STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2245

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2594

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 Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2594 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require that all renovation or construction of publicly funded residential housing, including projects under the jurisdiction of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation and Hawaii Public Housing Authority, incorporate specific housing visitability standards beginning on January 1, 2019.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, College of Education's Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Oahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, League of Women Voters of Hawaii, Self-Advocacy Advising Council, and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation and Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

Your Committees find that as Hawaii's population ages, there is an increased need to provide housing with accessibility and community integration for individuals with mobility impairments. By requiring all construction or renovation of publicly funded residential housing to meet visitability standards, this measure will assist in reducing barriers to aging in place and facilitate accessible living.

Your Committees have amended this measure by adopting the language suggested by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority that:

(1) Allows, rather than requires, the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to comply with visitability standards for the construction or renovation of the Authority's housing projects; and

(2) Adds language to clarify that application of the visitability standards is not to be construed to place a financial or administrative burden on the operations or renovations of the housing project, exceed the requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, result in the decrease of vacant units within the housing project, or provide for preferential treatment to tenants with approved reasonable accommodations when a unit becomes available.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Housing and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2594, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2594, 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 Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

________________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair