STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1359-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: S.B. No. 2677

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2677, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOMELESSNESS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Establish the Long-Term Rental Assistance Pilot Program to provide long-term rental assistance to individuals who are sixty-two years of age or older and are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless;

(2) Require the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to submit reports to the Legislature regarding the Long-Term Rental Assistance Pilot Program; and

(3) Appropriate funds for the Long-Term Rental Assistance Pilot Program, including two full-time equivalent public housing specialist positions within the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Executive Office on Aging, AARP Hawai‘i, Partners In Care, and Catholic Charities Hawai‘i. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that homelessness among Hawaii's kupuna is a central part of the affordable housing needs in the State. The high cost of living in the State, the fixed income and complex health needs of older adults, rapidly rising rents, and the declining availability of affordable housing make rental assistance for older adults a necessity. Your Committee also finds that it is critical to help the most vulnerable elders in the State access housing, and providing rent supplements to these individuals is an important part of the overall solution needed to address housing and homeless related issues in Hawaii.

Your Committee further finds that an additional $3,000,000 under a state rent supplement program for kupuna will provide much-needed state rental supplement assistance to serve five hundred vulnerable elders who are homeless or at risk of being homeless. It is your Committee's understanding that under the existing State Rent Supplement Program, a qualified family can receive up to a maximum of $500 for rent. Furthermore, it will cost approximately $3,750,000 for wraparound services for families under this measure.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Temporarily expanding the existing State Rent Supplement Program to specifically target individuals who are sixty-two years of age or older and are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless, rather than establishing a new Long-Term Rental Assistance Pilot Program;

(2) Removing language that would have required the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to ensure that program participants pay no more than fifty percent of their net income for rent;

(3) Amending the appropriation in this measure to:

(A) Apply to the State Rent Supplement Program for Kupuna, rather than the Long-Term Rental Assistance Pilot Program;

(B) Change the public housing specialist positions to an unspecified number; and

(C) Specify that the funds shall be in addition to the base budget of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority for the existing State Rent Supplement Program; and

(4) 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 S.B. No. 2677, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2677, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

NADINE K. NAKAMURA, Chair