STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1559

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1354

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1354, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys to various public sector housing development and management agencies to improve the quality of existing public and affordable housing stock and increase the supply of affordable and public housing units in the State.

     More specifically, this measure appropriates funds:

     (1)  To improve the existing public housing stock and increase the supply of public housing units in the State;

     (2)  For the purposes set forth in section 201H-202, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

     (3)  For the development of infrastructure and improvements of on-site and off-site development;

     (4)  For the construction of micro apartment housing units;

     (5)  To construct housing for native Hawaiian beneficiaries on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands homestead land; and

     (6)  To build affordable housing projects for veterans. 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii; Hawaii Catholic Conference; Hawaii Primary Care Association; Catholic Charities Hawaii; Partners in Care; Building Industry Association of Hawaii; Hawaii Association of REALTORS; and Protecting Hawaii's Ohana, Children, Under Served, Elderly and Disabled.  Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

     Your Committee finds that affordable housing is a serious concern for many Hawaii residents.  According to the 2011 Hawaii Housing Planning Study, almost fifty thousand new housing units must be built by 2016 to meet demand generated by changing demographics and economic conditions.  Your Committee further finds that failure to produce sufficient units for low- and moderate-income households will create pent-up demand in these market segments.  Your Committee believes that these appropriations will benefit residents of Hawaii by increasing the supply of housing units.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the appropriation to the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to improve the existing public housing stock and increase the supply of public housing units in the State, in recognition that your Committee has provided an appropriation for the Hawaii Public Housing Authority's state housing facilities in House Bill No. 1471, H.D. 2, S.D. 1 (2015); and

     (2)  Requiring each department or agency that receives an appropriation in this measure to submit a report to the Legislature, prior to the Regular Sessions of 2016 and 2017, on the department's or agency's set-aside plan for the upkeep and maintenance of the housing facilities to be constructed pursuant to this measure.

     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. 1354, 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. 1354, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair