BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: SB 119
S
AUTHOR: Lowenthal
B
VERSION: March 21, 2011
HEARING DATE: April 12, 2011
1
FISCAL: Appropriations
1
9
CONSULTANT:
Hailey
SUBJECT
Emergency youth shelter facilities
SUMMARY
Creates a licensing category for emergency youth shelter
facilities, provides a definition and a description of
them, and directs the Department of Social Services (DSS)
to adopt regulations for them by January 1, 2013.
ABSTRACT
Current law
1. Defines various kinds of community care facilities and
creates a process to license each of them, including group
homes for dependents and wards of the court.
2. Provides, through the federal Runaway and Homeless
Youth Act, funding for respite centers for homeless and
runaway youth.
3. Establishes, through the Homeless Youth Act of 1985 (AB
1596, Agnos, Chapter 1445, Statues of 1985), services for
runaway and homeless youth that include access to an
overnight shelter, counseling, screening for basic health
Continued---
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 119 (Lowenthal) Page
2
needs, linkages to services offered by other organizations,
planning for long-term stabilization, and follow up
services. (Welfare and Institutions Code Sections 13700 et
seq.)
This bill
1. Creates a category of community care licensing for an
"emergency youth shelter facility" and defines it as a
group care facility that provides voluntary temporary
emergency shelter and case management to minors and to
emancipated youth under 18 years of age.
2. Specifies that an emergency youth shelter facility
must, in order to be licensed, offer voluntary short-term
shelter care and supervision, on a 24-hour basis, to
unaccompanied minors under 18 years of age, including
emancipated youth or adults who are in high school at 18
years of age and expect to graduate before their 19th
birthday, and who are homeless or at risk of being
homeless; that it be owned and operated on a not-for-profit
organization; and, that the facility have a maximum
capacity of 25 residents.
3. Requires DSS to adopt regulations for licensed
emergency youth shelter facilities by January 1, 2013.
4. Requires that these regulations include physical
environment standards, standards for staffing and staff
training, health and safety requirements, and other
standards that may meet but not exceed standards set for
child care licensees.
5. Requires DSS, while developing regulations, to consult
with interested parties including representatives of
provider organizations that serve homeless or runaway youth
and youth who have accessed emergency youth shelter
services.
6. Stipulates that regulations adopted for emergency youth
shelter facilities shall constitute the only licensing
standards applicable to them.
7. Holds harmless from current licensing standards any
emergency youth shelter operating on the effective date of
the act; regulations for emergency youth shelters will
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 119 (Lowenthal) Page
3
apply to these facilities once those regulations are
promulgated.
8. Allows a facility operating under a group home license
to apply to transfer its existing license to an emergency
youth shelter license after those regulations are
promulgated.
FISCAL IMPACT
Unknown.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Author's statement
According to the author, emergency youth shelters are
designed to provide voluntary and temporary shelter to
youth who are homeless or runaways at risk of homelessness.
There are 33 such shelters operating in California, most
with federal funding provided through the Runaway and
Homeless Youth Act. These shelters - with their voluntary
and temporary nature - contrast with foster group homes,
which are for dependents of the court or for children and
youth judged by a county social worker to be at risk of
abuse or neglect; foster group homes can also be more
permanent placements for children and youth.
The difference between these two kinds of facilities -
emergency shelters and foster group homes - and the law's
silence as to the licensing status of emergency shelters
lead to inconsistency and misunderstanding when shelters
apply for funds or when they seek a license. The bill is
designed to end these inconsistencies and to give those
teens and young adults residing in emergency shelters the
health and safety protections of licensure.
Federal-state clarity
Federal funds through the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act
are, potentially, available to an emergency youth shelter.
Federal law does not require that applicants for funds have
a license, but it does require that applicants be in accord
with state law. This bill would make clear the licensing
and regulatory requirements of emergency youth shelters.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 119 (Lowenthal) Page
4
Number of such youth emergency shelters seeking licensure
The sponsors of the bill estimate that many of the state's
33 shelters would seek a license under the bill's
provisions and that a handful who are currently licensed as
group homes would seek to transfer to an emergency shelter
license.
Analogy to crisis nurseries
In 2004, the Legislature created a separate community care
licensing category for crisis nurseries (Chapter 664,
Statues of 2004). Prior to 2005, crisis nurseries were
licensed as group homes meeting those requirements for
staff-child ratios, education and training of staff, and
availability of prescribed supportive services, or they
were seeking waivers from group-home requirements that
shelter administrators believed where not necessary during
the limited time during which an infant was in one of these
facilities.
Operators of crisis nurseries argued that the cost of
complying with group home regulations were excessive and
threatened their viability, and they found the waiver
process cumbersome and inconsistent.
In the years since enactment of the separate licensing
category for crisis nurseries, the statute has limited them
to voluntary placements only, and they function as a
respite for parents or other caregivers rather than as an
emergency placement available to infants receiving child
welfare services from a county.
Arguments in support
The California Coalition for Youth believes that enacting
this bill will lead to new services for homeless and
runaway youth, once ambiguities about licensing are cleared
up. Covenant Community Services, in Kern County, believes
that the bill will ensure that shelter services will meet
basic health and safety standards.
Request for amendments
The California Alliance of Child and Family Services raises
two concerns with the bill's current language, offering
support if the bill is amended. The Alliance recommends
language clarifying that runaway foster youth may be served
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 119 (Lowenthal) Page
5
by an emergency shelter care facility. Second, the
Alliance recommends language making it more clear that
facilities licensed as foster group homes can continue to
provide emergency shelter services after DSS establishes a
new licensing category for facilities that offer only
emergency shelter.
POSITIONS
Support: California Coalition for Youth (sponsor)
John Burton Foundation for Children Without
Homes (sponsor)
California Alliance for Child and Family
Services (if amended)
Covenant Community Services
Oppose: None received
-- END --