BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1403
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Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Brian Maienschein, Chair
AB 1403
(Maienschein) - As Amended April 7, 2015
SUBJECT: Housing: joint powers agreement.
SUMMARY: Allows a public agency or agencies and one or more
private, nonprofits dedicated to provide services to homeless to
form a joint powers agency or enter into a joint powers
agreement in order to identify and provide services to the most
costly, frequent users of public funded emergency services.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines, for purposes of Housing Element Law, the following
terms:
a) "Frequent user coordinated care housing services" to
mean housing combined with other supportive services for
homeless persons identified by a city or county as the most
costly, frequent users of publicly funded emergency
services; and,
b) "Supportive services" to include, but not be limited to,
a combination of subsidized, permanent housing, intensive
case management, medical and mental health care, substance
abuse treatment, employment services, and benefits
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advocacy.
2)Provides that a housing element analysis of any special
housing needs may include an analysis of the need for frequent
user coordinated care housing services.
3)Allows one or more private, nonprofit corporations that are
organized, pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal
Revenue Code, and provide services to homeless persons or for
the prevention of homelessness, to form a joint powers agency
(agency) or enter into a joint powers agreement (agreement)
with one or more public agencies.
4)Provides that the agency formed, pursuant to the agreement,
shall be deemed to be a public entity, except that,
notwithstanding any other law, the agency shall not have the
power to incur debt.
5)Specifies that the purpose of an agency or agreement
authorized, pursuant to the bill's provisions, shall be to
encourage and ease the sharing of information between public
agencies and nonprofit corporations, pursuant to 1), above,
necessary to identify the most costly, frequent users of
publicly funded emergency services in order to provide
frequent user coordinated care housing services, as defined,
to homeless persons or to prevent homelessness.
6)Requires an agency formed, pursuant to the bill's provisions,
to be governed by a board
of directors, and specifies that the composition of the board
shall be determined by the participating public agency or
agencies.
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7)Prohibits the representation of private nonprofit corporations
on the board from exceeding 50%.
EXISTING LAW:
1)The Joint Exercise of Powers Act authorizes two or more public
agencies by agreement to jointly exercise any power common to
the contracting parties, including, but not limited to, the
authority to levy a fee, assessment, or tax, even though one
or more of the contracting agencies may be located outside
this state.
2)Requires every city and county to prepare and adopt a general
plan containing seven mandatory elements, including a housing
element.
3)Requires a jurisdiction's housing element to identify and
analyze existing and projected housing needs, identify
adequate sites with appropriate zoning to meet the housing
needs of all income segments of the community, and ensure that
regulatory systems provide opportunities for, and do not
unduly constrain, housing development.
4)Requires cities and counties located within the territory of a
metropolitan planning organization (MPO) to revise their
housing elements every eight years following the adoption of
every other regional transportation plan. Cities and counties
in rural non-MPO regions must revise their housing elements
every five years.
FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS:
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1)Bill Summary. This bill allows a public agency or agencies
and one or more private, nonprofits dedicated to provide
services to homeless to form a joint powers agency or enter
into a joint powers agreement in order to identify and provide
services to the most costly, frequent users of public funded
emergency services. The bill also defines the terms "frequent
user coordinated care housing services" and "supportive
services" for purposes of Housing Element Law, and provides
that a housing element analysis of any special housing needs
may include an analysis of the need for frequent user
coordinated care housing services.
This bill is author-sponsored.
2)Joint Exercise of Powers Act. Joint powers are exercised when
the public officials of two or more agencies agree to
establish a joint approach or create another legal entity to
work on a common problem, fund a project, or act as a
representative body for a specific activity. All manner of
federal, state and local public agencies can agree to exercise
joint powers. A California agency can even share joint powers
with an agency in another state. The common thread is that a
confederation of governments work together and share resources
for mutual support or common actions. The government agencies
that participate in joint powers agreements are called member
agencies.
A joint powers agreement is a formal, legal agreement between
two or more public agencies that share a common power and want
to jointly implement programs, build facilities, or deliver
services. Officials from those public agencies formally
approve a written cooperative arrangement. A joint powers
agency or joint powers authority is simply a new government
entity created by the member agencies, but is legally
independent from them. Like a joint
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powers agreement in which one agency administers the terms of
the agreement, a joint powers agency or authority exercises
powers common to the member agencies, and those powers are
outlined in the joint powers agreement. The new entity need
not even call itself a JPA. JPAs are not special districts,
although such agencies can enter into joint powers agreements.
Public agencies authorized to enter into joint powers
agreements include "the federal government or any federal
department or agency, this state, another state or any state
department or agency, a county, county board of education,
county superintendent of schools, city, public corporation,
public district, regional transportation commission of this
state or another state, a federally recognized Indian tribe,
or any joint powers authority?".
Special legislation can also authorize certain nongovernmental
organizations to participate in joint powers agreements, even
though they are not public agencies. For instance, to help
nonprofit hospitals keep pace with changes in the health care
industry, the Legislature has allowed them to enter into joint
powers agreements to provide health care services in Fresno,
Contra Costa, Kings, Tuolumne, San Diego, and Tulare counties.
Another enacted bill allowed mutual water companies to enter
joint powers agreements with public water agencies.
As tools for collaboration, JPAs are used for a variety of
purposes. By sharing resources and combining services, the
member agencies - and their taxpayers - save time and money.
There are no official categories for the types of JPAs, but
their services fall into five broad groups: general public
services, financial services, insurance pooling and purchasing
discounts, planning services, and regulatory enforcement.
3)Author's Statement. According to the author, "Current law
generally authorizes two or more public agencies to form a JPA
to jointly exercise certain powers of the agencies. Allowing
private, nonprofits to participate in a JPA must be
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legislatively authorized for specific purposes. Current law
does not allow public agencies and private nonprofits to form
JPAs for the purpose of providing frequent user coordinated
care housing services. AB 1403 authorizes private nonprofit
corporations organized pursuant to Section 501 (c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code that provide services to homeless
persons or for the prevention of homelessness to enter into a
joint powers agreement with public agencies for the sole
purpose of providing frequent user coordinate care housing
services. This bill is needed to ease the ability of local
government agencies and interested nonprofits to share
information amongst each other to identify the most costly
homeless individuals and more easily provide the appropriate
services necessary to reduce or prevent homelessness."
4)Background on Project 25 in San Diego. Project 25, launched
in January of 2011, involved the collaboration of multiple
social service providers in the City of San Diego that
targeted 35 or more of the chronically homeless most frequent
users of emergency room visits, ambulance services, in-patient
hospitalizations, mental health out-patient and inpatient
services, jail and incarceration costs and detoxification
services. Project 25 aimed to provide permanent housing
followed closely by wraparound intensive case management. It
also focused on data collection to track the differences the
program was making in the participants' use of public
services, and included a large number of data partners,
including local hospitals, ambulance providers, county and
city departments, and local shelters. One
year into the program, results from the combination of long-term
housing and supportive series were dramatic: the total cost
of public resources for project participants fell to
$3.4 million in 2011 from more than $11 million in 2010,
emergency room visits were down by 77%, in-patient medical
stays were down 73%, and arrests were down by 69%.
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One of the issues noted by public agencies and nonprofits that
participated in Project 25 was that overcoming data sharing
concerns was a significant challenge at the start of the
program.
This bill creates another forum for interested agencies and
nonprofits to come together under the common goal of providing
services to the most common users of public-funded services,
and provides an opportunity for interested agencies to share
information in a structured, formal way.
5)Arguments in Support. Easter Seals argues that "this bill
will help expedite the process
of more appropriate local resource development. Targeting
resources and designing targeted interventions to those with
the greatest needs makes sense. The addition of this new
option, and the new partnership available by extending the
Joint Powers Agreements to include nonprofit agencies, will
help us all better serve our local communities."
6)Arguments in Opposition. None on file.
7)Double-Referral. This bill was heard in the Housing and
Community Development Committee on April 29, 2015 and passed
with a 6-0 vote.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
AB 1403
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Housing California
Easter Seals
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Debbie Michel / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958