STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3439

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2014

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2014, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOMELESSNESS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Establish and appropriate funds for the Puuhonua Homeless Villages program to provide housing and support services to homeless individuals under a housing first paradigm;

 

     (2)  Require the Governor to identify available state land for homeless villages;

 

     (3)  Require the Department of Human Services, in conjunction with the Governor, to hold a public meeting prior to the establishment of a homeless village; and

 

     (4)  Require the Department of Human Services, in conjunction with the Governor, to report to the Legislature.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Mayor of the County of Hawaii; IMUAlliance; Hawaii Kai Homeless Task Force; Kona Brewing Company; and Foo W. Lim and Sons, Inc.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Human Services, Department of Public Safety, Governor's Coordinator on Homelessness, and Catholic Charities Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that homelessness is a serious and chronic problem throughout the State.  The State has used homeless shelters and transitional group homes as interim measures while attempting to place individuals and families experiencing homelessness into subsidized rentals and traditionally constructed apartments, but numerous economic, logistical, and personal constraints have resulted in a supply of subsidized rentals and traditionally-constructed apartments that is insufficient to meet the needs of homeless individuals.  Your Committees further find that recent technological innovations have made it possible to construct housing units at a lower cost than what the State currently spends for unsheltered and nomadic homeless individuals and families.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring that at least fifty percent of the manufacturing labor costs of each home in a homeless village be expended in Hawaii; and

 

     (2)  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 Judiciary and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2014, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2014, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means,

 

________________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

 

________________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair