HB2498 establishes a temporary Central and Leeward Oahu Care Home Community Resilience Pilot Program within the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. The program is designed to help eligible licensed care homes in ZIP codes 96797, 96792, and 96786 improve their ability to withstand natural disasters, climate-related hazards, and extended utility outages. The bill identifies a range of eligible upgrades, including roof reinforcement, impact-resistant windows, backup power and battery storage, cooling and air filtration improvements, fire-resistant landscaping, and shelter-in-place or safe-room modifications.
The pilot may provide grants, rebates, contracted services, vulnerability assessments, technical assistance, and support for emergency power and cooling solutions, subject to available funds. It applies to adult residential care homes, expanded adult residential care homes, community care foster family homes, developmental disabilities domiciliary homes, intermediate care facilities, and other licensed residential care homes serving vulnerable populations in the covered areas. The bill also requires participating facilities to adopt evacuation plans and directs the agency to report to the Legislature in 2027 with results and recommendations on whether to expand the program statewide.
The bill creates a new, geographically limited state pilot program and appropriates $1,000,000 in general funds for fiscal year 2026-2027 to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. It does not broadly amend the care home licensing statutes, but it adds new duties for eligible facilities in the covered Oahu ZIP codes, including evacuation planning, and authorizes the agency to adopt implementing rules under chapter 91, Hawaii Revised Statutes. The program is temporary, taking effect July 1, 2026, and repealing June 30, 2029, unless later extended or expanded by the Legislature.
The bill appears to have received strong support throughout the legislative process, with unanimous or near-unanimous committee votes and no recorded opposition in the provided vote history. The conference process also resulted in passage with amendments in both chambers, suggesting broad agreement on the need to improve disaster resilience for vulnerable care home residents. The final enactment as Act 146 indicates the measure was ultimately approved by the Legislature and signed into law.
The main policy questions appear to have been about program design rather than whether to provide assistance at all. Likely points of discussion included the narrow geographic scope limited to specific central and leeward Oahu ZIP codes, the use of a $1 million general fund appropriation, which facilities should be prioritized, and whether the pilot should focus on structural hardening versus operational preparedness. The bill’s requirement for a later report recommending possible statewide expansion suggests some lawmakers wanted to test the model before broader adoption.