BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 119|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 119
Author: Lowenthal (D), et al.
Amended: 3/21/11
Vote: 21
SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/12/11
AYES: Liu, Emmerson, Berryhill, Hancock, Strickland,
Wright, Yee
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-0, 5/26/11
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price,
Runner, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson
SUBJECT : Emergency youth shelter facilities
SOURCE : California Coalition for Youth
John Burton Foundation for Children Without
Homes
DIGEST : This bill 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.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
CONTINUED
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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 ÝAgnos], Chapter 1445, Statues of 1985), services
for runaway and homeless youth that include access to an
overnight shelter, counseling, screening for basic
health 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.
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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 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.
Comments
In 2004, the Legislature created a separate community care
licensing category for crisis nurseries (SB 855 ÝMachado],
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
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emergency placement available to infants receiving child
welfare services from a county.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Fund
New licensing category $50 $350
$200General
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/26/11)
California Coalition for Youth (co-source)
John Burton Foundation for Children Without Homes
(co-source)
Covenant Community Services
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/26/11)
Youth Law Center
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.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The Youth Law Center writes:
"While we fully support the development of a licensing
category for emergency youth shelters, we do not believe
that a complete interim exemption is warranted. SB 119
provides that any currently operating licensed or
unlicensed facility that meets the definition of emergency
youth shelter is exempt from any attempt by Community Care
Licensing (CCL) to impose existing licensing standards
until new regulations are adopted. The exemption means
that CCL would not be able to impose or collect annual
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licensing fees or fines, inspect or correct problems in
shelters or respond to any complaints even if the health or
safety of a youth is at stake. Shelters would not have to
complete background checks on prospective employees, comply
with basic health and life safety requirements or respect
the fundamental personal rights of the youth they house."
CTW:mw 5/26/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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