STAND. COM. REP. NO. 524

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 613

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 Human Services & Homelessness, to which was referred H.B. No. 613 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOMELESS YOUTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Human Services to provide emergency shelter and services to unaccompanied homeless youth.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Statewide Office on Homelessness and Housing Solutions; Office of the Public Defender; Office of Youth Services; Pride at Work – Hawai‘i; Stonewall Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i; Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition; Hawai‘i State LGBTQ+ Commission; Democratic Party of Hawai‘i; Residential Youth Services & Empowerment; O‘ahu Youth Action Board; Opportunity for Youth Action Hawai‘i; Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction Center; Hawaiʻi Youth Services Network; and three individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii is facing a growing crisis of youth homelessness, with one in ten young adults and one in thirty adolescents experiencing homelessness without a parent or guardian each year. Homeless youth are highly vulnerable to serious risks, including lack of basic needs, mental health challenges, substance use, and physical victimization. Despite the urgent need, outreach and shelter services remain limited and addressing these gaps requires expanding access to safe shelter through programs like the Safe Spaces for Youth Pilot Program, which is set to end on June 30, 2025. Your Committee finds that it is important to make the Safe Spaces for Youth Program permanent, thereby ensuring continued access to safe housing, mental health treatment, and supportive services for vulnerable youth across the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language to make the Safe Spaces for Youth Pilot Program a permanent program within the Office of Youth Services;

(2) Replacing the appropriation to provide emergency shelter and services to unaccompanied homeless youth throughout the State with an appropriation to fund the permanent Safe Spaces for Youth Program within the Office of Youth Services;

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

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider:

(1) An appropriation amount of $841,016 for fiscal year 2025-2026 and $871,016 for fiscal year 2026-2027; and

(2) An effective date of June 29, 2025, for all but the appropriation section in this measure, to avoid any unnecessary gaps between the repeal of the Safe Spaces for Youth Pilot Program and the establishment of the program as a permanent program.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services & Homelessness that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 613, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 613, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services & Homelessness,

____________________________

LISA MARTEN, Chair