Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

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, S.D. 2, entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate an unspecified amount to provide for the continued operation of developmental disabilities domiciliary homes and apartment complexes.

Your Committees received supporting testimony from the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Association of Retarded Citizens of Kona, Kauai, and Hawaii, Opportunities for the Retarded, Inc., and the Hawaii Disability Rights Center.

Your Committees find that providers of developmental disabilities residential services fulfill a critical need in the community by caring for individuals with developmental disabilities or mental retardation. These providers, however, have not been adequately reimbursed by the State for their services and, as a result, at least nine community-based developmental disabilities residences have closed due to funding shortages. If this trend continues, hundreds of persons with developmental disabilities or mental retardation risk substandard and inadequate care in a severely tight rental housing market.

This measure would address the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities or mental retardation by ensuring the adequate provision of developmental disabilities domiciliary homes and apartment complexes.

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, S.D. 2, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.