STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1315

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1366

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 1366, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOMELESSNESS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Human Services to establish a three-year Return-to-Home Pilot Program to return homeless individuals in the State to families and relatives in their home states; and

(2) Appropriate an unspecified amount of funds for the implementation of the Return-to-Home Pilot Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Institute for Human Services, Inc.; Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association; and five individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that homelessness continues to be one of the State's most significant and challenging social problems. Your Committee further finds that many homeless individuals from the continental United States are currently stranded in the State, wanting to return to their families and relatives in their home states but lacking the financial resources to do so. This measure will assist such homeless individuals in returning to their home states.

Your Committee acknowledges that this measure, as currently written, includes a provision that requires Pilot Program participants or their family or relatives in their home state to bear one-half of the transportation costs for the participants' return to their home states, except in cases where the participant is indigent and lacks financial resources. Your Committee finds that this provision is unenforceable and unnecessary because the Pilot Program's underlying eligibility criteria requires that the participant be indigent and lack financial resources. Your Committee also acknowledges the testimony of the Department of Human Services stating that it will need one full-time equivalent planner position to draft rules, procure services, and oversee the Pilot Program. Amendments to this measure are therefore necessary to address these concerns.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have required participants of the Pilot Program or the participant's family or relatives in the participant's home state to be responsible for one-half of the cost of any transportation used to return the participant to the participant's home state; and

(2) Inserting language that appropriates an unspecified amount of funds to establish one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) planner position within the Department of Human Resources to draft rules, procure services, and oversee the Pilot Program.

Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider appropriating $90,000 to establish the one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) planner position for the Department of Human Services.

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 H.B. No. 1366, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1366, H.D. 1, 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