STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2101

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2269

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2269 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 require the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to designate a resident manager at each federal public housing complex and state low-income public housing project.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Community Alliance for Mental Health and one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

     Your Committee finds that having a resident manager on site at public housing locations would be helpful for residents as well as the general atmosphere of public housing.  Your Committee heard the testimony of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority expressing concerns that the Authority does not have the resources to hire a resident manager at each public housing property, and that such a program would cost over $6,500,000 per year and would likely require increasing rent at state low-income public housing.  Your Committee finds that the intent of this measure is not to financially burden the Authority or increase rent for Hawaii's low-income families.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting language that allows the Authority to establish a work study program with the University of Hawaii School of Social Work that may be implemented at each public housing complex and state low-income public housing project.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2269, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2269, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair