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

Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 55 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	55
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
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 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 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds 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.