STAND. COM. REP. NO. 349

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 763

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Human Services and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 763 entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Require the Department of Land and Natural Resources, in consultation with the Department of Human Services, to establish mobile home parks throughout the State for persons whose family income is no more than 250 percent of the federal poverty level; and

     (2)  Allow the private sector to develop mobile home parks, which could help solve the homeless crisis in the State at no cost to taxpayers.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Department of Health; Hawaii Public Housing Authority; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and one individual.

     Your Committees find that the lack of affordable housing and rentals has forced some residents to live or sleep on sidewalks or in cars, business entrances, underpasses, and other public and private locations not meant for habitation.

     H.C.R. No. 202, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, Regular Session of 2006, directed the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii to study the potential of mobile home parks as a solution to Hawaii's affordable housing crisis and submit a report of its findings and recommendations to the Legislature.  The report discussed the development costs, construction, infrastructure, land use, and zoning issues related to the potential of manufactured housing communities in the State.

     Your Committees believe that mobile home parks would be a viable solution to the affordable housing crisis.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Authorizing the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, instead of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, to establish mobile home parks, consult and coordinate with appropriate county agencies and nonprofit organizations, and adopt rules;

     (2)  Changing the expending agency to the Department of Human Services;

     (3)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Human Services and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 763, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 763, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Human Services and Housing,

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

____________________________ LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair