STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3174

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2746

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 2746, H.D. 2, 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) Clarify the duties of the Special Action Team on Affordable Rental Housing and add additional members to the Special Action Team for the purpose of addressing issues related to extremely low-income household needs; and

(2) Appropriate funds for the administration and operation of the Special Action Team on Affordable Rental Housing.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Office of Planning, Catholic Charities Hawaii, and O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i.

Your Committee finds that Act 127, Session Laws of Hawaii 2016, established a temporary Special Action Team on Affordable Rental Housing to make short- and long-term policy recommendations to increase the supply of rental housing. One of the income groups the special action team focuses on is the extremely low-income population, which consists of families with incomes at or below thirty percent of the area median income. Of the nearly 57,500 affordable housing units needed across all income levels, fifteen thousand five hundred units are needed by extremely low-income households. Extremely low-income households, therefore, account for almost twenty-seven percent of the total need for affordable housing. This measure further defines the focus for the Special Action Team in order to develop long- and short-term strategies for developing housing for extremely low-income households.

Your Committee has amended this measure by 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 H.B. No. 2746, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2746, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair