Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2630 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the maintenance and operations of the developmental disabilities domiciliary homes and apartment complexes.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, The Arc in Hawaii, The Arc in Kona, The Arc of Kauai, and Opportunities for the Retarded, Inc.

Your Committees find that it is important for individuals with developmental disabilities to have adequate access to residential housing. Domiciliary homes and apartment complexes offer assisted living services that enable these individuals to prosper in their communities. However, a lack of funding has forced many of these homes and complexes to close.

Your Committees adopted the amendments suggested by the State Council on Developmental Disabilities to appropriate $1,798,200 for the 2006-2007 fiscal year and to change the term "development disabilities apartments" to "development disabilities apartment complexes" as defined by Act 168, Session Laws of Hawaii 2005.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2630, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2630, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.