STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 1162-22
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2022
RE: S.B. No. 3247
S.D. 2
H.D. 1
Honorable Scott K. Saiki
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2022
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 3247, S.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to address the housing needs of native Hawaiians who are currently on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands application waitlist for homestead leases by requiring the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to build sufficient rental housing, including apartment units and rent-with-option-to-buy housing units.
Your Committee finds that in 2019, approximately 28,500 native Hawaiian adults were on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands application waitlist for residential, farming, or ranching homesteads. The homelessness crisis in Hawaii is already serious, and the waitlist backlog exacerbates this crisis that already disproportionately affects native Hawaiians.
Your Committee further finds that this measure requires the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to build sufficient rental housing, including apartment units and rent-with-option-to-buy housing units. However, according to testimony received by your Committee from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, its 2020 Beneficiaries Study Applicant Report indicated that seventy-six percent of applicants on the Department's waitlist preferred a lot with a single-family home or vacant lot for a house, while sixteen percent preferred a rental apartment, duplex, or townhouse, with the option to buy.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Deleting provisions that would have required the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to build sufficient rental housing to satisfy the housing needs of native Hawaiians currently on the waitlist for homestead leases;
(2) Requiring the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to develop a strategic plan to meet certain housing preferences of waitlist applicants and submit the strategic plan to the Legislature no later than December 10, 2022;
(3) Specifying that the strategic plan shall be divided by county and include recommended waitlist policies for native Hawaiians who are on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands waitlist and receive mortgage or down payment assistance from the Department or who opt to live in rental housing developed by the Department; and
(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
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. 3247, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3247, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,
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____________________________ NADINE K. NAKAMURA, Chair |
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