Details of a celebration of life for Kathryn Mae Snyder will be announced in approximately two months.

LAHAINA — A Maui woman who successfully helped to lead some 250 tenants to effectively resist an eviction in Lahaina has died.

Kathryn Mae Snyder, co-chair of the Front Street Apartment Tenants Group, died of complications related to cancer on Nov. 13 at her home in Lahaina, among family and friends. She was 86.

Snyder, born on Sept. 18, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Minn., was a retired drug and alcohol counselor and planned to spend her remaining years at Front Street Apartments when she agreed to become a leader in the anti-eviction struggle in late 2017.

In February, Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino praised Snyder and Co-chair Barbara Henny for their community service.

“Your leadership was crucial in developing a successful strategy to keep rents affordable to prevent tenants from falling into homelessness,” Victorino said in the Feb. 24 commendation presented to the two as community advocates. “Because of your aloha, these tenants continue to enjoy stable, affordable housing in West Maui.”

Snyder’s group successfully secured support from the Hawaii State Legislature in 2018 to effectively halt the eviction.

Henny said Snyder agreed to become a volunteer co-chair at a time when tenant leadership was in flux, after a legislative bill to stop the eviction failed in early 2017.

“Kathryn’s determination and positivity assisted greatly with the efforts of the tenants in seeking a fair outcome to maintain the affordable rental rights,” Henny explained.

The building owner planned to either sell the apartments or convert the apartments from state affordable housing to market-priced homes by November, 2019.

Snyder and other tenant leaders pointed out how the county, state and federal government had already contributed some $20 million in tax credits and building exemptions to develop the affordable rental housing.

State lawmakers passed bills authorizing the purchase of the land and apartment buildings to permanently keep the complex as affordable.

Snyder was a member of the Lahaina-Honolua Senior Citizens Club and Unity Church in Wailuku.

Snyder is survived by two sons, Lee Strom and Dan Snyder; daughter Diana Paulsen; four granddaughters and eight great-grandchildren.