Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2703 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to increase affordable housing opportunities for elderly households by allowing persons who are at least 55 years of age to reside in state-funded elderly public housing projects and privately owned projects that are assisted with state or federal resources by the HCDCH, provided that at least one person in the household is 62 years of age or older.

Your Committee heard testimony in support of the measure from the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (HCDCH), Department of Hawaiian Homelands, Pacific Housing Assistance Corporation, and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Honolulu.

Your Committee finds that the HCDCH is able to lease units solely to persons who are sixty-two years of age. This age restriction precludes elderly households with "younger" spouses or co-tenants and impacts an owner’s ability to fill vacancies. With this measure, HCDCH will be able to increase elderly housing opportunities and facilitate the leasing of units in elderly projects by increasing the pool of applicants who are at least fifty-five years of age. Additionally, this measure will also allow live-in aides to reside in elderly housing units, subject to verification by the corporation, if the aide meets certain criteria and is necessary to provide essential support services to an elderly person in the unit.

Your Committee has amended this measure to:

Make technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2703, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2703, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.