STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2032

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2442

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. 2442 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate $100,000,000 for the rental housing trust fund in order to support affordable rental housing development including projects with micro units, family units, and elder housing units.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services; Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; Office of Housing and Community Development, County of Hawaii; The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii; Hawaii Primary Care Association; Partners in Care; Catholic Charities Hawaii; PHOCUSED; Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice; Institute for Human Services; Community Alliance for Mental Health; Blueprint for Change; Living Life Source Foundation; RMA Sales; and two individuals.

     According to a 2011 Center for Housing Policy report, Honolulu was tied for being the least affordable city for renters nationwide.  Honolulu has also been ranked the third most expensive city for rentals.  The 2011 Hawaii Housing Planning Study found that there is a need for more than 13,000 rental units by 2016 for households below eighty percent of the area median income.  Your Committee finds that there is a pressing need to develop safe, decent, and affordable rental housing in Hawaii to meet the needs of individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless because they earn too much to qualify for low income housing programs yet earn too little to afford market rate housing.  Your Committee also finds that investing in housing development has a substantial economic impact, and that the appropriation of $100,000,000 to the rental housing trust fund would create approximately six hundred new affordable housing units, two hundred fifty of which would be permanent micro apartment units for very low income households.  In addition, the allocation has the potential to generate approximately one thousand jobs in Hawaii.

     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. 2442 and recommends that it pass Second Reading 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