STAND. COM. REP. NO. 503

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1450

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 Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1450 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AN INTENSIVE MOBILE TEAM PILOT PROGRAM FOR HOUSELESS INDIVIDUALS SUFFERING FROM SERIOUS BRAIN DISORDERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a three-year Intensive Mobile Team Pilot Program in the Department of Health to provide intensive mobile treatment-type services, including "street psychiatry", to chronically houseless individuals suffering from serious brain disorders, including schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Governor, Department of Health, Department of Human Services, Hawaiʻi Primary Care Association, Hawaii Medical Association, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Hawaii Health & Harm Reduction Center, and two individuals.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from Reimagining Public Safety in Hawaiʻi Coalition.

Your Committee finds that there is a clear and pressing need to develop upstream services that impact key social determinants of health including housing instability and access to health care services, particularly substance use disorders and untreated serious mental health conditions which are root causes of chronic unsheltered homelessness. Your Committee further finds that mobile crisis teams that deliver on-site care to individuals experiencing behavioral health crises reduces escalation to and reliance on law enforcement. This measure's proposed Intensive Mobile Team Pilot Program provides expanded services to respond to crises, provide care coordination, and collaborate with health care systems, law enforcement agencies, and homeless services providers to address the needs of houseless individuals experiencing mental health crises.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

(2) Inserting an effective date of December 31, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee notes that this measure, as amended, contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $1,300,000 for the implementation of the Intensive Mobile Team Pilot Program, including the establishment of eight and one-tenth full-time equivalent (8.1 FTE) positions.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1450, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1450, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health and Human Services,

________________________________

JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair