Bill Text: HI HB535 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Homelessness; Temporary Nighttime Parking Lots; Appropriation ($)
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2013-03-21 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM. [HB535 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2013-HB535-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 949
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: H.B. No. 535
H.D. 2
S.D. 1
Honorable Donna Mercado Kim
President of the Senate
Twenty-Seventh State Legislature
Regular Session of 2013
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 535, H.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOMELESS PROGRAMS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from three individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Human Services, City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii Bankers Association, Hawaii Credit Union League, and two individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from HawaiiUSA Federal Credit Union and one individual.
Prior to holding a hearing on this measure, your Committee made available for public review a proposed S.D. 1, which deletes the contents of this measure and inserts language to:
(1) Require the Department of Human Services, in consultation with other state and county agencies, to support a procedure for identifying locations that may be used for temporary emergency homeless shelters;
(2) Require each county to fund government agencies and profit and non-profit organizations that want to designate and maintain their parking lots as temporary emergency shelters; and
(3) Authorize and appropriate funds for the Department of Human Services, in consultation with the mayor of the applicable county and any interested homeless assistance programs, to designate in each county temporary nighttime parking lots to provide safe overnight parking for homeless individuals who live and sleep in their motor vehicles and who would otherwise park overnight in public or private roads or property.
Your Committee received testimony in opposition to the proposed S.D. 1 from the Department of Human Services and Department of Public Safety. Your Committee received comments on the proposed S.D. 1 from the Hawaii Medical Service Association.
Your Committee finds that homelessness continues to be one of the State's most significant and challenging social problems. The number of homeless persons in the State, estimated to be approximately six thousand on any given day, is indicative of the limited shelter space available.
Your Committee further finds that new and innovative solutions are needed to address the homelessness crisis. Oregon, for example, has adopted laws that authorize political subdivisions to allow religious institutions to offer overnight camping space for homeless persons living in vehicles. Similarly, Santa Barbara, California, has instituted a program that allows private organizations to use county-owned parking lots to provide overnight sleeping space for homeless persons with vehicles.
Your Committee has amended this measure by adopting the proposed S.D. 1 and further amending the measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 535, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 535, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,
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____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair |
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