THE SENATE

S.C.R. NO.

81

TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2012

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

URGING THE HAWAII PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY TO ENTER INTO PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS TO MODERNIZE DILAPIDATED FEDERAL PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECTS.

 

 


WHEREAS, many public housing projects owned and operated by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority ("Authority") are in poor physical condition and require repairs and modernization; and

 

WHEREAS, the Authority has reported that as many as four hundred to six hundred units cannot be rented out due to uninhabitable conditions; and

 

WHEREAS, during the 2010 federal inspections, eleven out of the sixty-five federal public housing projects failed to pass, receiving a score of fifty-nine or below out of a possible one hundred, and approximately one-third of the Authority's federal public housing projects received a score of sixty-nine or below; and

 

WHEREAS, the use of a public-private partnership to modernize the Kuhio Park Terrace federal public housing project has demonstrated that such partnerships can be successful in rapidly transforming the physical condition of a project for its residents; and

 

WHEREAS, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's ("HUD") Capital Fund Financing Program allows public housing authorities to borrow against their future annual allocations of capital funds to help finance modernization of federal public housing projects; and

 

WHEREAS, HUD's Rental Assistance Demonstration Program would allow public housing authorities to convert federal public housing properties into either Section 8 project-based voucher projects or project-based rental assistance contract projects, thereby allowing them to leverage private investment with Section 8 subsidies to address current repair and redevelopment needs and permit future recapitalization of the properties; and

 

WHEREAS, under these HUD programs, the Authority is able to enter into public-private partnerships and may leverage its HUD subsidies with private investments to finance project capital improvements; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2012, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Hawaii Public Housing Authority is urged to pursue public-private partnerships to modernize its federal public housing inventory; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Executive Director of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority and the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

Report Title: 

Hawaii Public Housing Authority; Federal Housing Projects