This morning, the Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing Committee gutted a sweeping House bill to bolster affordable housing in the state — replacing the text with Senate housing measures passed previously by the committee.

Later in the morning, the House Housing Committee brought back the House bill by tearing out the text from a housing-related Senate bill and inserting the words from the House measure the Senate had just killed.

The chairmen of both committees agree that the final form of the Legislature's effort to keep — at least some — homes in Hawai'i affordable will need to be worked out in conference committee. That's when members of both houses meet later in the session to discuss their differences and decide on a final version.

"Seeing that our House position was amended, we needed to quickly act so that our position would be on the table at conference time," said House Housing Committee Chairman Michael Kahikina, D-44th (Kalaeloa-Nanakuli).

Kahikina said the Senate's bill did not address a key issue for the House, which is to make sure that very low income residents aren't pushed aside by expanding the definition of affordable housing to include more expensive units.

Higher-priced homes could be used to pay for more moderate homes, but doing so should not be at the expense of the poorest residents, Kahikina said.

"That's the part that I'm concerned about ... so that we can take those guys who want help off the beach," Kahikina said, referring to homeless beach squatters.

Senate Committee Chairman Ron Menor said the House bill didn't include many of the recommendations from the state's Affordable Housing Task Force.

By stripping the House bill, Menor said he was able to include measures such as prohibiting raids on special housing funds, streamlining the review process for affordable housing projects on 50 acres or less and eliminating restrictions on the use of a fund for developing affordable rentals.