STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2289

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3167

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. 3167 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) Re-establish special action team on rental housing to issue reports regarding the State's progress towards meeting the affordable rental housing goals set forth in Act 127, Session Laws of Hawaii 2016; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation and Office of Planning and Sustainable Development. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance, Office of Information Practices, Common Cause Hawaii, and League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that the State lacks sufficient affordable rental housing. The lack of affordable rental housing disproportionately burdens Hawaii's low-income families and households. Act 127, Session Laws of Hawaii 2016, established a special action team to help the State meet its affordable rental housing goals. However, that special action team ceased to exist in 2019. This measure re-establishes a temporary Special Action Team on Affordable Rental Housing to further assist the State in its efforts to increase the amount of affordable rental housing in Hawaii. However, this measure contains a provision exempting meetings of the special action team from the requirements of chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which testimony received by the Office of Information Practices recommended be deleted.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Removing the exemption to chapter 92, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(2) Providing that the appropriation shall be in addition to the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development's base budget; and

(3) 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. 3167, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3167, 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