Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 2072, H.D. 2, entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide housing assistance, including rent, mortgage, utility, and related expenses, to certain needy individuals who lost their jobs in the economic downturn resulting from September 11, 2001.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; Volunteer Legal Services Hawai'i; Kauai Economic Opportunity, Incorporated; Partners In Care; Hawaii Catholic Conference; Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, Institute for Human Services, Inc.; and Hawai'i Together. The Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii submitted testimony supporting the intent of this measure.

Your Committees find that the Emergency Assistance Grant and Loan (EAGL) Fund, established in the Third Special Session of 2001, provided a first response and has been successful in assisting hundreds of individuals with maintaining self-sufficiency through housing assistance. Your Committees further find, however, that many individuals have not yet been able to secure adequate employment to meet all of their living expenses and thus the State's safety net of housing assistance needs to remain in place so that families may remain in their homes.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2072, H.D. 2, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.