STAND. COM. REP. NO. 949

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 231

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 231, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

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

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Require visitors at public housing projects to obtain visitor passes;

 

     (2)  Extend the criminal trespass statute to public housing projects;

 

     (3)  Require the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to create a two-year pilot project for Mayor Wright Homes; and

 

     (4)  Appropriate funds for the pilot project.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from twenty-eight individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Police Department of the City and County of Honolulu, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, and Legal Aid Society of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that increased safety and security measures are needed at public housing projects.  Based on information received from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, the scope of the pilot project proposed by this measure will include designing a surveillance system, and improvements to fencing, lighting, and a guard post.  According to the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, the preliminary cost estimate for the pilot project is $125,000.  Your Committees note that the Hawaii Public Housing Authority is expected to provide your Committee on Ways and Means with additional cost information.

 

     Your Committees have heard the concerns that implementing a program that requires visitors to any public housing project to obtain visitor passes may be administratively burdensome.  Your Committees have also heard the concerns that requiring visitor passes and extending the criminal trespass statute to public housing may pose constitutional concerns.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting section 1, which would have required visitors at public housing projects to obtain visitor passes;

 

     (2)  Deleting section 2, which would have established that remaining unlawfully on the premises of a public housing project constitutes criminal trespass in the first degree;

 

     (3)  Adding language that details the scope of the pilot project at Mayor Wright Homes; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 231, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 231, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Judiciary and Labor,

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair