Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 135, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii to convene a task force on Hawaii's affordable housing shortage.

Your Committee received favorable testimony from the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, the Mayor of Maui county, the Hawaii Family Economic Self Sufficiency Standard Advisory Committee, the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, the Catholic Charities of Hawaii -- Elderly Services, the Institute of Real Estate Management -- Hawaii Chapter No. 34, the Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, the Honolulu Board of Realtors, and the Hawaii Association of Realtors.

Your Committee finds that the current real estate boom has resulted in the sale of many of the State's rental housing units. Oahu's apartment inventory has decreased substantially in the past two years and has forced many local families to either pay as much as nine per cent more in rental rates, move-in with another local household, or as a last resort, become part of Hawaii's increasing homeless population. Your Committee also finds that the housing problem is evident in all counties, with Kauai county reporting a shortage of three hundred fifty affordable housing units and Maui county estimating a need of at least four thousand units.

To better understand this housing crisis and to allow the Legislature to respond to this problem in a meaningful and cost-effective manner, your Committee believes that a task force comprised of public and private sector housing representatives would be best suited to gather and interpret relevant facts, statistics, and information with respect to the shortage of affordable housing in the State.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 135, S.D. 1, and recommends its adoption.