Bill Text: HI SCR60 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 60 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; Housing and Urban Development; Section 8

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2016-04-18 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Fukumoto Chang, Har, Oshiro, Souki, Ward excused (5). [SCR60 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-SCR60-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	60
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REQUESTING THE REVISION OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS SO THAT HOUSING SUBSIDIES THROUGH THE SECTION 8 Rental Assistance and HOMEOWNERSHIP PROGRAM PAID DIRECTLY TO AN APPLICANT OF THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE CALCULATION OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME TO DETERMINE ELIGIBILITY FOR THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.

WHEREAS, the United States Department of Agriculture offers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to provide nutrition assistance to low-income individuals and families; and

WHEREAS, the income of applicants to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program may not exceed a certain threshold in order to qualify for the program; and

WHEREAS, title 7 Code of Federal Regulations section 273.9 provides in part that housing subsidies from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development are excluded from the applicant's income calculation for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program if the housing subsidies are paid directly to the landlord or mortgagee on behalf of the recipient; and

WHEREAS, in some cases the office handling the distribution of benefits from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 program is unable to make payments to multiple vendors and instead relies on the program recipient to administer payments to vendors; and

WHEREAS, there are other instances when Section 8 program payments must be made directly to recipients, who then distribute their own mortgage payments, yet these recipients receive the same Section 8 benefits as recipients whose mortgage payments are made directly from the administering office; and

WHEREAS, it is unconscionable for a recipient of the Section 8 Rental Assistance or Home Ownership Program to be disqualified from participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program simply because the office distributing Section 8 benefits is unable to make payments directly to the landlord, mortgagee, or other vendors; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, the House of Representatives concurring, that the President of the United States, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development are requested to amend federal regulations so that housing subsidies through the Section 8 Rental Assistance and Homeownership Program paid directly to an applicant of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are excluded from the calculation of household income to determine eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States; the United States Secretary of Agriculture; United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate; chairpersons of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, and the Subcommittee on Nutrition, Specialty Crops, and Agricultural Research; chairpersons of the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, and the Subcommittee on Nutrition; congressional delegation from Hawaii; and Governor of the State of Hawaii.