Senate Standing Committee on Hawaiian Affairs

Calling the April 6 calendar for, Health and Human Services. Present with me is my vice chair, Sandra McKelvey. This meeting is being streamed live on YouTube in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing. Due to technical difficulties, the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business later at 1PM, Wednesday, 04/08/2026 in Room 225, and a public notice will be posted on the legislator's website.

To facilitate this hearing in a timely manner, we will be enforcing a one minute limit on testimony except for the nominees.

The nominees, may be able to speak up to five minutes. I'll be reading a list of individuals who submitted written testimony for each measure. We apologize if the closed captioning does not accurately transcribe the names. If you're interested in reviewing the written testimony, please go to the legislator's website. You'll find a link on the status page for the measure.

We appreciate your understanding. And remind you the committee does have your testimony, that we reviewed them, so I encourage you to use your time to either add additional comments, or it can stand on your written testimony. So first up, we have GM five forty, Robert Schroeder, Hawaii Health Planning Council, Tri Aisle County Sub Area for term to expire on June 3020 '29. So Robert Schroeder, I see that you are present on Zoom. I am.

Let tell us about your identify yourself and tell us why you would like to serve.

Okay. Well, again, I'm Robert Schroeder. I spent Bob is what I go by. I've spent, forty years in, the healthcare management area, including, before I retired, fourteen years as the CEO of a large multi hospital system. We moved here permanently.

We bought our house in 2019, but we moved here permanently, to Lahaina area in 2020. So we we live here full time. It's our only house. We have been very involved with the community. I think Angus sees us almost me or my wife on almost all the civic events.

Aye, I have, I was lucky enough to be appointed, to the Tri Island, Area Subcommittee. And I'm presently chairing that. And so, I'm on my second term. But I also have an interest and have been asked to move up to the state, health coordinating group. And I'm extremely excited about that.

And my hope is that my background and my experience can help the state actually improve its health care and its system. I will say, and I've had discussions with many people about this, one of the things that I'm especially wanting to change is I do think the secondary islands have more access issues than, you know, Oahu. And I think that there's a lot of skill in in Oahu that we could actually try to bring over to the secondary islands.

And that's one of my goals is to to improve access on Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Kauai, and all the other islands. I I I will say my personal, issues.

I I do have cancer, and I have been, treated off of Maui. The Maui physician said that he couldn't treat me, so I got referred to another facility. My wife and I both go to physicians on Oahu or specialty care, And I'd like to see more of those types of physicians, either on video or in person, hit some of the secondary islands.

Well, thank

you very much. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

Okay. Thank you very much, Robert Schroeder. Let's see who else is testifying on your behalf. We have SHIPTA, State Health Planning and Development Agency, submitting written testimony in support. So, Robert, I'm looking at your background, your resume.

You are from Youngstown. Is that Ohio?

I am. Yes. I actually grew up in the Cincinnati area, but my, pretty much my entire career was in Northeast Ohio, which is Akron and Youngstown. Our system covered everything kinda South Of Cleveland from Akron all the way over to the Pennsylvania border.

Okay. It seems like you have been you have a lot of experience and as a hospital administrator in various community hospitals, including bedroom community hospitals in like in Warren, Ohio. So and so your activity in the Tri Aisles sub area, so you are fully well aware of the rural issues.

Oh, thanks.

Play And we do call we do do call our neighbor islands neighbor islands, not secondary. We do not better. We are not gonna submit to the fact that we are secondary.

Okay. Cool. That's fine. Probably better.

Okay? We are neighbor islands.

I just you're right.

Referred to us as secondary, so we gotta get that out of you.

Okay.

Quit referring to us as secondary. Other than that, and I see that you are vice chair and you are well aware of each other. So I'm assuming that you are

No. He's

Do you recommend him?

He's very much even bordering on Glover qualified, but I think where his expertise will come into is in dealing with some of this area and so far as men's space and trying to advance the ideas of perhaps one entity running all the long term care and being able to take that off of the hospital. You could flag this to me when I first met him a couple years ago, right, before the fire.

It's been I think it's been more than a couple.

Yeah. Yeah. More than a couple, but you were you were flagging it out then. And so your experience

I I was. I was lobbying you out there back then when I really know,

I think he comes

very qualified

with You know? And and I'm assuming that since you are still willing to serve despite being diagnosed with cancer, that you don't believe, the treatment that occurs after your diagnosis is gonna in any way impede your ability to serve.

Actually, it's actually even increased my desire to to, you know, to make a difference because I'd like to, again, right now I have to leave the island and and obviously I would like to be able to to get my care where I live. And so I'll be pushing for improvements in that area.

Okay. Thank you very much. Okay, next up, we are going to see, is GM 562, Richard Collins for juvenile justice. I'm sorry.

Before I go to you, I went too too fast. Anybody else wishing to, testify on GM 540? Seeing none, moving on. GM 562, Richard Collins, juvenile justice state advisory council for term to expire, 06/30/2029. And I see, Richard Collins on Zoom.

So Richard, could you please identify yourself and let us know why it is you'd like to serve in the Juvenile Justice Council Council?

Yes. Thank you, Chair and Vice Chair, for making time for this. I wasn't concerned with this, but for somehow, I too am from Cincinnati, Ohio.

Oh my goodness. And I-

I and I know and I know Rick too.

Yeah. All these people on the phone.

Cincinnati.

I, I-

Ohio going to Mali. Please proceed.

The heart of America, Ohio.

So I don't know if that's good or not good, but that might work-

From a place with no beaches too. A place with a lot of beaches.

There you go. So I've been here about half of my life. I came in 2003 and, went to university here. So my entire professional life has been out here. Sort of my first half of my professional life, I served for about twelve years as a, mental health therapist working mostly in the foster care system with young people, where I interfaced a lot with those young people in the juvenile justice system.

So I not only got to know sort of how the system works, but I would say one of my strengths is sort of bringing collaboration, helping think about how systems work and how we might, you know, what do you wanna say, change or, think of new ways in which we can serve these young people and ultimately prevent them from being in the system.

The last maybe ten plus years, maybe twelve year another twelve years or so, I've been mostly in substance use prevention work, mostly working on, alcohol and cannabis policy. That's how I know Senator McKelvey and and, some of his support that he's given to our, bills over the past number of years.

And so I think those are sort of the elements in which, both substance use and my mental health background, sort of interfaces a lot with the juvenile justice system because so many young people, sort of get involved because of substances and those things. I also think what I bring is, sort of in my statewide legislative work, sort of thinking about policies and systems, and so contact with folks like you in the capital, but I've also gotten exposure to people across the islands.

And I'm currently sitting as the chair for that committee, the Juvenile Justice State Advisory Council. And, yeah, I'm asking for one additional term to continue my service there. So I can answer any questions you got, but keeping it brief. Okay.

Okay. Thank you very much. I have to admit that your bachelor's is interesting. Religious studies.

Yep. Absolutely.

So you bring a spiritual side to your therapy?

You know, I I did not, actually. I got involved because that was really moving to me and some of the work that I did as a young person back in my high school days, and even in, my undergraduate, you know, different service work. I spent a year in India and just got fascinated by how religion moves in people's lives and how similar and different it is. And so I didn't know what I was gonna do with it. And so, yeah.

It's definitely it's definitely a foundational part of my life personally, and I think it also reflects just in my professional work.

Okay. Thank you very much. And and Mr. Collins, you are aware that at least our youth correctional facility here on Oahu, a few years ago had a distinction of having zero inmates. And in fact, they got written up in New York times because of that.

So we and it's because of rehabilitation and and hopefully we can get back to that, Richard. So if you know.

Yep, I completely agree. I completely agree. There's a goal right now of 2030, you know, to really have it at zero again. And, I mean, I think that's where my heart is. I think the more we can have these young people back in their communities, that's the best antidote, I think, and connecting them with their culture and their community.

Okay. Thank you very much. Anybody we also have Judith Clark testifying on behalf of Richard Collins on GM 562. Anybody else wishing to testify on GM 562? Members, any questions?

Okay. Moving on. GM five GM six seven three. Bronson Kobayashi, commission on fatherhood. Bronson.

Oh, there you are. Okay. Please identify yourself, and you've answered the questionnaire, but please let the committee and the public know why it is you're willing to serve in the commission on fatherhood.

Hi. Aloha. Yeah. My name is Bronson Kobayashi. I live on the Big Island.

I'm a firefighter, a paramedic. I work for the Hawaii County Fire Department. Been doing this for almost nine years now. We run a ALS system, and so we treat a lot of people, in 911 emergency settings, not necessarily inter facility transport.

And in a lot a lot of times in my work, I see situations where, you know, I just wish that there would be a little bit more advocacy for fathers in general for for kids to be with their dad or like to for kids to have their fathers present kind of, like, opportunities for that to happen more often or for that to be more available.

And, you know, as a father myself, all of this has become 10 times more important to me, just having seen growing up what what happens without a father or, you know, just just knowing in my heart how much how important it is for for kids to have their dads. And so when I seen that there was an opening on the commission on fatherhood, I I wanted to apply and learn from these gentlemen that have been in this in this committee.

And, wow, it's been really so amazing just being a part of these meetings so far, and I've been learning quite a lot. And I really hope to bring whatever experience that I that I do have to these kids and to these other fathers that might be wanting some further support or even possible, like, avenues for for help in other ways. There's there's a whole bunch of issues that that bothers face and kids face without their dads on both sides of the spectrum.

And so if there's any way I can help there, that's that's what I signed up to do. And, you know, seeing a lot of these on the medical side, seeing some of these situations occur, you know, we're not just fathers that are are here to provide and and everything.

That's that's a huge part of us as dads, but we're also, you know, we're parents, and we wanna be there with our kids and and showing how kids can, showing showing kids that that us dads can be present and be available to them and what can come of that. That's that's some of the biggest reasons why I wanted to be on this commission and why it's so important to me. And, yeah, my son's three years old.

He's he's the best thing that's ever happened to me. And so I really appreciate this opportunity, chair and vice chair, to just be here today and speak with you folks. And, you know, I get a little emotional about it. So my apologies.

That that that's wonderful. Okay. So any so any questions of Bronson?

Just go ahead. I just had a personal question at the very end, but no questions as far as the nomination goes.

Okay. So, Bronson, did you have any do you have any issues with the mother of your or anybody else wishing to testify on GM six seven three? Okay. So, Bronson, I I just wanna proceed. Sorry, sir. We do have one. K. Please proceed. Identify yourself, Mark Morgan.

Aloha. My name is Morgan Raposo. I am a coordinator with the Hawaii State Rural Health Association. And on a personal note, I've known Bronson for over a decade. And I worked at the legislature for a time period, and I've just seen his commitment to our community in the first place and also his his children and his his son and his, stepson.

And I we have a maternal infant health program going on right now for the Hawaii State Rural Health Association, so we've also been looking into some of the data on the role that fathers play in infant health and child health throughout throughout their childhood.

And I have seen these commissions at the the legislature too, and I think it's just really people that are so committed in their heart to the cause more than just sitting and not that other peep but more than just sitting on a commission or putting their name on a board of directors in any capacity for you know, in the nonprofit world. I think it's just

Thank thank you so much, Morgan.

Sorry. Yes.

No. It's all good, Morgan. Okay. Anybody else wishing to testify on GM six seventy three? Okay.

Members, any questions? So my question, Bonson, is seems to me you you've been e m you're an emergency medical, through through the fire department. Right? You're like an EMT?

I'm I'm a paramedic. Yes.

Paramedic. Okay. Did you did you see any issues with you being a paramedic and still being a dad that you can help get guide the commission on?

No issues as far as I'm sorry. Could you could you

Well, usually, as a paramedic, you're you're on call, like, in the middle of the night, and so you're not gonna be there for your three year old son. So how do you cope with that?

So yeah. So it well, my his his mom is also a paramedic with AMR.

Okay. Okay.

And so we have we have set schedules. Mine is is actual mine's just rotating, and hers is is is a set schedule. But I have twenty twenty nights twenty full, twenty four hour days off a a month. Oh. Yeah.

So I I spend as much time as I I I spend as much quality time as I can on my days off with him, and we have an equal time sharing schedule where I have half the week and she has half half the week, and and we're looking we're looking at incorporating it into both of our schedules so that we have as many nights possible with just with with one parent or the other.

But, yeah, it is a little tricky to to to do, but the the benefit is on my on my days off. So this year alone, I've I've all all the nights that I've had him, I've been able to be off and and not on call. So I and and when he's with his mom, I I'm I'm not I don't need to worry about

Okay.

His his safety or anything.

So, Bonson, it sounds like, you're you're really a good fit for For being the commission on fatherhood because it sounds like you are able to work out a co parenting arrangement with the mother of the child and which is frankly quite rare. So, Bronson, kudos to you, and thank you for being willing to serve in the commission. Our vice chair has a question.

I just had I'm just sorry. The curiosity is driving me. Is that Margaret River behind you in that painting?

Oh, this painting right here?

Yeah. Is that Margaret River?

Oh, I'm sorry. It's my painting. I painted this.

Oh, you did that.

No. My son. My son. My son. Wow.

Okay. Because it looks like Margaret River is breaking Australia, but okay. And you're an artist. That's awesome. Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So Margaret River is copying him.

Is Margaret River a is Margaret River a wave? Is Margaret Yeah.

Margaret River's a wave in South Australia. It's exactly like the background the painting you did. So that's why.

I'm a terrible surfer. I just really like the image of the wave. So you might you might be right. It might be

It's a heavy wave as your painting shows.

Oh, it was a beautiful picture. So I

just I just I just took some inspiration from it.

Right on.

Anybody else wishing to testify in gm six seven three? K. So moving on, g m seven twenty two, Robert Schroeder for State Health Coordinating Council, for term to expire 06/30/2030. For Robert Schroeder, are you present? Oh, there you are again.

So you're willing to serve on both the state

I I definitely am willing to serve on both committees. And I I think it's good to have coordination between the sub area councils and the state coordinating board.

Okay. Sounds good. And we have Shukta here for Robert Schroeder. Come on up.

Chairs and vice chair, thank you for your patience. It's been a testimony chaos day for me.

Oh, good.

I would I would just say that, yes, we are fortunate to have Bob Schroeder Both for another term on the tri area trial sub area council.

You gotta teach them to not say secondary island. Okay?

I'll I'll scold them myself when I get to that. I mean, he's he's on the Mainland, he ran a whole health system. He has tremendous experience. So you saw that.

Yes.

But he also is a a real advocate in the community. You know, he really makes an effort to organize people around issues. He's a big, proponent of prevention. And he he constantly chastises us when he doesn't think that we're Including prevention in in an emphatic way. So he's he's just a super valuable, part of the team over there, and he's serving again as chair on the on the sub area because the rest of his his council members really want that leadership.

Yep. And we just know that he will be helpful to us on the State Health Coordinating Council as well with all that experience and background. So we we just are so grateful that the the governor nominated him. We'd love to

see him confirm. Positions.

Yeah. So we'd love to see him confirm. Huge.

Okay. Thank you very much. K. Anybody else wishing to testify on g m seven twenty two? And so

That was very nice.

Yes. So excuse me. Oh, gonna have to roll to Wednesday on for your DM.

That's fine.

Okay. So Robert, you have cancer. Don't stretch yourself out. Yeah? We don't want martyrs.

My prognosis is very good.

Terrific. Okay. That that's the only request we make is

I We But you know, sound like my wife says the same thing.

Okay. Perfect. You know, health care.

I tell his wife, though we need martyrs. K.

Thank you very much. Anybody else wishing to testify on g M722? K. If not, moving on, g M7 81, Steven Lung for Pavea, policy advisory board for elder Affairs. So, Steven Lung, are you present on Zoom?

I am. Okay. Please proceed, Steven. Why don't you identify yourself and tell us why you want to continue serving on Pavea?

Thanks. So my name is Steven Lung, and I've been serving on FABIA for the past four years. Maybe I can just explain a little bit about how this came to be. I retired eight years ago after a career working for various health plans. Mostly, most of that was with HMSA, but with a couple of other health plans too.

Most recently UnitedHealthcare before I retired. And, after retiring, I was looking around for volunteer opportunities and, I was fortunate enough to be able to work for the the SHIP, the state health insurance assistance program. And I've been doing volunteer work for them for the the past eight years and really enjoyed it. Really enjoyed, you know, learning more about Medicare. I think my health insurance background was a big asset.

And that experience brought me into contact with the Office on Elderly Affairs. And so I learned about the opportunity to serve on the FABEAA, the Policy Advisory Board. And it's really been a good experience for me. I thought that

I think my motivation, initially was to learn more about the services available in the community to our kupuna and to see what could be done to, extend, expand, strengthen those services. And I saw serving on the policy advisory board is a good chance to do that. And and so that's what I've really been trying to do for the past four years. It has been a really positive experience for me.

I'm very impressed by the the people that I work with, both the other members of the Padilla board, the other volunteers, but also the the staff for the executive office on aging. I find all of them to be just really dedicated the welfare of the kupuna in our community. So that's pretty much where I'm coming from.

Thank you very much, Steven Lam. K. Next, we have testifying in favor of g m seven eighty one, we have Beverly Ann Gottlieb, chair of Pavea, in support. HMSA, Jennifer Deisman, in support. Gary Simon of Hawaii Family Caregiver Coalition, in support.

Sarah Lenzer Medeiros in support. Barbara Service in support. Anybody else wishing to testify on GM seven eighty one? Hello? Oh, please proceed.

Christina Valenzuela. Identify yourself. You you have to unmute yourself.

Trying to help.

Okay. There. We could hear you now. Can you

Okay.

hear me okay now?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you. I'm Christina Valenzuela with the executive office on aging. I'm testifying on behalf of Caroline Cudarau, our director. Thank you, chair, vice chair, for giving me the opportunity to testify. EOA is in strong support of mister Stephen Lung's nomination to PABEA.

He's continued to be a valuable contributor to EOA. His strengths include his over thirty years of experience in the health insurance industry, and he's continued to commit, his time and his expertise to EOA's, state health insurance program. Apologies in advance for the outside, noise that you hear. So, as a volunteer, for our SHIP program, he's been volunteering since 2008, and he educates and helps older adults better understand their Medicare benefits. And, you know, Medicare benefits are very confusing and can be very complex.

And so he's done a great job in helping older adults better understand those, that information. He's also continued to serve on the PABIA board and on our legislative committee.

Thank you very much, Christina. Okay. Anybody else wishing to testify on GM seven eighty one? Members, any questions? Okay.

We do not have quorum at this time, so we cannot do our decision making at this time. We may have we have a hearing at 02:00.

And if we have quorum at We'll just do it then.

We'll at yes. So we're gonna have our decision making on all of your on on the GM 540, GM 562, GM 673, GM 722, and GM 781 at 02:00pm. K. Excuse me? Sorry.

If you could roll it again to 01:05PM on Wednesday.

Oh, you wanna make it Wednesday instead of today? How about you?

We have a joint hearing.

We have a joint hearing today at two.

Oh, sorry. I just got a note to say no to roll it again to 01:05.

Okay. Why don't we do it at two? And if we can't do it at two, then we will roll it over. Okay?

Thank no. So good. Because I that's my note also. K. You know, Steve Steven, I'm sorry.

Are you still there?

Yes. I am.

I'm I'm just curious. Are you related to Harvey Lum?

Distant relative. Yes.

Okay. He he was my classmate from law school. And Lung is not a common name. That's the reason I asked.

Yes. There's not too there's not too many Lungs in Hawaii. You're right.

Right. Right. Okay. So association. So, yes.

So around 2PM, hopefully, we can have your, the decision making. But right now, I thank everyone for willing to step up. I don't see any problem with your nomination. We just need to have quorum to advise and consent to the to the floor. So thank you very much for being willing to serve.

And with that, we and with that, we are adjourned.

Welcome back, Committee of Health and Human Services. This is just a reconvene for Monday, 01:05pm of decision making on three of governor's messages from last Thursday. Just like the previous agenda with the governor's messages, we're hopefully awaiting quorum. So we're gonna defer this, time's certain to after the 02:00 hearing on the resolution. And should we not have quorum, then we will look forward to rolling it to the 01:05pm agenda on Monday.

On on Wednesday. Yes. Thank you very much..

Alright...

Calling the 2:01 calendar for health human services. Decision making, only for the joint resolution earlier heard by of SR 51, SCR 53, earlier heard by JDC and passing out by JDC. Since after reviewing the written testimony and noting that LRB wasn't given an opportunity to weigh in as to whether or not they should be substituted for the attorney general, at this time, the Health Human Services Committee is going to defer SCR 53 and SR 51. Any comments, questions, concerns by vice chair? No.

The fact that the president of Resnos, please speak volumes.

Okay. Thank you very much. And at this time, we are adjourned on the 2:01 calendar.

Hello, everyone. This is the joint committee of Hawaiian Affairs and Health and Human Services. We are at Monday, 04/06/2026, the 2PM agenda here in Conference Room 225. Thanks for tuning in. And if for some reason that we may need to postpone or reschedule, we will reconvene for the at 01:05PM on the seventh in, Room 224.

We have a just a few testifiers, time limit of two minutes. And with that, first testifier on SCR93SR88THHL. Thank you. That's all we have signed up. IT, do we have anybody on Zoom?

No. No presence here on Zoom.

Okay. Thank you. Committees, open for questions.

Okay. So for health human services, the only question I would have for office come on up. Is there is testimony I don't written testimony basically saying that the scope of work should have a plan, a phase planning process with clear prioritization of achievable near term actions and longer term strategies. What's your response? Will will you be able to do that in coordination with, office of homelessness and housing solutions?

The department takes us a wonderful recommendation, and we believe that it is part of the objective of this resolution.

Okay. And we don't need to amend the resolution in any way to achieve that kind of phased planning process or achievable long term and near term solutions, strategies?

No. An amendment wouldn't be necessary because we understand that's part of the intent of the resolution.

Okay. And according to the test, I'm just looking at the only other, thoughtful, testimony, in support of this commission. And that is oh.

We got I got

We got quorum. So okay. No. What? Okay.

Wait a second. Let me finish this because, He does. Basically, what is your what is your what is your response to the need for evaluating the transitional housing models? Could that be achieved with office of homelessness and housing solutions?

Yes. So DHHL would find it beneficial to work with their office in terms of Kohale and funding for Kohale. As we all are aware, there are different models that are currently being used in different models that could potentially be used in call holidays. But one, we also have transitional housing and partnerships with other organizations that help with continuum of care.

Okay. Thank you. And and one last thing. Sorry. And this is from me, because we it looks like, Hawaiian affairs has been has quorum.

And that is one of my one of my issues with housing and homelessness solutions is that they do not have actual goals. So for instance, I have floated and and introduced a bill, which somehow died, that required Office of Housing Homelessness Solutions to actually reduce the homeless population based upon the twenty twenty six point in time count by 25% in two years.

Would you would you be able to have that kind of statistical numerical goals instead of just having a vague long term, near term strategy towards homelessness?

I understand your question because we must be objective and purpose oriented. However, sometimes benchmarks are hard to set and achieve achieve without dedicated funding for these purposes. However, I think this resolution is a great step forward towards data collection. In all honesty, we don't know how many beneficiaries on the waiting list or house list. We can only venture to guess based on the data that is provided through the homeless information management services, per island.

However, I can, informally state that one of the goals of DHHL, given the success of Hale Ocumu Mamo is to have more facilities of that type on the neighbor islands, two on Hawaii Island, at least one on Kauai, one on Maui, and another on Oahu. So those kinds of objectives, we could definitely support and work in collaboration with the other stakeholder.

Okay. So I've been human service chair for over ten years, including human service chair in the house, where we first started the Ohana zones project. And that was a pilot project at that time five years. And we have listened to the needs for more of this and more of that, but we have reached the point of compassion fatigue. If you start looking at the county councils when request for home continued homeless funding and the fact that we keep having emergency proclamations for homelessness.

And I understand that this is probably the first time you're gonna be in collaboration, but we did give foreign homelands a huge infusion of 600,000,000 plus a few years ago. So is that and it's not part of the resolution, but my request is that you folks do actually use the data. And the next request for reports, we are probably gonna pound on you. And I know Samantha Dick Horton, so would Chair Richards.

We're gonna be pound are gonna be pounding on you as to what your achievable goals are numerically and not just a feel good.

Well, we hope we've housed these people. And isn't it nice that we're able to house these group of people, but numerically how you're able to go and help the Hawaiian population. Okay? Yes. K.

Thank

you. Okay. Thank you.

Go ahead.

Sorry. Go ahead.

So just, quick there have been any type of attempt to take the point in time counts with the data information available and try to cross compare it to the beneficiaries list to get an understanding of how many potential beneficiaries that are on the list are also showing up in the PIGC as well to create an ability to say, okay. We've discovered through the cross section of these two datasets that there are 500 native Hawaiians on the beneficiary list, which also in the point in time count.

Is that information gonna be something that you'd be able to to get so we can say, okay. How many beneficiaries are to your earlier comment indeed being impacted and formulate a strategy around the actual numbers?

The short answer to have we done that is no. Would we like to? Yes.

Okay. But, hopefully, you can with the I know it's just the resin, but, hopefully, you can't because that's a great place to start. Because without that granular data, you're not gonna know exactly what solutions, if any, because you don't know your target population set at all. Right?

And whether or not your strategies are working.

Right? Okay.

Thank you. So since you folks have been awarding leases at a rapid rate, I I would say to be fair, Ag leases, pastoral leases, land leases, paper leases. You folks have been able to burn through that list pretty quickly as far as identifying who can afford these leases and who cannot. Do you have at least that data? Because I think maybe starting from there, which would be who would qualify for these homes would already kind of exclude a big pocket of people already.

Yeah?

Yes. I appreciate the question because to your point, we've been able to compile how many beneficiaries have been contacted, offered, and declined, and then why they declined. And, to your point, there is a difference between a lot award and that process where you have to still qualify for the loan versus transitional housing for houses beneficiaries.

And that process and what that journey looks like is much different because you go from transitional housing into, hopefully, workforce development, and then, hopefully, they can transition into qualifying for these homes. So I appreciate the question, and that would be a wonderful place for us to start.

Yeah. Because I think in, Miley is. Right? So you folks have already started to compile a lot of those numbers. Do do you have any kind of approximates that you can throw at the committee right now today approximately?

Not off the top of my head, but I'd be happy to go back and gain that information to share with your office.

Okay. Thanks. Yeah. I I do believe that you folks have already started collecting data that would be able to tighten up and identify who can qualify for a mortgage and who cannot and just kind of start there. So I think we would be able to get those numbers sooner rather than later, Chairs.

But thank you.

Yep. Vice chair, you're good? Yeah. Okay. Actually, just real quick. I'm not one to really push a lot of reports. I don't like to force a lot of reporting because you spend more time writing reports than actually doing the work. But to that point and from the senators here, what I liked about this rezo is we're gonna find out information we don't have. And I think with that information, that could lead to legislation for more funding if we know what we're talking about. I'm not wild that the point in time counts because I think they're grossly underestimating most of the time.

But that being said, there at least it's a number we can start working on. So I would ask that we get these as whatever numbers you've got, and I look forward to getting some of this data in so then we could talk about future legislation that may really help out. So appreciate that. Like I said, that's just a gentle pinky promise that we'd like to swim on that data sooner rather than later. Good?

We understand. That sounds great.

Thank you. Any other questions? Nope. Okay. We have quorum, and so we are ready for a vote.

Thank you.

My intention actually, let's go recess. Hello, everyone. We are reconvening the joint committee on Hawaiian Affairs and Health and Human Services and going in for decision making.

It's a recommendation of the chair to pass as is, and we're gonna include some language in our committee report that talks about some of the data points we would like collected and shared sooner rather than later as we are talking about the homelessness for the Hawaiian population and see if we can start crafting some legislation where we might find some extra funding in next session or a session after that. So with that recommendation

of

the chair to pass as is on SCR 93 SR 88, Chair votes aye.

For the committee on Hawaiian affairs, recommendation of the chair is to pass as is for SCR 93 and SR 88. Chair Richards?

Aye.

Vice chair is also an eye. Senator Yihara is excused. Senator Kio Colole is also excused. Senator de court. Aye. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. And, committee on health and human services.

For health and human services, the decision making for this resolution will be deferred to a date and time certain of Wednesday, April 8 at 1PM at Room 225. This is 225. Right?

This is 225. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. And with that, the Health and Human Services and Hawaiian Affairs joint hearing is adjourned.

We are adjourned.

Recalling the decision making calendar for the the 2PM or 02:01PM that was deferred from 01:00pm today and at 01:05PM today. For those two DMs, decision making, we're going to divert again to a time certain of Wednesday, April 8, at 01:00 p. M. At Room 225. Excuse me.

At 01:05PM on Wednesday, April 8 at 22 Room 225. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none. With that, we are adjourned.