STAND. COM. REP. NO. 140

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1451

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 1451 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish the Affordable Housing Land Inventory Task Force within the Hawaii Community Development Authority to update the Affordable Rental Housing Report and Ten-Year Plan maps, tier tables, and inventories of state lands suitable and available for affordable housing development.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaiʻi Community Development Authority and Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii is facing a severe shortage of affordable housing, exacerbated by rising demand and limited land availability for new development. With the growing population and increasing housing costs, there is an urgent need to identify and utilize existing state-owned lands for affordable housing projects. This measure will focus on updating land inventories and identifying suitable lands for development, which will be a helpful tool for the development of new affordable housing inventory throughout the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Removing as unnecessary a reference to the State Ethics Code, as the State Ethics Commission's longstanding practice is to exclude the activities of provisions of the Code;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) 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 H.B. No. 1451, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1451, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Water & Land.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,

____________________________

LUKE A. EVSLIN, Chair