Bill Text: HI SCR55 | 2023 | Regular Session | Amended


Bill Title: Urging Hawaii's Congressional Delegation To Introduce And Support Legislation To Amend Title Iv-a Of The Social Security Act To Allow Unspent Temporary Assistance For Needy Families Funds To Be Used By States To Build Transitional Supportive Housing And Affordable Rental Housing.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2023-05-22 - Certified copies of resolutions sent. [SCR55 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2023-SCR55-Amended.html

THE SENATE

S.C.R. NO.

55

THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

URGING HAWAII'S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO INTRODUCE AND SUPPORT LEGISLATION TO AMEND TITLE IV-A OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT TO ALLOW unspent Temporary assistance for needy familIES funds to be used by STATES TO BUILD TRANSITIONAL SUPPORTIVE HOUSING AND AFFORDABLE RENTAL HOUSING

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, as of 2020, Hawaii has collected more than $380,000,000 in unspent Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant funds, which is three hundred eighty-five percent of the State's annual TANF block grant of $99,000,000; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Hawaii's unspent TANF reserves are the second highest in the nation as a proportion of states' annual block grants; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the nation; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii has the least affordable rental housing in the nation; and

 

     WHEREAS, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's 2022 "Out of Reach" report, an individual would need to earn $31.15 an hour to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Hawaii; and

 

     WHEREAS, a minimum wage worker would need to work one hundred twenty-three hours a week to be able to afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent; and

 

     WHEREAS, although TANF funds can be used to provide rent subsidies, such subsidies are meant to be used on a short-term basis; and

 

     WHEREAS, developing a more robust inventory of affordable rental units will reduce rents statewide and enable more of the State's low-income families to be able to afford housing; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, the House of Representatives concurring, that Hawaii's congressional delegation is urged to introduce and support legislation to amend Title IV-A of the Social Security Act to allow unspent Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds to be redirected to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to be used by states to build transitional supportive housing and affordable rental housing; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to each member of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

 

Report Title: 

TANF Funds; Transitional Supportive Housing; Affordable Rental Housing

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