STAND. COM. REP. NO. 217

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 89

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. 89 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish and appropriate funds for the Teacher Housing Assistance Program to provide housing vouchers to certain eligible teachers who are employed at a hard-to-fill school.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; one member of the Kauaʻi County Council; and Education Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General; Department of Education; and Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.

Your Committee finds that there is a severe shortage of qualified teachers in the State. Major contributing factors to this shortage are Hawaii's high cost of living and a lack of affordable housing. According to the Department of Education's employment report for the 2020-2021 school year, roughly fifty-seven percent of teachers who resigned cited the high cost of housing as the primary reason for leaving the State. Your Committee believes the Teacher Housing Assistance Program proposed by this measure is an important step in attracting and retaining teachers.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Establishing standards for housing voucher applications under the Teacher Housing Assistance Program;

(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. 89, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 89, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Education.

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

____________________________

LUKE A. EVSLIN, Chair