Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2924 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii (HCDHC) to evict, through a judicial process, tenants in violation of their rental agreement.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the HCDCH, the Honolulu Police Department, the Hawaii County Police Department, the Maui County Police Department, and a private citizen.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii is currently experiencing a statewide shortage of low-income housing rentals. Your Committee further finds that in 2003, the waiting lists for low rent public housing included nearly 19,000 families, while HCDCH manages only somewhere in excess of 6,500 public housing units within the State. Therefore, the public housing program must be efficiently managed to attempt to accommodate the need for housing for these families. As of June 30, 2003, 182 tenants had been referred for eviction, 139 of which were referred due to non-payment of rent. Under the current law, the public housing eviction process permits violating tenants to remain in public housing for over twelve months.

Your Committee determines that it is crucial to modify the current public housing eviction process in order to make public housing units available more expeditiously for those families on the waiting lists. The institution of a streamlined process for public housing eviction that is equivalent to the eviction process provided to low-income families renting units in the private marketplace, which also provides for grievances procedures, will increase efficiency while continuing to safeguard a tenant's due process rights.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical changes to reflect preferred drafting style.

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. 2924, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2924, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.