STAND. COM. REP. NO. 141

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1301

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 1301 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FAIR HOUSING EXEMPTIONS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to harmonize state laws prohibiting housing discrimination with controlling federal law.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Association of Realtors.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure clarifies existing Hawaii law that broadly prohibits discrimination in housing transactions but allows exemptions from certain requirements for close living situations where an owner or primary lessor shares living space in a private residence with a lessee or sublessee.  Your Committee further finds that this measure harmonizes Hawaii law with the controlling federal law on this subject and thereby simplifies enforcement for regulatory bodies.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by 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 Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1301, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1301, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair