STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3231

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 755

       H.D. 3

       S.D. 2

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 755, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to streamline the public housing eviction process by conforming procedural requirements to federal law.  Specifically, this measure:

     (1)  Amends section 356D-92, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to conform public housing termination and eviction procedural requirements to federal law; and

     (2)  Amends section 356D-93, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to delete the requirement of establishing at least one eviction board in each county and to decrease the minimum member requirement of the eviction board.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

     Your Committee finds that this measure assists the Hawaii Public Housing Authority in streamlining the eviction procedures that are utilized to remove lease violators from federal low income public housing administered by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

     Your Committee further finds that existing law requires the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to fly the hearing officer and hearing assistant to neighbor islands to conduct hearings before the Maui, Kauai, Hilo, and Kona eviction boards.  In light of budget reductions by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, deleting this requirement would provide the Authority the option to conduct Oahu-based videoconferencing to conduct hearings on neighbor islands.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Adding the federal citation to specify the federal regulations that comport with the public housing termination and eviction procedural statutory requirements;

     (2)  Allowing eviction boards to use video conferencing to conduct hearings; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 755, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 755, H.D. 3, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair