STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3692

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2218

H.D. 1

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2218, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION ACT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, as amended, to increase the loan limit for direct loans provided by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands from fifty percent to seventy-five percent of the maximum single residence loan amount allowed in Hawaii by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Federal Housing Administration.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, one member of the Hawaiʻi County Council, Makaha Hawaiian Civic Club, and four individuals.

Your Committees find that costs associated with buying and building homes have gone up significantly in recent years. Your Committees believe that the current limit on loan amounts of fifty percent of the maximum single resident loan amount in the State is unnecessary and unreasonably constrains native Hawaiian beneficiaries' ability to finance the building and purchasing of homes on Hawaiian homelands. This measure will help Department of Hawaiian Home Lands beneficiaries to purchase or make improvements to their homes.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting language requiring the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to provide financial literacy education for all borrowers.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2218, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2218, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair