STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2292

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2251

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2251 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to build non-subsidized housing.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, the Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, Kūpuna for the Mo‘opuna, and fourteen individuals.

Your Committee finds that the lack of affordable housing in the State is driven, in part, by a limited supply of available units. Directing state resources toward the production of new housing units, regardless of the targeted income level, would benefit the State's housing market.

Testimony received by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority (HPHA) indicated that there has been a shift away from concentrating public housing for extremely low-income families in dense urban areas. Instead, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development, which provides significant funding to HPHA to house disadvantaged families, is now shifting toward adopting a mixed-income and mixed-finance redevelopment model. This new model allows for families of more diverse income levels to live side by side, instead of isolating the poor. The market rate rents paid by higher income families will help to subsidize the cost of providing lower income units, reducing the gap in financing needed from the State to underwrite the projects. The model also allows for public-private partnerships in financing housing projects, better positioning HPHA to access private capital and financing.

This measure authorizes the Hawaii Housing Authority to construct housing units without income restrictions. However, your Committee further finds that this measure allows ceded lands claimed by native Hawaiians to be used for commercial and market-rate development.

Your Committee further finds that amendments are necessary to adopt suggestions made by HPHA and with respect to ceded lands.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Adding a new part to chapter 356D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, prohibiting the Hawaii Public Housing Authority from constructing or developing housing on ceded lands vacant on or after January 1, 2022;

(2) Removing provisions repealing the definition of "public housing project";

(3) Repealing references to "non-subsidized housing";

(4) Inserting a definition of "housing" or "housing project" in section 356D-11, 356D-12, and 356D-12.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

(5) 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 S.B. No. 2251, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2251, 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,

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STANLEY CHANG, Chair