Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 2368, H.D. 2, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to repeal the sunset date of the expedited public housing eviction process and to exempt certain households from the expedited process.

Testimony in support of repeal of the sunset date was submitted by the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii (HCDCH). Testimony in support of retaining the sunset date was submitted by six individuals. The HCDCH and the Department of the Attorney General opposed exempting families with minor dependents, disabled individuals, and individuals of age sixty-five or older from the expedited process.

Your Committee finds that the HCDCH has been cited by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its high level of rent delinquencies and protracted rent collection procedures for public housing, but that HUD appreciates the reforms of the process enacted by the Legislature in 2002 through Act 227. Your Committee further finds that creating exemptions from the expedited eviction process, as proposed by this measure, would discriminate against protected classes of individuals, in violation of federal law and in conflict with state law. Nevertheless, your Committee finds that some public housing tenants, because of their national origin and limited proficiency in the English language, do not or cannot avail themselves of free legal services. These tenants would benefit from intervention counseling to better prepare themselves to avoid, or if necessary participate in, the eviction process.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure to:

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 H.B. No. 2368, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2368, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.