STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2213

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2509

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2509 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Establish a seven-year limit on tenants in state low-income housing projects;

     (2)  Prohibit state low-income housing units from being passed along from one tenant to another; and

     (3)  Require unemployed tenants of state low-income housing to perform community service or enroll in classes in order to remain eligible for tenancy.

     Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Coordinator on Homelessness under the Office of the Governor and Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

     Your Committee finds that there are over 13,000 individuals on the statewide public housing waitlist.  Because the turnover rate in public housing in the State is about four percent annually, it may take up to five years for individuals to move in to public housing.  By addressing the issue of multigenerational public housing, this measure encourages individuals to move out of public housing to make room for other individuals, including people experiencing homelessness.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting language that would have established a seven-year limit on tenants in state low-income housing projects;

     (2)  Amending language to allow the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to require tenants of state low-income housing projects who are unemployed or not enrolled in at least ten hours of classes per month to perform at least twenty hours of community service per month in order to remain eligible for tenancy;

     (3)  Inserting language to exempt elders and individuals with a disability from community service and class enrollment requirements in order to remain eligible for tenancy in state low-income housing projects; and

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2509, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2509, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,

________________________________

BREENE HARIMOTO, Chair