STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2021

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2027

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2027 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO APPROPRIATIONS TO ADDRESS HOMELESSNESS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to continue and improve the coordinated statewide homeless initiative.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from The Queen's Health Systems, The Salvation Army, Aloha United Way, League of Women Voters, Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, Oahu County Committee Legislative Priorities Committee of the Democratic Party, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Family Promise of Hawaii, Hoomanapono Political Action Committee, and one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the State Procurement Office.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Governor's Coordinator on Homelessness, Department of the Attorney General, Department of Human Services, and Department of Health.

 

     Your Committees find that in the eighteen months of operation, the coordinated statewide housing initiative assisted over one thousand six hundred households and four thousand nine hundred individuals by either preventing eviction or helping homeless families and individuals move into permanent housing.  Your Committees further find that evictions have dropped by twenty-five percent on Oahu, while ninety-seven percent of the households assisted by the initiative remain housed.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Eliminating certain duties and powers of the master contractor and inserting language directing the master contractor to operate a coalition of agencies to provide short-term financial assistance and coordinate with the coordinated entry system to provide navigation services and assistance of placement of homeless households into permanent housing;

 

     (2)  Inserting an appropriation amount of $2,500,000, with $2,000,000 allocated to continuation of the statewide homeless initiative and $500,000 allocated to landlord outreach and liaison activities within the initiative; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2027, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2027, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Housing,

 

________________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair

 

________________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair