STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2250

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2561

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2561 entitled:

 

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

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Establish an affordable rental housing goal;

 

     (2)  Establish a temporary special action team on rental housing to recommend actions to the Governor, Legislature, and other parties to achieve the goal; and

 

     (3)  Appropriate funds for the special action team.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Land Use Commission, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, Building Industry Association of Hawaii, and one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Coordinator on Homelessness under the Office of the Governor and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that for the period from 2015 to 2025, Hawaii will require an additional 64,700 housing units to meet projected long-term housing demands.  Of this amount, 22,247 households of all income levels will require rental units.  The lack of supply leads to higher rents for households of all income levels, leaving all tenants with less disposable income, increasing the personal stress of tenants, reducing tenant quality of life, and exacerbating the population overcrowding and homelessness problems.  Given these consequences, the lack of affordable rental housing requires the concentrated attention of state government at the highest level and the establishment of specific goals related to affordable rental housing.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Replacing the Executive Officer of the Land Use Commission with the Director of the Office of Planning on the special action team;

 

     (2)  Expanding the persons that the chair of the special action team shall invite to become members of the special action team to include:

 

          (A)  One officer or employee of each county with primary responsibilities relating to transit-oriented development, if any;

 

          (B)  Representatives of the for-profit housing development community;

 

          (C)  Representatives of the non-profit housing development community;

 

          (D)  The chair of the senate committee on housing as an ex officio member; and

 

          (E)  The chair of the house of representatives committee on housing as an ex officio member;

 

     (3)  Adding language that requires the special action team to recommend short- and long-term actions to target rental housing development in transit-oriented development areas as a top priority; and

 

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

 

     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. 2561, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2561, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

BREENE HARIMOTO, Chair