STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2434

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2343

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Housing and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2343 entitled:

 

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

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Prohibit any county and the Hawaii Public Housing Authority from limiting the number of tenants in the section 8 housing choice voucher program that may occupy a single tax map key property, regardless of the number of units comprising the tax map key; and

 

     (2)  Clarify that in a tax map key comprised of three units each unit may have one section 8 tenant.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Community Services.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

 

     Your Committees find that obtaining affordable rental housing is a challenge for many families.  The federal subsidy program known as the housing choice voucher program, or section 8 housing program, assists families struggling with rent payments by covering seventy percent of a tenant's rent.  While this program has enabled some residents to find housing opportunities at an affordable cost, there have been issues concerning renting out multiple units on a single tax map key property to multiple section 8 tenants.  This measure clarifies these issues in hopes of freeing up more housing units to those who are struggling to afford rental housing.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting the proposed statutory amendments to chapter 46 and section 356D-31, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

 

     (2)  Specifying that no county shall disqualify a legal nonconforming dwelling unit from the housing choice voucher program if the unit meets zoning and building code requirements and other program standards for health and safety; and

 

     (3)  Specifying that the Hawaii Public Housing Authority shall not disqualify a legal nonconforming dwelling unit from the housing choice voucher program if the unit meets zoning and building code requirements and other program standards for health and safety.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Housing and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2343, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2343, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Housing and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

 

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

 

________________________________

BREENE HARIMOTO, Chair