BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 346 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 346 (Stone) As Amended September 6, 2013 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |76-0 |(April 25, |SENATE: |36-0 |(September 10, | | | |2013) | | |2013) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: HUM. S. SUMMARY : Provides the California Department of Social Services (DSS) the authority to license runaway and homeless youth shelters (RHYSs). Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires DSS to license all RHYSs as a sub-category of group homes and defines an RHYS as a facility that provides voluntary, short-term, emergency shelter and personal services to youth who are homeless. 2)Authorizes RHYSs to provide short-term 24-hour nonmedical care, supervision and personal services to youth who voluntarily enter the facility. 3)Defines short-term as 21 consecutive days from the date of admission to the facility. 4)Permits RHYSs to serve homeless or runaway youth who are between the ages of 12 and 17 who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, or who are 18 and are completing high school or its equivalent, as specified. 5)Allows facilities to operate up to a capacity of 25 youths and requires the staff to youth ratio to be one staff person for every eight youths. 6)Allows volunteers to be counted as staff for purposes of the staff-to-youth ratio, as specified. 7)Requires all staff and volunteers to undergo criminal background checks and have their names checked on the Child Abuse Index. 8)Requires staff to assess all youth prior to admission to the facility to determine whether the youth presents a threat to AB 346 Page 2 himself or herself or others in the facility, and provides that a youth shall not be admitted to the facility if he or she poses such a threat. 9)Requires RHYSs to establish procedures to aid youth in securing long-term stability, as specified. 10)Prohibits a RHYS from being used as a placement facility for foster youth and from receiving a group home funding rate. 11)Requires each RHYS to collect and maintain information in a monthly report to be provided to DSS upon request, which shall include the: a) Total number of youth served per month; b) Age of each youth served; c) Length of stay of each youth served; and d) Number of times a youth accesses its services. 12)Exempts a RHYS from conducting a "needs and services plan" as required of regular group homes, as specified under Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations. 13)Requires DSS to adopt regulations necessary to implement this measure by December 1, 2014. 14)Defines a "group home" as a licensed residential facility that provides 24-hour care and supervision to minors in a structured environment, as specified, in the Health and Safety Code. The Senate amendments : 1)Recast and rename "Emergency Youth Homeless Facilities" as "Runaway and Homeless Youth Shelters." 2)Place additional requirements on RHYSs to assist youth in securing long-term stability, as specified. 3)Modify the definition of a homeless youth and adds a definition of runaway youth, as specified. 4)Clarify that RHYSs are excluded from receiving a group home AB 346 Page 3 reimbursement rate or from being used as a placement option for foster youth, as specified. 5)Include double jointing language to avoid chaptering out conflicts with AB 787 (Stone) of the current legislative session. 6)Makes other technical and clarifying changes. 7)Includes double jointing language to avoid chaptering out issues with AB 787 (Stone) of the current legislative session and includes language to reflect changes made by the human services budget trailer bill; AB 74 (Budget), Chapter 21, Statutes of 2013. AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY this bill provided DSS the authority to license emergency youth shelter facilities. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: 1)Minor workload impact likely less than $50,000 (General Fund) to the DSS to adopt regulations establishing RHYS as a subcategory under the existing group home licensing category. Minor, absorbable ongoing costs related to enforcement. There are approximately 40 facilities, of which 28 facilities are currently licensed by DSS. 2)Enables youth shelters to retain eligibility for federal funding in the range of $5 million to $7 million under the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act. Funding is conditional on compliance with state licensing standards such that youth shelters could potentially risk federal citation and loss of federal funding in the absence of this measure. 3)Ongoing costs to the Department of Justice (DOJ) of less than $25,000 (Special Fund*) to process additional background checks and checks of the Child Abuse Central Index (CACI) for staff and volunteers of RHYS. *Fingerprint Fees Account/Sexual Habitual Offender Program (SHOP) COMMENTS : Homeless Youth : According to the California Research Bureau (CRB) and the Council on Youth Relations' (CYR) Homeless Youth Project (HYP), based upon national survey estimates and California's youth population, it is estimated that there are 200,000 youth under the AB 346 Page 4 age of 18 and potentially thousands of persons aged 18 - 24 who are homeless. While this is an approximation of the number of homeless youth in California, the number is likely to be greater given the challenges involved in the identification of homeless youth. For purpose of this population, "homeless youth" typically describes minors under the age of 18, and 18 - 24-year-olds who are economically and/or emotionally detached from their families and have an unstable and inadequate living environment, or are periodically homeless or homeless. In a 2010 survey of local, state and federal programs, the HYP was able to identify 53 programs that offered just over 1,000 beds for homeless youth throughout the state. Given that the current estimate of homeless youth amounts to more than 200,000 individuals, this demonstrates a significant gap between the size of California's homeless youth population and the number of programs and services available to meet their needs. Federal Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) : In response to concerns emerging during the early 1970s that little if any federal and state services were available to youth who were either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, Congress established the RHYA in 1974. The Family Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), under the United States Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Administration for Children and Families, oversees the issuance of Basic Center Program grants. The purpose of these grants, according to the FYSB, is to "establish or strengthen community-based programs that meet the immediate needs of runaway and homeless youth and their families." Under these grants, recipient organizations and agencies provide youth up to age 18 with emergency shelter, food, clothing, counseling and referrals to youth services. Although the intent is to help reunite youth with their families through counseling and supportive services whenever possible, they also help to locate appropriate alternative placements that can help keep youth off the streets and avoid becoming chronically homeless. Over the past five years the federal RHYA grant requirements have required recipients to be in compliance with their respective state's shelter licensing requirements. However, while California's Community Care Facilities Act requires most types of facilities that serve youth to be licensed, it exempts homeless shelters from licensure. This is further complicated by the fact that homeless youth shelters can be considered both a homeless shelter and a facility that serves youth. Additionally, state law does not provide clear requirements nor guidance that delineates what is AB 346 Page 5 considered a homeless shelter versus a youth homeless shelter under state law. Federal guidance issued by the FYSB in a letter dated June 28, 2007, clearly stated that the: ? FYSB expects all grantees to be in compliance with their state and local requirements pertaining to background checks and/or criminal history checks of the staff employed along with shelter licensing requirements. FYSB staff will ask for proof of compliance with such requirements during monitoring visits. Analysis Prepared by : Chris Reefe / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089 FN: 0002767