STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3370

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1539

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1539, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY'S ADMINISTRATION OF THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prevent applicants from circumventing the waiting list of the housing choice voucher program by requiring that housing choice vouchers be surrendered upon the vacancy of the last original household member or when the youngest minor of the household reaches age twenty-one.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Community Alliance for Mental Health, and two individuals.

     Your Committee finds that some individuals circumvent the housing choice voucher program waiting list by adding new people to a household and allowing them to "inherit" a housing choice voucher.  Your Committee believes that this is a misuse of the program that causes needy and deserving families to remain on the waiting list longer than appropriate and forces them to temporarily live in unsafe neighborhoods.  Your Committee finds that this measure will close an existing loophole in the law and promote equity in the housing choice voucher program.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Authorizing a household to retain a housing choice voucher until a minor in the household reaches age twenty-three if the minor is a full-time student;

(2)  Specifying how minors may be added to a household without jeopardizing the validity of the household's housing choice voucher status; and

(3)  Deleting the requirement that any legal guardian added to a household to care for the minor children must be eligible for participation in the housing choice voucher program, but retaining the prohibition that the legal guardian may not retain the housing choice voucher following the youngest minor reaching age twenty-one or twenty-three, as applicable.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1539, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1539, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair