STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1267

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1072

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1072, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to increase the number of affordable housing units in Honolulu's urban core by creating the Kakaako Affordable Housing Development Program and Fund in the Kakaako Community Development District to provide subsidies and other types of assistance for the new construction, rehabilitation, acquisition, or preservation of certain types of multifamily housing units that are and remain affordable in perpetuity for people meeting certain income requirements.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, the Hawaii Community Development Authority, and Housing Hawaii.  The Department of Budget and Finance submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

     Your Committees find that the State is facing a shortage of affordable housing and that Hawaii's low- to moderate-income families are experiencing difficulties entering the housing market.  The intent of this measure is increase the number of affordable housing units, specifically in the Kakaako District.

     Your Committees have amended this measure to remove the creation of the Kakaako Affordable Housing Development Fund and to only include an appropriation from the general funds of the State.  Your Committees have also amended this measure to change the sunset date from five to three years. 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1072, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1072, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing and Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________ RUSSELL S. KOKUBUN, Chair

____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair