STAND. COM. REP. NO. 637

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1144

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 1144 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish a homelessness coordinator position for the island of Maui within the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Partners In Care.

Your Committee finds that, according to the 2020 Homeless Point-in-Time Count survey, approximately eight hundred people were designated as homeless in the County of Maui in 2020. Additionally, homeless encampments have increased significantly along the north shore as a result of the County of Maui clearing out one of the island's largest homeless camps. Therefore, your Committee finds that establishing a homeless coordinator position could help to coordinate responses across all divisions of the Department of Land and Natural Resources to assist homeless individuals in accessing services, while ensuring that the land is also cared for. Therefore, this measure appropriates funds to establish a homelessness coordinator position for the island of Maui within the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1144, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1144, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair