BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 1733
                                                                  Page  1


          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
          AB 1733 (Quirk-Silva, et al.)
          As Amended May 23, 2014
          Majority vote 

           HEALTH              19-0        TRANSPORTATION      16-0        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Pan, Maienschein,         |Ayes:|Lowenthal, Linder,        |
          |     |Ammiano, Atkins, Bonilla, |     |Achadjian, Ammiano,       |
          |     |Rendon, Chávez, Chesbro,  |     |Bloom, Bonta, Buchanan,   |
          |     |Gomez, Gonzalez, Roger    |     |Daly, Frazier, Gatto,     |
          |     |Hernández, Mansoor,       |     |Holden, Logue, Nazarian,  |
          |     |Nazarian, Nestande,       |     |Patterson, Quirk-Silva,   |
          |     |Patterson, Ridley-Thomas, |     |Waldron                   |
          |     |Wagner, Wieckowski,       |     |                          |
          |     |Bocanegra                 |     |                          |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
           APPROPRIATIONS      17-0                                        
           
           -------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Gatto, Bigelow,           |
          |     |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian  |
          |     |Calderon, Campos,         |
          |     |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez,  |
          |     |Holden, Jones, Linder,    |
          |     |Pan, Quirk,               |
          |     |Ridley-Thomas, Wagner,    |
          |     |Weber                     |
          |-----+--------------------------|
          |     |                          |
           -------------------------------- 
           SUMMARY  :  Requires a local registrar or county recorder to  
          issue, without a fee, a certified record of live birth and  
          requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue,  
          without a fee, identification (ID) cards to applicants who can  
          verify that they are homeless.  Specifically,  this bill  :  

          1)Requires a local registrar or county recorder to issue,  
            without a fee, a certified record of live birth to an  
            applicant who can verify that he or she is homeless and allows  
            a homeless services provider, as defined, with knowledge of  
            the person's housing status to verify the person's  








                                                                  AB 1733
                                                                  Page  2


            homelessness.

          2)Requires the State Department of Public Health (DPH) to  
            develop an affidavit that permits a person requesting a  
            certified record of live birth to attest to his or her status  
            as a homeless person or a homeless child or youth, and allows  
            DPH to administer the use of the affidavit through an  
            all-county letter.

          3)Requires the DMV to issue, without a fee, an ID card or senior  
            citizen ID card to an applicant who can verify that he or she  
            is homeless and allows a homeless services provider, as  
            defined, with knowledge of the person's housing status to  
            verify the person's homelessness.

          4)Requires the DMV to adopt regulations regarding the  
            determination of eligibility for a free ID card and prohibits  
            a person applying for a free ID card from being charged a fee  
            for verification of their eligibility.

          5)Defines "homeless person," and "homeless child or youth" as  
            referenced by the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance  
            Act, in part as:  a) an individual or family who lacks a  
            fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; an  
            individual or family with a primary nighttime residence that  
            is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily  
            used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings,  
            including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train  
            station, airport, or camping ground; or, b) an individual or  
            family living in a supervised publicly or privately operated  
            shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements  
            (including hotels and motels paid for by Federal, State, or  
            local government programs for low-income individuals or by  
            charitable organizations, congregate shelters, and  
            transitional housing).

          6)Specifies that the provisions of this bill take effect January  
            1, 2016.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee, one-time costs in the range of $150,000 to the DMV  
          (Motor Vehicle Account) for programming costs to allow for the  
          no-fee ID card, processing and mailing of additional ID cards,  
          revision of publications and forms, establishment of  








                                                                  AB 1733
                                                                  Page  3


          regulations, and development and issuance of memorandum to  
          staff.

          In January 2013, there were approximately 136,000 homeless  
          individuals in California.  If 5% of these individuals requested  
          an identifying document in a given year, this bill would  
          generate costs of $50,000 to the General Fund in  
          state-reimbursable mandate costs to account for lost revenue to  
          counties and additional workload.  This bill would also result  
          in minor revenue loss and additional workload, likely around  
          $100,000 statewide (Motor Vehicle Account) to DMV to provide  
          free ID cards.
           
          COMMENTS  :  According to the authors, many people experiencing  
          homelessness lack the necessary forms of personal identification  
          needed to establish their eligibility for various public  
          assistance and social programs and the most common forms of ID  
          that people need in order to access these programs are birth  
          records and a valid, government-issued photo ID card.

          The base fee for a copy of a birth certificate is $12 and  
          counties are allowed to raise the fee to cover the costs of  
          modernizing vital record operations and improving the collection  
          and analysis of health related birth and death certificate  
          information.  Costs vary from county to county with the average  
          cost to receive a copy of a birth certificate falling between  
          $23 and $28.  According to DPH they do not currently have a  
          process in place to provide a free or reduced cost birth  
          certificate.  
           
          The DMV offers a reduced fee ID card to applicants who have been  
          identified by a governmental or non-profit agency as meeting the  
          income eligibility requirements for certain specified assistance  
          programs, including but not limited to, California Work  
          Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids, CalFresh (food stamps).   
          Outside of the cost, there is no difference between the reduced  
          fee ID and the ID issued to applicants that pay the full amount.  
           A government or non-profit agency must contact DMV to request  
          the verification paperwork and confirm that a customer's income  
          meets the requirements for a reduced fee ID card.  The agency  
          will complete the paperwork which is provided to the customer to  
          bring into their local DMV office for processing.  Currently,  
          the reduced fee ID card is $8.  In the 12 months ending November  
          2013, DMV issued a total of 143,726 reduced fee ID cards, of  








                                                                 AB 1733
                                                                  Page  4


          which 34,193 were original ID cards and the rest were renewals.
           

          Analysis Prepared by  :    Lara Flynn / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097 

                                                                FN: 0003747