STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2532

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2068

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Housing and Water, Land, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 2068 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish the Affordable Housing Land Inventory Task Force within the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to conduct a study, subject to legislative appropriation, on how to maximize housing development in transit-oriented development zones or other areas on state or county lands;

(2) Require a report to the Legislature; and

(3) Appropriate funds.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Housing Hawaiʻi's Future, AARP Hawaiʻi, and two individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, Hawaii Community Development Authority, and one individual.

Your Committees find that the State and counties control numerous parcels that are available for strategically located housing development. However, there is no existing inventory of these parcels that comprehensively evaluates their feasibility for housing development. A formal study has potential to identify parcels near transit corridors, employment centers, and existing infrastructure that would allow the efficient and low-cost delivery of new housing. This measure presents an opportunity to better identify and leverage publicly owned lands to address the State's critical housing shortage.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the Task Force's report to the Legislature to include a list of parcels to be redeveloped, the number of units to be developed on each parcel, and the dates by which the parcels will be redeveloped, sufficient to meet the State's housing needs over the next one hundred years; and

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

Your Committees note that this measure contains an unspecified appropriation amount. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committees respectfully request that it consider inserting an appropriation amount of $250,000 for the establishment and funding of one staff position and for contractual services incurred by the Affordable Housing Land Inventory Task Force.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Housing and Water, Land, Culture and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2068, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2068, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Housing and Water, Land, Culture and the Arts,

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair

________________________________ STANLEY CHANG, Chair