STAND. COM. REP. NO. 336

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1632

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1632 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, to establish a comprehensive action plan to establish a local housing market in Hawaii; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from AARP Hawaiʻi, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, LIMBY Hawaiʻi, and eleven individuals.

Your Committee finds that the State is experiencing a chronic housing shortage that is exacerbated by a variety of factors, including prohibitive development costs, rising inflation, and lack of community support in certain communities. Alternative ideas such as community land trusts can provide additional supply to the State's housing market. Additionally, the development of solutions such as a local housing market would allow for the preservation of land and housing developments to remain affordable for a longer period of time. Therefore, further research into a local housing market in the State can provide critical data to determine future planning to meet the State's existing housing demand. Accordingly, this measure seeks to determine additional creative solutions to the State's housing shortage while ensuring individuals and families can remain in Hawaii.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language that places the plan under the "Yes In My Back Yard" Working Group within the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism;

(2) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

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

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. 1632, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1632, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

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STANLEY CHANG, Chair