BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 870|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 870
Author: Cooley (D)
Amended: 9/1/15 in Senate
Vote: 27
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 9-0, 6/30/15
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Allen, Galgiani, Leyva, McGuire,
Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bates, Gaines
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 5-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bates, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 66-12, 6/4/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Homelessness: rapid rehousing
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill creates a rapid rehousing enhancement
program within the Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD) to award grants for counties and private
nonprofit organizations that operate rapid rehousing programs.
ANALYSIS:
Existing federal law:
1)Defines as homeless an individual or family who lacks a fixed,
regular, and adequate nighttime residence. There are four
federally defined categories under which individuals and
AB 870
Page 2
families may qualify as homeless: a) literally homeless; b)
imminent risk of homelessness; c) homeless under other federal
statues; and d) fleeing/attempting to flee domestic violence.
2)Provides, under the federal Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG)
program, funding to states for homeless prevention activities.
This bill:
1)Creates a two-year enhancement program in HCD to award grants
to counties and private nonprofit organizations that operate a
rapid rehousing program and requires HCD to administer it,
upon appropriation of funds in the Annual Budget Act.
2)Requires HCD to develop guidelines to select four counties or
private nonprofit organizations to participate in the
enhancement program. Eligible grantees include counties or
providers eligible to receive ESGs from the state with a
demonstrated high funding need.
3)Requires HCD to select grantees by giving priority to those
counties or private nonprofit organizations with existing
rapid rehousing programs with a demonstrated effectiveness in
delivering rapid rehousing programs for individuals and
veterans.
4)Requires HCD to distribute an equal amount of the money
received each year, less an amount deducted for administrative
purposes, to each of the selected counties and private
nonprofit organizations. Permits HCD to use up to 5% of the
money for administrative purposes.
5)Requires grant recipients under this program to meet existing
federal and state reporting requirements under the ESG
regulations.
6)Defines "homeless" in the same manner as federal regulations.
Comments
Purpose of the bill. According to the author, California has
113,952 homeless people, which accounts for 20% of the nation's
homeless population. This is due in large part to a lack of
AB 870
Page 3
affordable housing in our state. California should support
innovative ways to better utilize resources to combat
homelessness and its economic impact. This bill creates an
enhancement program in four counties or private nonprofit
organizations to support "rapid rehousing" principles and
provide homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing activities
such as housing search, mediation, or outreach to property
owners, legal services, credit repair, security or utility
deposits, utility payments, and assistance with moving for
people who are at risk of homelessness. The grantees are to be
selected by HCD and shall demonstrate success in utilizing rapid
rehousing to serve homeless persons and homeless veterans.
Background on rapid rehousing. Rapid rehousing has become an
increasingly important tool in a community's response to
homelessness. The model has proven successful and has helped
communities decrease the number of people experiencing
homelessness and the amount of time households spend homeless.
Rapid rehousing places a priority on moving a family or
individual experiencing homelessness into permanent housing as
quickly as possible, ideally within 30 days of becoming homeless
and entering a program. As part of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development received a one-time allocation of $1.5 billion for
the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP),
to respond to the increase in homelessness among families and
individuals who traditionally did not have a history of
homelessness but, following a job loss, foreclosure or other
financial crisis, were now homeless. This program ended in
2012.
In 2009, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was amended
to re-authorize as the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid
Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act, which in addition to other
changes, increased homeless prevention resources. The HEARTH
Act modified the existing Emergency Shelter Grants and renamed
it the ESG program. HEARTH expanded the homeless prevention
activities possible under ESG to include homelessness prevention
and rapid rehousing activities, housing search, mediation, or
outreach to property owners, legal services, credit repair,
security or utility deposits, utility payments, and assistance
with moving for people who are at risk of homelessness. These
activities are much like those funded under HPRP.
AB 870
Page 4
Enhancing existing programs. HCD distributes ESG funds to
eligible recipients that serve eligible areas throughout the
state with one- or two-year grants. Various counties that
receive ESG funds have expertise providing rapid rehousing and
homeless prevention services and would be equipped to receive
state funding were it made available. This program would
provide a funding enhancement to eligible counties or providers
that have existing rapid rehousing programs that have a
demonstrated effectiveness in delivering rapid rehousing
programs for individuals and veterans. The intent is to provide
additional funds to existing programs with a demonstrated high
funding need.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: Yes Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
This bill will likely incur General Fund cost pressures of
approximately $2 million over two fiscal years. To the extent
funds are appropriated for purposes of the pilot program, HCD
would allocate equal amounts to each of the four participating
entities, after subtracting administrative costs.
To the extent funds are appropriated, HCD would incur one-time
costs of approximately $50,000 for 1/2 PY of staff time to
develop and adopt guidelines for the selection of
participating entities, and ongoing costs of approximately
$30,000 annually for 1/4 PY of staff time for monitoring costs
over several years. These costs would be subtracted from the
appropriated amount prior to distribution of funds to
participating entities. (General Fund)
SUPPORT: (Verified8/31/15)
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
California Catholic Conference
California Police Chiefs Association
California Primary Care Association
City of Thousand Oaks
County of Sacramento
County of San Bernardino
AB 870
Page 5
Housing California
League of California Cities
Ventura County Board of Supervisors
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/31/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 66-12, 6/4/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Baker, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough,
Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin,
Jones-Sawyer, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein,
Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell,
Olsen, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond,
Ting, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NOES: Travis Allen, Bigelow, Chang, Chávez, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Grove, Jones, Kim, Obernolte, Wagner, Waldron
NO VOTE RECORDED: Dahle, Melendez
Prepared by:Alison Dinmore / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
9/1/15 21:30:32
**** END ****