STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1214

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 179

S.D. 3

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 179, S.D. 3, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to:

(1) Require the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii (HCDCH) to hold a public hearing in the community, development, or community development plan area where the proposed housing project is to be located; and

(2) Allow the legislative body of the county where the project is to be located to approve or disapprove the project within 60 days instead of 45 days.

Several members of the Maui County Council testified in support of this bill. UniDev, LLC, proposed amendments to this measure. HCDCH, the Hawaii County Office of Housing and Community Development, City and County of Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting, and City and County of Honolulu Department of Community Services opposed this bill.

 

Your Committee has amended this bill by deleting its contents and replacing it with contents that address Hawaii's critical affordable housing and homelessness problem by, among other things:

(1) Providing flexibility to the counties in their land use density restrictions to allow for the development of low-income housing rentals;

(2) Establishing a general excise tax exemption for developers of low-income rental housing;

(3) Providing that Rental Housing Trust Fund (RHTF) loans and grants to developers may be provided when 50 percent or more of the available units are for persons with incomes at or below 80, instead of 60 percent of the median family income;

(4) Requiring ten percent of general excise taxes on residential rentals be deposited into the RHTF;

(5) Establishing a sliding scale for the payment of conveyance taxes;

(6) Exempting from the conveyance tax, conveyances by nonprofit organizations certified for low-income housing development;

(7) Increasing the amount of conveyance taxes transferred into the RHTF from 25 to 50 percent;

(8) Appropriating funds into the RHTF;

(9) Declaring a moratorium on demolition of decommissioned public housing and offering the housing to nonprofit entities or government agencies for rehabilitation into emergency transitional shelter facilities or rental units;

(10) Appropriating funds for the expansion of emergency and transitional shelter facilities serving the homeless, upon meeting certain conditions;

 

(11) Refocusing HCDCH housing developments on lower cost housing projects serving only persons with incomes 140 percent or less of the area median income;

(12) Splitting HCDCH into two entities:

(a) The Hawaii Public Housing Administration to perform the function of developing and maintaining public housing; and

(b) The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Administration to perform the function of housing financing and development;

(13) Repealing the RHTF Advisory Commission; and

(14) Establishing a Legislative Affordable Rental Housing and Homeless Task Force.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 179, S.D. 3, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 179, S.D. 3, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,

 

____________________________

MICHAEL P. KAHIKINA, Chair