MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab and Dewberry Engineers
Partner: FEMA
FEMA, along with other federal, state, local, non-profit and private entities, quickly began implementing programs to house displaced disaster survivors following the Hawaii Lahaina Fire on August 9, 2023. The Agency initially implemented the Direct Lease program, renting existing properties for survivors, and then transitioned into providing direct temporary housing via Alternative Transportable Temporary Housing Units (ATTHUs). As of the preparation of this report in September 2024, no survivors were in ATTHUs. FEMA engaged Dewberry Engineers and MIT to study potential strategies for the Agency to deliver temporary housing – in line with the agency’s programmatic requirements – faster in Maui.
The team studied site-side timelines, including permitting and site preparation, as well as housing production timelines: production, transport, and installation. The team interviewed manufacturers of housing solutions across four categories: non-congregate, panelized single-family, volumetric single-family, and multi-family (volumetric off-site modular multi-family). The goal was to understand and summarize each of these housing alternatives against a few criteria, with a focus on the timeline for each to be move-in-ready.
For more information, please reach out to humanitarian@mit.edu.