The legislature finds that:

(1) The magnitude of Hawaii’s welfare situation, either in terms of people or in terms of dollar costs, is staggering;
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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 346-101

  • Department: means the department of human services. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 346-1
  • Public assistance: means financial assistance to or for the benefit of persons whom the department has determined to be without sufficient means of support to maintain a standard consistent with this chapter, payments to or on behalf of such persons for medical care, and social service payments as described under the Social Security Act. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 346-1
  • Recipient: means the person for whose use and benefit services are rendered or a grant of public assistance is made. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 346-1
(2) The present welfare environment can be attributed to many variables such as, the change in society’s attitude toward welfare, poverty, and public assistance to a greater acceptance and assuming of greater responsibility and the ever-increasing rate in the population of the State;
(3) While the State must do what it can, viable solutions to the State’s welfare crisis must be found;
(4) In view of the aforementioned factors, perhaps one solution lies in the establishment of a public service employment program;
(5) There is a supply of unemployed or underemployed persons receiving general assistance payments from the State who are available for public service employment;
(6) There also exists a substantial number of unmet public needs, including environmental concerns such as, development, landscaping and beautification of highways, parks, hiking trails, botanical gardens, beaches and restoration of historic sites; and
(7) A meaningful program of public service employment could serve persons receiving general assistance payments as well as the residential population of the State and at the same time alleviate some of the burden on the present welfare rolls.

The purpose of this part is to establish public service employment to assist in alleviating the unemployment of general assistance recipients as well as meeting some of the urgent public service needs that exist by having these individuals perform meaningful and productive services of the State which cannot otherwise be met. Public service employment will also assist the department of human services in determining whether a general assistance recipient should be eligible for public assistance for refusal to participate without a justifiable reason.

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