STAND. COM. REP. NO.  599

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2011

 

RE:   H.B. No. 1450

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Housing and Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 1450 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HOMELESS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to require the Department of Human Services (DHS) to develop and implement a homeless job training program to provide education, various training programs, and support services to boost opportunities for long-term employment for homeless participants.

 

     Additionally, this measure:

 

     (1)  Requires wages to be held in trust for the participant to be used for the participant's first and last months' rent; and

 

     (2)  Appropriates funds for the training program.

 

     The Diocese of Honolulu and a concerned individual testified in support of this bill.  DHS supported the intent of this measure.

 

     Your Committees recognize the training and labor component in this bill, and as such, believe that the lead agency should be the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR).  However, your Committees believe that the homeless job training program involves both DLIR and DHS, and therefore, encourages these two agencies to work collaboratively to develop and implement the program effectively.  Your Committees encourage DLIR to seek and obtain federal funds for the homeless job training program, with the intent that the federal funds be matched by state funds.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this bill by:

 

     (1)  Requiring DLIR to seek federal funds that are intended         for the homeless or other funds that may be available in      accordance with the homeless job training program; and

 

     (2)  Changing the lead agency and expending agency from DHS        to DLIR.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Housing and Labor & Public Employment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1450, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1450, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Housing and Labor & Public Employment,

 

 

____________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair

 

____________________________

RIDA T.R. CABANILLA, Chair