STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3304

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2167

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 2167, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO YOUTH HOMELESSNESS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Office of Youth Services to establish a five-year Youth Housing Stability Assistance Pilot Program to enter into contracts with nonprofit organizations or execute memoranda of agreement with government agencies to support eligible youth with financial assistance; and

(2) Appropriate funds.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Youth Services; Office of Wellness and Resilience; Hawaiʻi State Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Plus Commission; Pride at Work–Hawaiʻi; Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi; Hawaiʻi Children's Action Network Speaks!; Hoaloha Project; Aloha Independent Living Hawaii; HI H.O.P.E.S. Initiative; and two individuals.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the State Procurement Office.

Your Committee finds that youth and young adults between ages eighteen and twenty-four face a unique risk for housing and financial instability due to a combination of developmental, social, and environmental factors such as major life transitions, including leaving the family home, attending college, entering the workforce, or joining the military. In the State, where the cost of living is among the highest in the nation, housing instability becomes far more likely. Your Committee further finds that homelessness is deeply traumatic for young people, yet communities often lack sufficient resources for youth who are unsafely or unstably housed, couch surfing, doubled up, or living in situations of crisis. Your Committee believes that the establishment of a Youth Housing Stability Assistance Pilot Program that offers immediate and flexible financial assistance to eligible youth to prevent housing instability and homelessness is a fiscally responsible investment. This measure reduces reliance on emergency shelters, lessens strain on state-funded services, and supports healthier long-term outcomes for the State's emerging adults.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language to clarify that the provision of financial assistance under the Youth Housing Stability Assistance Pilot Program is subject to the availability of program funds;

(2) Deleting language that would have required:

(A) The administering agency to determine the amount of assistance each eligible youth may receive within the $10,000 maximum; and

(B) Funds awarded pursuant to the Pilot Program to be administered by participating agencies;

(3) Allowing funds to be disbursed directly to youth for approved transportation, food, and childcare expenses, in addition to basic needs expenses;

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committee notes that this measure, as amended, contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $375,000 for the establishment and administration of the Youth Housing Stability Assistance Pilot Program.

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. 2167, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2167, H.D. 2, 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