STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3554

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 219

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 219 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY TO EXPEDITE THE PLACEMENT OF MAUI WILDFIRE SURVIVORS INTO THE FEDERAL DIRECT LEASE PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the Federal Emergency Management Agency to expedite the placement of Maui wildfire survivors into the Direct Lease Program.

Your Committee received no testimony on this measure.

Your Committee finds that as of March 2024, hundreds of survivors and families of the August 2023 Maui wildfires are still without long-term housing. Your Committee further finds that one option for long-term housing is the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Direct Lease Program, wherein the agency leases existing, ready-to-occupy residential properties for use as temporary housing for families displaced by wildfires. Your Committee concludes that it is a moral and financial priority for the State to move as many survivors as possible into long-term housing programs by expediting the Direct Lease Program process.

Your Committee has amended this measure by 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 Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 219, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 219, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety and Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

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GLENN WAKAI, Chair