BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 119
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Date of Hearing: June 28, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Jim Beall Jr., Chair
SB 119 (Lowenthal) - As Amended: June 21, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 37-0
SUBJECT : Emergency youth shelter facilities
SUMMARY : Creates a licensing category for emergency youth
shelter facilities and directs the Department of Social Services
(CDSS) to adopt regulations for them by January 1, 2013.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes an "emergency youth shelter facility" community
care licensing category and defines it as a group care
facility that provides voluntary, temporary emergency shelter,
case management and supervision on a 24-hour basis, with a
maximum capacity of 25 residents to youth under the age of 18,
who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, including:
a) Youth legally emancipated from their parents or
guardian;
b) Foster youth who have left their foster care placements;
c) Youth who are 18 years of age in order to finish the
high school year or its equivalent; or,
d) Youth who meet the federal description of "homeless
youth and children" or "unaccompanied youth" as defined in
the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
2)Requires an emergency youth shelter facility to be owned and
operated on a nonprofit basis by a private nonprofit
corporation, nonprofit organization, or public agency.
3)Requires CDSS to adopt regulations for licensed emergency
youth shelter facilities by January 1, 2013 to include
physical environment standards, staffing requirements, health
and safety requirements, size limitations, health and hygiene
of the facility, service provision and eligibility to access
services.
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4)Specifies that emergency youth shelter facility regulations
may meet, but not exceed state regulatory standards for child
care facilities.
5)Requires CDSS to consult with interested parties in the
development of regulations, including but not limited to,
representatives of provider organizations that serve homeless
or runaway youth, and youth who have accessed emergency youth
shelter services.
6)Requires CDSS to grant waivers or exceptions to any existing
licensing standards in place prior to the development of the
emergency youth shelter regulations for shelters already
operational on the effective date of this bill for those
licensing standards inappropriate for emergency youth
shelters, provided those waivers or exceptions do not
adversely impact the health, safety, or personal rights of
youth in the shelter.
7)Provides that following the adoption of regulations, the
emergency youth shelter facility regulations shall constitute
the only licensing standards applicable to an emergency youth
shelter.
8)Allows a licensed group home to apply to immediately transfer
to an emergency youth shelter license upon the implementation
of emergency youth shelter regulations, provided the group
home also falls within the description of an emergency youth
shelter.
9)Allows a licensed group home to provide emergency youth
shelter services to youth, which may include foster youth.
EXISTING LAW
1)Defines various types of community care facilities and creates
a process to license each of them, including group homes for
dependents and wards of the court. Health and Safety Code
(HSC) Section 1500 et seq.
2)Establishes the "transitional shelter care facility", defined
as a facility operated by the county, or by contract with the
county, designed to provide short-term 24-hour nonmedical care
and supervision to children under age 18 placed by the county
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due to abuse or neglect. Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC)
Section 1503.2.
3)Provides federal grant funding for homeless youth shelters
through the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act of 2008 (Public Law
110-378).
4)Establishes the Homeless Youth Act of 1985 which provided
services for runaway and homeless youth to 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.
WIC 13700 et seq.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Runaway and Homeless Youth Act: Federal funds through the
federal Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) are potentially
available to an emergency youth shelter. The RHYA provides
grants to states, local governments, and private agencies to
serve homeless youth. The primary source of federal funding for
emergency homeless youth shelters in California is the Basic
Center Program under the RHYA whose grantees must provide youth
and their families with food and clothing, individual, group and
family counseling, recreation programs, youth outreach, and
aftercare services for youth after they leave the shelter.
Nationally, the Basic Center Program provided 362 programs with
a total of $48.6 million in grants in 2010.
Homeless Youth Shelters in California: While the exact number
of homeless youth in California is difficult to determine due to
the transitory nature of these youth, and their distrust of
public agencies, the California Research Bureau conducted a
study in 2007 of approximately 200 homeless youth between the
ages of 13 and 25 in California, and found that around 33%
reported having accessed shelter services at some point.
According to the author, emergency youth shelters are designed
to provide voluntary and short-term shelter to youth who are
homeless or runaways at risk of homelessness. There are 33 such
homeless youth shelters operating in California, according to
the sponsor, most with federal funding provided through the
Runaway and Homeless Youth Act. These shelters - with their
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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. Children placed in foster group homes by a supervising
county or tribal agency may live in the group home for extended
periods of time, whereas emergency youth shelters are meant to
be short-term interventions for youth who voluntarily seek their
crisis and shelter services.
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 youth shelters has led to
inconsistency and misunderstanding when shelters apply for funds
or when they seek a state license.
Need for this bill: This bill is designed to end these
inconsistencies and to give those youth residing in emergency
shelters the health and safety protections of licensure. Adding
to the need for clarity is recent compliance monitoring on the
part of the federal government to ensure that homeless youth
shelters grantees meet the criteria for funding. Federal law
does not require that applicants for funds or grantees have a
license, but it does require that applicants and grantees be in
accord with state and local laws and regulations. This bill
would make clear the licensing and regulatory requirements of
emergency youth shelters.
Inconsistency in licensing standards: The author explains that
the lack of a licensing category specific to emergency youth
shelters has resulted in wide variation across the state in how
these shelters are treated by state licensing authorities.
While some may receive a full waiver from licensure, other
shelters are required to pursue a group home license with
waivers granted by CCL to specific components of group home
licensing standards or regulations that may not be applicable to
the type of care and supervision provided by a short-term
emergency shelter. For example, group home regulations do not
allow providers to use bunk beds, so some homeless youth
shelters have qualified for a CCL waiver to allow for the use of
bunk beds in their shelter facilities.
The sponsors of the bill estimate that many of the state's 33
identified shelters would seek licensure under this bill's
provisions, and that a handful of those currently licensed as
group homes would seek to transfer to an emergency youth shelter
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license.
Support: The bill sponsor, the California Coalition for Youth
(CCY), writes:
In 2009, CCY and the John Burton Foundation published
a policy agenda, Too Big To Ignore: Youth Homelessness
in California, in which we recommend that the state
develop alternative regulations for California's
emergency youth shelter programs to ensure sustained
federal funding under the Runaway and Homeless Youth
Act. California's current licensing regulations are
designed to regulate group homes, which are long-term,
non-voluntary, out-of-home placements for youth in
protective custody, such as foster care. As an
example, these group home regulations require youth to
obtain parental consent prior to entering and
remaining in the shelter - a major barrier to youth
who are oftentimes fleeing negative or dangerous
parental situations?
This bill attempts to find a balance and create
consistency across the state to license these shelters
and ensure that federal funds are not jeopardized from
lack of consistency with licensing or a clear policy
directive from the state.
Suggested Amendments: Staff is recommending several clarifying
and technical amendments to this bill, as outlined below:
1)Amend Sections 1502 and 1502.35 (page 5, lines 22 and 37), as
follows to clarify that the purpose of homeless youth shelters
is to serve homeless teens and young adults by adding a lower
age limit of 12 years of age to the definition of the youth
who may be served by an emergency youth shelter facility:
(13) "Emergency youth shelter facility" means a group care
facility that provides voluntary temporary emergency shelter
and case management to youth under between 12 and 18 years of
age, including youth under 18 years of age who are emancipated
pursuant to Part 6 (commencing with Section 7000) of Division
11 of the Family Code, and that satisfies the requirements of
Section 1502.35.
(b) The facility shall serve under between 12 and 18 years of
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age, including youth who have emancipated pursuant to Part 6
(commencing with Section 7000) of Division 11 of the Family
Code, and who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.
2)Amend subparagraph (b) of Section 1530.85 (page 6, line 25 and
26), to remove "health and hygiene of the facility" from the
list of standards to be addressed by the emergency youth
shelter facility regulations as this is confusing and
duplicative of the existing requirements to develop
regulations related to the physical environment standards and
health and safety requirements.
Also, in subparagraph (b) of Section1530.85 replace child care
regulatory standards with transitional shelter care facility
standards as the threshold for possible requirements under the
new emergency youth shelter facility licensing category.
Child care standards may not be an appropriate or applicable
limit for homeless youth shelter regulations as child care is
not designed to provide 24-hour care, and typically serves a
younger population:
(b) Regulations adopted pursuant to this section shall include
physical environment standards, including staffing and staff
training, health and safety requirements, size limitations,
health and hygiene of the facility, service provision, and
eligibility to access services. These standards may meet, but
shall not exceed, state child care transitional shelter care
facility standards under Title 22 of the California Code of
Regulations.
3)Remove references to "exceptions" of licensing standards in
subparagraph (d) of 1530.85. Waivers are granted by CCL for
modifications to regulatory requirements for facilities
whereas exceptions apply to individual persons served.
Also in subparagraph (d) of Section 1530.85, given that the
purpose of this bill is to establish one uniform set of
licensing standards for emergency homeless shelters for youth,
staff proposes striking the last sentence of is unnecessary
and may lead to confusion:
(d) If a facility that satisfies the definition of an
emergency youth shelter is already operating on the effective
date of the act that added this section before regulations
pursuant to this section are adopted, the department shall
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grant the facility a waiver or exception for any existing
licensing standard that is inappropriate for an emergency
youth shelter, provided that the waiver or exception does not
adversely affect the health, safety, or personal rights of
youth in the shelter. Following their adoption, the
regulations adopted pursuant to this section shall constitute
the only licensing standards applicable to an emergency youth
shelter.
4)As "emergency youth shelter services" are unclear, and a
facility licensed as a group home may already apply to CCL for
waivers and exceptions, staff is proposing to strike added
subparagraph (f) of 1530.85 as it is unnecessary:
(f) A facility licensed as a group home shall also have
authority to provide emergency youth shelter services to
youth, including foster youth, as described in subdivision (b)
of Section 1502.35.
Prior/Related Legislation:
SB 855 (Machado) Chapter 664, Statutes of 2004 created a
separate licensing category for crisis nurseries, to sunset
January 1, 2008.
AB 1197 (Bates) Chapter 1088, Statutes of 1993 established
standards for congregate care placements for children under six
years of age, and for "temporary shelter care facilities,"
defined as facilities operated by counties for 24-hour temporary
residential placement of abused and neglected children.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Coalition for Youth (CCY)
California Mental Health Planning Council
John Burton Foundation
San Diego Youth Services
Crittention Services for Children and Families
Traditional Age Youth
NAMI California
California Alliance of Child and Family Services
Redwood Community Action Agency
Mendocino County Youth Project
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Dearest Manna Ministries, Inc.
La Casa de las Madres
Larkin Street Youth Services
St. Anne's
Housing California
Avant-Garde Foster Family Agency, Inc.
National Association of Social Workers (NASW) - California
Chapter
1 Individual
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Michelle Doty Cabrera / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089