HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1859

THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

Relating to housing.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that Hawaii has the highest rate of homelessness per capita of any state in the nation.  Hawaii also has the highest rate in the nation, per capita, of chronically unsheltered homeless.  According to the Hawaii Homelessness Initiative Point in Time Report for 2020, an estimated 6,458 people live on the streets and in shelters in Hawaii.  Addressing homelessness requires a multi-faceted approach that uses interventions that are targeted to the characteristics of the population being served.  The state rent supplement for homeless families and individuals is critically necessary to address homelessness.

     The legislature further finds that the state rent supplement program provides a "shallow", but sustained subsidy to struggling households.  Unlike the "deep" subsidy housing choice voucher program, better known as the section 8 program, which helps families at the lowest ends of the income scale by bridging a wide affordability gap between income and housing costs, the state rent supplement program helps households who are closer to financial self‑sufficiency but still have a narrow affordability gap to fill.  The state rent supplement program provides an ongoing subsidy, enabling homeless households or those at imminent risk of homelessness to close the affordability gap, maintain housing, and achieve self-sufficiency.

     Because individual subsidies under state rent supplement programs are relatively low, the programs can resolve homelessness for many individuals and families relative to the total cost of the subsidy program.

     The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to support the state rent supplement program.

     SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $           or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2022-2023 for the state rent supplement program established pursuant to section 356D-151, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the Hawaii public housing authority for the purposes of this Act.


     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2022.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

 

 


 


 

Report Title:

Hawaii Public Housing Authority; State Rent Supplement Program; Appropriation

 

Description:

Appropriates funds to the Hawaii Public Housing Authority for the State Rent Supplement Program.

 

 

 

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