated 5,000 new homes even before the Aug. 8 wildfires damaged or destroyed 3,526 structures, most of them residences, according to Gov. Josh Green.

Until Lahaina can be rebuilt one day, Green, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, the American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others are pushing to find longer-term housing for 6,879 fire evacuees who were still staying in Maui hotels this week, most of them in Kaanapali.

Or as Green told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Friday, “essentially 3,000 locations for 3,000 families that were displaced.” The 3,526 structures include those that were destroyed or so heavily damaged that they cannot be occupied, including those without water and electricity.

Low-income families with dependent children are eligible for up to $30,000 through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which they can use for a wide range of needs — including housing — “that could set them onto a really good long term,” Green said.

Because of Maui’s tight housing market, FEMA also offers financial assistance at 175% of Maui’s fair-market housing rate.

FEMA already has provided rental assistance to nearly 3,300 people and hopes to give them extensions of 18 months.

But the challenge remains to find longer-term housing that satisfies evacuees’ differing needs.

Most want kitchens, washers and dryers, along with yards for pets and children, said Denise Everhart, the Red Cross’ disaster executive for the Pacific Division, which includes Hawaii.

The Red Cross has hired more than 100 people from Maui to help evacuees find answers to their needs, including housing.

“Most people want to move on and get to a better situation and into a stable situation,” Everhart said. “It’s better to be in a house with a kitchen. That seems to be the attitude of everybody.”

Families with school-age children, especially, want to be close to familiar schools.

Many of the evacuees lived in multi-unit, multigenerational homes and want to stay together, compounding the challenge, Everhart said.

For large families that can’t be placed into a big home, she said, the search involves homes for each family but located near one another.

Every type of housing is being considered — or what Green calls “the menu of options”: private homes where the host can receive $375 a month for every person taken in; Airbnbs, Vrbos and timeshares; and even renting out entire condo and apartment complexes, hotels and individual units.

At the same time, landowners are encouraged to build accessory dwelling units, which are allowed on Maui, to help ease Maui’s overall housing shortage.

And Green said the state is “moving rapidly” on creating more homes on state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands property on Maui for Native Hawaiian beneficiaries.

Until Lahaina can be rebuilt, Green said, “the goal is to get every single family into a more stable long-term solution. We need each of these programs to succeed. … It’s important that we have success each month. … We’ll do what we have to do to keep a roof over their heads.”

“It’s almost a mosaic we’re putting together,” said Bob Fenton, FEMA’s regional administrator. “We need to have a bunch of different options.”

FEMA has contracted with three property management companies for 52 units for fire evacuees and is “negotiating for more,” Fenton said. “A lot of units on Maui are empty.”

At the same time, FEMA has identified four potential sites for transitional modular homes — three in West Maui and one in Central Maui.

Along with infrastructure needs, however, it will take much longer to get them up running compared with moving hotel evacuees into existing units.

“It takes longer to build something,” Fenton said.

The effort also involves encouraging owners of short-term rentals to convert them to long-term leases — which would give landlords better tax benefits.

“These are the long-term rentals we want,” Green said.

At a Maui news conference last week, Bissen said, “We’re trying to incentivize folks … but we’re appealing to people’s conscience to see if they will do what we think is the right thing to help someone if you have a vacant unit and you know there’s a family that can use it. We’re asking nicely, and we’re also offering a financial incentive.”

The Hawaii Housing Finance &Development Corp. also has been working to connect landlords with tenants and has identified 781 properties that may be suitable on Maui — 38% or so in West Maui.

An HHFDC survey resulted in 52 responses. Of those, 50% said they were housing a total of 106 fire evacuees.

Forty-five of the units are being rented for a year or more, while 17 are being rented for less than a month, according to HHFDC.

“We certainly anticipate that there will be a growing demand for long-term housing as we enter the next phase of recovery,” HHFDC said in a statement. “Our goal is to meet this demand as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Fenton, from FEMA, hopes to connect fire evacuees with at least 18 months of financial housing help during the next phase — long enough for them to spend at least “two holidays in the same place. … We’re going to find a housing solution.”

Green is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden in the White House this week and also with officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Green plans to “thank the president for being completely by our side” as well as request help to fill Maui’s housing needs “in all ways.”

“Frankly,” Green said, “we have a lot of need right now.”