STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2380

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3060

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 3060 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAII PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY EVICTIONS BOARDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to allow the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to hold eviction hearings without the presence of the tenant member of the Authority's eviction boards as long as quorum is met.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.  Comments on the measure were submitted by one private citizen. 

     Your Committee finds that a situation has developed where public housing eviction hearings have been delayed for months due to an inability to find a public housing tenant to serve on an eviction board, due in part to a fear of retaliation from fellow housing residents.  Your Committee further finds that allowing the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to hold eviction hearings without the presence of the tenant member of the board will eliminate these time delays and save the Authority, which is currently running at a deficit, the costs incurred by the delays.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3060, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3060, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Public Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair