STAND. COM. REP. NO. 17

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 156

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 156 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds for the rental housing trust fund and new public housing redevelopment.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Association of REALTORS, Hawaii Primary Care Association, Partners in Care, and PHOCUSED.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

     Your Committee finds that according to the Hawaii Housing Planning Study in 2011, there is an estimated need for over 13,000 rental units by 2016 for households at or below eighty percent of the area median income.  Of those needed rental units, nearly seventy-five percent are needed by households at or below fifty percent of the area median income.  Your Committee therefore finds that the financial support offered by this measure will greatly assist many of Hawaii's struggling families to achieve financial stability by expanding affordable housing opportunities.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 156 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 and Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair