STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2378

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2092

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2092 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to and out of the rental housing revolving fund.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, EAH Housing, PHOCUSED, FACE, Catholic Charities Hawaii, Ali‘i Pauahi Hawaiian Civic Club, The CHOW Project, Hawaii Association of REALTORS, Partners in Care, Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, and one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Coordinator on Homelessness under the Office of the Governor.

     Your Committee finds that there is a serious need to develop affordable rental housing in Hawaii to meet the needs of individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.  The rental housing revolving fund provides loans to fill financing gaps to enable the development, preservation, or rehabilitation of affordable rental housing projects.  According to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, a bond-financed appropriation was requested in the supplemental budget to infuse $75,000,000 into the rental housing revolving fund, which would help finance the development of six hundred affordable rental units.

     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. 2092 and recommends that it pass Second Reading 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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BREENE HARIMOTO, Chair