BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., Chair
BILL NO: AB 1733
AUTHOR: Quirk-Silva, Atkins, and Maienschein
AMENDED: May 23, 2014
HEARING DATE: June 18, 2014
CONSULTANT: Moreno
SUBJECT : Public records: fee waiver.
SUMMARY : Requires local registrars or county recorders, on or
after July 1, 2015, to issue a birth certificate without a fee
to any person, who can verify his or her status as a homeless
person or a homeless child or youth, as defined. Prohibits, on
and after January 1, 2016, a fee from being charged for an
original or replacement identification card issued by the
Department of Motor Vehicles to any person who can verify his or
her status as a homeless person or homeless child or youth, as
specified.
Existing law:
1.Requires the State Registrar of Vital Statistics, a local
registrar, or a county recorder, upon payment of a required
fee, to supply applicants with a certified copy of birth,
fetal death, death, marriage, or divorce records. Requires
applicants for birth or death records to pay a fee.
2.Allows the State Registrar, local registrar, or county
recorder to furnish a certified copy of birth, death, or
marriage records to applicants upon request if the request is
written or faxed and accompanied by a notarized statement,
sworn under penalty of perjury, that the requester is an
"authorized person," or, the request is made in person, and
the official takes a statement, sworn under penalty of
perjury, that the requester is signing his or her own legal
name and is an "authorized person."
3.Defines "authorized person," for purposes of obtaining
certified copies of birth, death, or non-confidential marriage
records, as:
a. The person who is the subject of the record or the
parent or legal guardian of that person;
b. A party who is entitled to receive the record as a
result of a court order, or certain parties associated
Continued---
AB 1733 | Page 2
with an adoption;
c. Law enforcement or governmental agency personnel
conducting official business;
d. A child, grandchild, sibling, spouse, domestic
partner, or grandparent of the person who is the subject
of the record;
e. An attorney or other person empowered to act on
behalf of the person who is the subject of the record or
his or her estate; or,
f. An agent or employee of a funeral establishment
who orders death certificates when acting on behalf of
specified individuals.
4.Requires a notary, prior to notarizing a document, to obtain
satisfactory evidence of the identity of the person signing
the document. Permits this evidence to include the oath of a
witness who is personally know to the notary, as specified;
the oath of two witnesses who prove their identities with a
current passport or identification (ID) card, as specified;
or, presentation of a current passport or ID card, as
specified.
5.Permits the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue an ID
card to any person who provides their true full name, correct
age, and any other identifying data as required by DMV.
Requires an application for an ID card to be signed and
verified by the applicant, as specified, and requires the
applicant to provide a legible thumb or finger print. Requires
a $26 fee to be paid to DMV for the issuance of an ID card.
Requires an original or replacement ID card for a senior
citizen to be issued free of charge. Requires an original or
replacement ID card to be $6 for an applicant that can provide
proof of eligibility for public assistance programs, as
specified.
This bill:
1.Requires local registrars or county recorders, on or after
July 1, 2015, to issue a birth certificate without a fee to
any person, who can verify his or her status as a homeless
person or a homeless child or youth, as defined. Permits
Department of Public Health (DPH) to implement and administer
this bill through an all-county letter or similar instructions
from the director or State Registrar.
2.Prohibits, on and after January 1, 2016, a fee from being
charged for an original or replacement ID card issued to any
AB 1733 | Page
3
person who can verify his or her status as a homeless person
or homeless child or youth. Requires a determination of
eligibility for these purposes be subject to regulations
adopted by the DMV. Prohibits a person applying for an
identification card from being charged a fee for verification
of his or her eligibility.
3.Permits a homeless services provider that has knowledge of a
person's housing status to verify that status for the purposes
in 1) and 2) above. Defines "homeless services provider" as
including, but not being limited to:
a. A governmental or nonprofit agency receiving
federal, state, or county or municipal funding to provide
services to a "homeless person" or "homeless child or
youth," or that is otherwise sanctioned to provide those
services by a local homeless continuum of care
organization;
b. An attorney licensed to practice law in this state;
c. A local educational agency liaison for homeless
children and youth designated as such pursuant to
existing federal law, or a school social worker;
d. A human services provider or public social services
provider funded by the State to provide homeless children
or youth services, health services, mental or behavioral
health services, substance use disorder services, or
public assistance or employment services; and, for the
purposes of an ID card, any other homeless services
provider that is qualified to verify an individual's
housing status, as determined by the DMV.
4.Requires a request for a birth certificate made pursuant to
this bill to be made by a homeless person or a homeless child
or youth on behalf of themselves, or by any person lawfully
entitled to request a certified record of live birth on behalf
of a child, if the child has been verified as a homeless
person or a homeless child or youth, as specified.
5.Entitles a person applying for a birth certificate under this
bill to one certificate, per application, for each eligible
person verified as a homeless person or a homeless child or
youth.
6.Requires DPH to develop an affidavit that permits a person who
makes a request for a birth certificate to attest to his or
AB 1733 | Page 4
her status as a homeless person or a homeless child or youth.
Requires the affidavit, for purposes of this bill, to
constitute sufficient verification that a person is a homeless
person or a homeless child or youth.
7.Prohibits a person applying for a birth certificate under this
bill from being charged a fee for verification of his or her
eligibility.
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
regulations, and development and issuance of memorandum to
staff.
In January 2013, there were approximately 136,000 homeless
individuals in California. If five percent 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.
PRIOR VOTES :
Assembly Health: 19- 0
Assembly Transportation:16- 0
Assembly Appropriations: 17- 0
Assembly Floor: 77- 0
COMMENTS :
1.Author's statement. According to the author, people
experiencing homelessness rely on access to government
programs and social services in order to obtain housing,
employment, nutrition, health services, education, public
assistance and other benefits. Nearly every state and federal
program providing these services requires an applicant
establish eligibility by producing proof of identity and/or
proof of residence. The most common documents required are a
certified birth record and a valid, government-issued photo
identification card. Many people experiencing homelessness
lack the necessary forms of personal identification needed to
establish their eligibility for the various public assistance
AB 1733 | Page
5
and social programs previously mentioned. The most common
forms of identification that people experiencing homelessness
need in order to access these programs are birth records and
government-issued photo identification. DPH and DMV both
charge fees to obtain certified copies of vital records and
government-issued photo identification, respectively. For
many people experiencing homelessness, the fees levied are a
cost-prohibitive barrier to the legal documents they need to
access programs that could help end their homelessness.
2.Background. 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
ranging from $23 to $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, Food
Stamps/CalFresh, and Supplemental Security Income.
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. In the 12 months ending November 2013, DMV
issued a total of 143,726 reduced fee ID cards, of which
34,193 were original ID cards and the rest were renewals.
3.Double referral. This bill has been double referred. Should it
pass out of this committee, it will be referred to Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee.
4.Prior legislation. SB 1098 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal
Review), Chapter 212, Statutes of 2004, among other things,
authorized the DMV to provide photo IDs at a reduced fee to
AB 1733 | Page 6
qualified individuals.
5.Support. According to Housing California (HC), the sponsor of
this bill, the problem of homelessness in California is
epidemic and the state is home to more than one in five people
experiencing homelessness in the United States. HC writes in
support that people experiencing homelessness and living in
poverty are often without the resources to pay for a certified
birth certificate or state ID card. Their inability to access
programs designed to improve their self-sufficiency allows
homelessness to persist, holding individuals back and costing
California millions of dollars in city, county and state
emergency resources. The National Association of Social
Workers, the Coalition of California Welfare Rights
Organizations, Inc. and many other groups also support the
bill, writing that people who experience homelessness rely on
access to government programs or social services in order to
obtain the necessary items to survive, however, nearly every
state and federal program that provides these services
requires an applicant to provide proof of identity or
residence in order to qualify and this bill will make it
easier for them to do so.
6.Oppose unless amended. The County Recorders' Association of
California writes that this bill will allow a homeless
individual to receive copies of birth certificates for their
parents, grandparents, siblings, spouse, domestic partner,
children and grandchildren - even if those persons were not
homeless and this could create a significant cost to County
Recorders. They oppose this bill unless it is amended so that
recorders can recover their costs for producing the document
as necessary.
7.Amendment. Under current provisions, it is not clear as to
whether a homeless service provider's sign-off is required for
verification of a person's homelessness, or if someone can
self-certify. According to the author, the intent is to not
allow for self-certification. Towards that intent, the author
has agreed to an amendment to require the affidavit to include
verification of an applicant being homeless by a homeless
services provider.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION :
Support: Housing California (sponsor)
American Legion, Dept. of California
AMVETS, Dept. of California
Aspiranet
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California Association of County Veterans Service
Officers (CACVSO)
California Catholic Conference of Bishops
California Church IMPACT
California Coalition for Youth
California Communities United Institute
California Mental Health Directors Association (CMHDA)
California Mental Health Planning Council
California Police Chiefs Association
California State Association of Counties (CSAC)
California State Commanders Veterans Council
Central Coast HIV/AIDS Services
Century Housing
City and County of San Francisco
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations,
Inc.
Compass Family Services
Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)
Cottage Housing, Inc.
County of Santa Clara
County Welfare Directors Association of California
(CWDA)
EAH Housing
First Place for Youth
General Assistance Advocacy Project (GAAP)
Home Start
Hoopa Valley Tribe
Housing California (Sponsor)
Kern County Homeless Collaborative (KCHC)
Kings/Tulare Continuum of Care
Larkin Street Youth Services
Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
LINC Housing
Loaves & Fishes
Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
Mammoth Lakes Housing, Inc.
Marin Partnership to End Homelessness
Military Officers Association of America, California
Council Chapters
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
National Association for the Education of Homeless
Children and Youth
National Association of Social Workers (NASW)
California Chapter
Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority
AB 1733 | Page 8
Paratransit
Pathways of Hope
People Assisting the Homeless (PATH)
Plowshares
Project Homeless Connect (PHC)
Project Sanctuary
Redwood Children Services, Inc.
River City Food Bank
Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee (SHOC)
Sacramento Homeless Youth Task Force
Sacramento Housing Alliance (SHA)
Sacramento LGBT Community Center
Sacramento Regional Coalition to End Homelessness
(SCREH)
San Diego Housing Commission
San Diego Housing Federation
San Diego Hunger Coalition
San Luis Obispo County Office of Education
Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local
1000
Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians
Skid Row Housing Trust
Sonoma County Task Force for the Homeless
St. Mary's Center
St. Vincent DePaul - Father Joe's Villages
Swords to Plowshares
United Way of Greater Los Angeles
United Way of Silicon Valley
Veterans of Foreign Wars, Dept. of California
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Womanhaven, Inc.
Yolo County Continuum of Care
Yolo County Office of Education
Oppose: County Recorders' Association of California (unless
amended)
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