STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3104

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.C.R. No. 118

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 118 entitled:

 

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE DEPARTMENT OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS TO SUBMIT A REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE REGARDING ITS POLICY TO DEVELOP RENTAL PROPERTIES FOR OCCUPANCY BY ITS BENEFICIARIES AND ENSURE THAT BENEFICIARIES MAINTAIN THEIR PLACEMENT ON THE WAITLIST FOR HOMESTEAD LEASES WHILE RESIDING IN A DEPARTMENT RENTAL,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to:

 

     (1)  Submit a report to the Legislature regarding its policy to develop rental properties for occupancy by its beneficiaries; and

 

     (2)  Ensure that its beneficiaries will not lose their place on the homestead waitlist while residing in a Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' rental.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs and Waimanalo Hawaiian Homes Association.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

 

     Your Committee finds that more than 26,000 individual applicants are on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands' waitlist.  Many beneficiaries on the waitlist are low income and must first establish credit to qualify for a mortgage on a homestead lease.  In addition, many beneficiaries with homestead leases are unable to pay their mortgages and are in default.  Your Committee concludes that, to alleviate the extensive beneficiary waitlist, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands may find value in creating a transitional rental property program to house beneficiaries without permitting the beneficiaries' position on the waitlist to be jeopardized if they enter into the rental property program.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 118 and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair