Maui Lani Fairways Welcomes Medical students Through “Housing for Healthcare” Initiative
Kahului, maui – Three third-year medical students from the John A. Burns School of Medicine are now calling a new four-bedroom, three-bath home in Kahului’s Maui Lani Fairways their temporary residence, thanks to the innovative “Housing for Healthcare” initiative spearheaded by the Maui Health Foundation. This strategic move aims to alleviate the critically important housing challenges faced by medical trainees on Maui, a barrier that has historically hindered the island’s ability to attract and retain healthcare professionals.
the newly acquired home, located less than a ten-minute drive from Maui Memorial Medical Center, provides a stable and convenient base for students undertaking their crucial hands-on medical training. Previously, the prohibitive cost of housing on Maui made it exceedingly tough for students to secure accommodation while completing their third-year rotations. This frequently enough forced them to rely on the generosity of relatives, thereby limiting the number of students who could gain valuable experience on the island.
The Kahului residence is designed to accommodate up to seven students,a capacity that will benefit more than half of the dozen medical students and residents currently studying on Maui.
Dr. Travis Hong, the John A. Burns School of Medicine’s director of Rural Health,expressed his enthusiasm for the program’s new housing solution.”This house is a blessing for our program,” Dr. Hong stated. “For the first time on Maui, we have stable housing that we know will be there, reserved just for our learners.Having this here will make future endeavors on maui much, much easier.”
The initiative directly addresses the critical physician shortage on Maui, a problem exacerbated by housing affordability issues. Medical student Tynell Ornellas highlighted the impact of such programs: “Housing is a really big issue, and it contributes a lot to the physician shortage, especially here on Maui,” Ornellas said.”So just having these houses just encourages a lot of people to come and hopefully they fall in love (with Maui) and stay.”
Echoing this sentiment, medical student Angela Phillips shared her personal experience, noting that she might not have been able to pursue her training on Maui without the housing assistance. “I have a lot of financial responsibilities,” Phillips explained. “Being in medical school is not a walk in the park when it comes to finances. However, this really is a step forward in supporting medical students in this current economy and really investing in the future of Hawaiสปi.”
The new home was officially blessed on Saturday by Kahu Kanani Franco, followed by a celebratory pฤสปina (small dinner party), marking a significant milestone in the “Housing for Healthcare” initiative and a promising step towards strengthening Maui’s healthcare workforce.