STAND. COM. REP. NO. 922

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 532

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 532, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC HOUSING,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to include, subject to any federal law or regulatory limitations, the value of all motor vehicles registered to any tenant of a dwelling unit as assets in the calculation for determining that tenant's income eligibility for state low-income housing.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, Homeless Affordable Housing Institute, and one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Catholic Charities Hawaii and Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice.

 

     Your Committee finds that under existing law, the Hawaii Public Housing Authority is not able to consider an applicant's assets, including motor vehicles, regardless of the value, in determining income eligibility for state low-income public housing.  Meanwhile, there are over ten thousand families on the waitlist for low-income public housing.  By allowing the Authority to include the value of all motor vehicles registered to an applicant for determining eligibility for low-income public housing, the Authority will be able to focus its efforts on housing those who truly have no other resources to obtain housing.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by clarifying that a deceased veteran's widower shall also be given first preference when the Authority selects tenants based upon greatest need.

 

     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 H.B. No. 532, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 532, H.D. 2, 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