STAND. COM. REP. NO. 10

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 970

 

 

 

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. 970 entitled:

 

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

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Authorize the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to issue revenue bonds to finance the rental housing trust fund; and

 

     (2)  Allow up to $5,000,000 of conveyance tax revenues to be deposited into the rental housing trust fund to be used to repay revenue bonds and refunding revenue bonds issued to finance the rental housing trust fund.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Catholic Charities Hawaii, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, Partners in Care, PHOCUSED, Building Industry Association of Hawaii, and one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that rental units are the greatest demand for low-income households; however, the market does not normally build for this population.  The rental housing trust fund is critical because it is the only financing mechanism for households at thirty percent of the area median income or below.  With nearly seventy-eight percent of extremely low-income households paying more than half of their income in rent, there is a need to timely create thousands of units of affordable rentals.

 

     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. 970 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