STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2384

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2278

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Housing and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2278 entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish the teacher home assistance program to be administered by the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to provide housing vouchers to full-time teachers employed by the Department of Education, including teachers at public charter schools, who teach in a hard-to-fill school, as determined by the Department of Education, and whose household income does not exceed eighty percent of the area median income; and

(2) Appropriate funds to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to provide housing vouchers through the teacher home assistance program.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the State Public Charter School Commission, Hawaii Teacher Standards Board, Kamaile Academy Public Charter School, IMUAlliance, Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and nine individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Education; Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; and Maui Police Department, County of Maui.

Your Committees find that Hawaii continues to suffer from a shortage of qualified teachers and financial incentives are a key strategy for the recruitment and retention of teachers, especially since the salaries of teachers in Hawaii continue to trail the nation when adjusted for cost of living. Housing in Hawaii is expensive and contributes to the financial burden on teachers. By establishing a teacher home assistance program to provide housing vouchers to teachers who teach in hard-to-fill schools, this measure provides a financial incentive to assist teachers in attaining sustainable and stable residency and lessen the financial burden of housing.

Your Committees note that this measure makes the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation responsible for implementing the teacher home assistance program and issuing housing vouchers to qualified teachers. Your Committees believe that making the Department of Education responsible for implementing the program merits further discussion by your Committee on Ways and Means should that Committee consider this measure.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the housing vouchers shall not exceed $500 per month, rather than $10,000 in a single year, as long as the teacher is employed by the Department of Education, teaches in a hard-to-fill school as determined by the Department of Education, and resides in this State; and

(2) 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 Housing and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2278, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2278, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Housing and Education,

________________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair

________________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair