STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2251

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2570

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2570 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE RAPID RE-HOUSING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Beginning January 1, 2017, require the Department of Human Services to establish a rapid re-housing assistance program to move homeless families or individuals into permanent housing as quickly as possible and achieve stability in that housing;

 

     (2)  Require the program to be designed and operated to qualify for federal emergency shelter grants; and

 

     (3)  Appropriate funds for the establishment and operation of the rapid re-housing assistance program.

 

     Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Coordinator on Homelessness under the Office of the Governor and Department of Human Services.

 

     Your Committee finds that rapid re-housing initiatives help communities decrease the number of people experiencing homelessness and the amount of time households spend homeless.  Rapid re-housing places an emphasis on moving individuals or families experiencing homelessness into permanent housing as quickly as possible.  This measure will help individuals and families experiencing homelessness solve the practical and immediate challenges to obtaining permanent housing, while reducing the amount of time they experience homelessness.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2570, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2570, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,

 

 

 

________________________________

BREENE HARIMOTO, Chair