STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2463

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2957

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 Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2957 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish certain requirements for developers developing a housing project approved by the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to assist certain tenants who are subject to displacement or eviction by the proposed project by; and

(2) Establish consequences for a developer's noncompliance.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, AARP Hawaii, Parents and Children Together, Medical-Legal Partnership for Children in Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi YIMBY, and three individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

Your Committees find that increased housing production is essential for the State. However, housing redevelopment projects risk displacing existing residents when not carefully balanced by strong protections for tenants. When this occurs, displacement has significant negative effects, including destabilizing families, eroding social networks, and weakening community cohesion. These effects are, in turn, associated with detrimental health, educational, and economic outcomes for those displaced.

Your Committees recognize the many harms that accompany displacement, but also note that this measure, in its current form, would create two classes of tenants: tenants relocated for housing built under section 201H-38, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which is often financed with taxpayer dollars, and tenants relocated for private redevelopment, which often creates luxury units for wealthy investors. While tenants in the former class would receive the benefits provided by this measure, those in the latter class would not.

Additionally, your Committees note that the Hawaii Public Housing Authority's Kuhio Park Terrace low rise housing development provided all of the benefits contemplated by this measure, including relocation to a comparable unit. However, the process of relocation nevertheless proved to be complicated, and many residents of the Kuhio Park Terrace raised a number of important issues and concerns. Amendments to this measure are therefore necessary to address these concerns.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have established requirements for certain housing developers to assist tenants who are subject to displacement or eviction;

(2) Inserting language establishing the Tenant Displacement Working Group to broadly address tenant displacement and relocation in the State;

(3) Inserting a blank appropriation;

(4) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose;

(5) Making it effective on July 1, 2050; and

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

Your Committees note that although this measure, as amended, 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 $75,000 for the Tenant Displacement Working Group.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Housing and Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2957, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2957, 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 Health and Human Services,

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair

________________________________ STANLEY CHANG, Chair