STAND. COM. REP. NO. 223

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 912

       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 Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 912 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the creation of a landlord liaison project.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Aloha United Way, Hawaii Association of Realtors, Catholic Charities Hawaii, Chancery Office of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, and Hawaii Catholic Conference.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services and the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

 

     Your Committee finds that chronic homelessness in Hawaii is a serious problem.  One of the many barriers faced by homeless persons is the lack of available rental housing.  Your Committee further finds that King County, in Washington State, created a landlord liaison project in March 2009 to help homeless clients obtain private market rental housing.  The project created incentives for landlords to relax their screening criteria for homeless people who face barriers in accessing permanent housing.

 

     Your Committee also finds that in the first ten months of the project, the King County project was quite successful.  One hundred forty-seven households were placed in permanent housing, and ninety-six percent of the client households retained their housing six months after moving in.

 

     Your Committee additionally finds that there is currently a landlord liaison program administered by the Homeless Programs Office of the Department of Human Services.  The landlord liaison program is funded with Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) allocations, and therefore, participants are restricted to TANF-eligible families.

 

     Your Committee also finds that Hawaii would greatly benefit by funding a housing placement program that uses criteria similar to the landlord liaison project in King County, Washington.  Your Committee finds such a program would help increase the availability of rental housing for persons who face obstacles in moving from homelessness to permanent housing and persons with lower incomes who need to find affordable rental housing.  Your Committee finds the General Fund will provide the funding for the housing placement program; therefore participation will not be restricted based on TANF eligibility.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Amending the purpose of the appropriation under this measure from the creation and funding of a landlord liaison project to the funding of the housing placement program within the Homeless Programs Office of the Department of Human Services and making conforming amendments to section 1 of this measure;

 

     (2)  Changing the appropriation amount from an unspecified sum to $2,000,000 for each year of the fiscal biennium; and

 

     (3)  Changing the expending agency from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to the Department of Human Services.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 912, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 912, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

 

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair