STAND. COM. REP. NO. 496

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 969

       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 Human Services and Housing and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 969 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FARM WORKER HOUSING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Allow one or more employee dwellings to be built on an agricultural park lot or non-agricultural park lot that is leased by a long-term lessee with lease terms of at least thirty-five years and a lot size of at least five acres, with restrictions; and

     (2)  Appropriate an unspecified amount from the general fund to be expended by the Department of Agriculture to develop farm worker housing.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Interagency Council on Homelessness; Hawaii Farm Bureau; Hawaii Farmers Union United; ‘Ai Pohaku; Hawaii Farmers Union United, Kona Chapter; and twenty-six individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture.

     Your Committees find that it is difficult for farmers in Hawaii who operate small farms to make their farms sustainable for a myriad of reasons, including but not limited to disease and pest control, bad weather, available and reliable markets, and the availability of good farm laborers. Farm labor housing, like affordable rental housing, is scarce in Hawaii primarily because of the cost of land and construction.  Generally, farmers that have long-term agricultural land leases of privately owned land in Hawaii have provisions in the leases that allow them to build farm labor housing in addition to an owner-occupied residential dwelling.  That is not the case for farmers who have long-term leases to farm agricultural and non-agricultural parks because the lease agreements with the Department of Agriculture limit the lessee to one farm or employee dwelling per lot, upon demonstration of need and approval of the Board of Agriculture, which lot must serve as the principal residence of the lessee.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting language that would have allowed one or more employee dwellings to be built on an agricultural park lot that is leased by a long-term lessee with lease terms of at least thirty-five years and a lot size of at least five acres, with restrictions;

     (2)  Requiring the Department of Agriculture to examine issues related to the implementation of rental housing on non-agricultural park lands;

     (3)  Requiring the Department of Agriculture to submit a report of its findings, recommendations, and proposed legislation related to rental housing on non-agricultural park lands;

     (4)  Specifying that the appropriation shall be used for rental housing enforcement on non-agricultural park lands;

     (5)  Inserting a sunset date of June 29, 2018, for the allowance of rental housing on non-agricultural park lands; and

     (6)  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 Human Services and Housing and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 969, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 969, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________ RUSSELL E. RUDERMAN, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair