Amended in Assembly April 6, 2016

Amended in Assembly March 28, 2016

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1699

Introduced by Assembly Member Kim

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Travis Allen, Baker, Brough, Chávez, Gipson, Lackey, Linder, Maienschein, Mayes, and Waldron)

(Coauthors: Senators Anderson, Bates, and Huff)

January 25, 2016

An act to amend Sections 13700, 13700.5, 13701, and 13703 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to homeless youth, and making an appropriation therefor.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1699, as amended, Kim. Homeless youth emergency service projects.

Existing law establishes the Homeless Youth and Exploitation Program, under which homeless youth emergency service projects are established in the Counties of Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Diego, and the City and County of San Francisco through a grant program to eligible private, nonprofit agencies with a demonstrated record of success in the delivery of services to homeless youth. Under existing law, this program is administered by the Office of Emergency Services. Existing law requires each project to provide specified services, including food and access to overnight shelter, counseling to address immediate emotional crises and problems, and long-term stabilization planning.

This bill would require begin delete a homeless youth emergency service project to be established in the County of Orange and would require end delete the Office of Emergency Services to establish additional begin insert homeless youth emergency service end insert projects in other counties with a priority given to counties that lack existing services for runaway and homeless youth. begin insert The bill would require the Office of Emergency Services to develop, with input from specified stakeholders, criteria for the selection of grantees and the determination of grant amounts under the grant program. end insert The bill would additionally require each project to provide transitional living services for designated homeless youth for a period of up to 36 months, with access to education and employment assistance, independent living skill development, and family engagement and interventions. The bill would appropriate $25,000,000 from the General Fund to the Office of Emergency Services to provide additional funding for these homeless youth emergency service projects.

Vote: ²⁄₃. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 13700 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code is amended to read:

13700.  

(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(1) There are homeless minors living on the streets of major
urban centers, suburban communities, and in rural areas in this
state without adequate food, shelter, health care, or financial
support.

(2) Many of these homeless youth in these urban centers come
from out-of-city or out-of-county locations.

(3) The homeless child, in many instances, has a history of
physical or sexual abuse at home, and of having been rejected or
forced out of the parental home.

(4) While living on the streets, these youth fall prey to drug
abuse, human trafficking, prostitution, and other illegal activities.

(5) Local public agencies are unable to provide these youth with
an adequate level or range of remedial services.

(6) These homeless minors are urgently in need of specialized
services to locate them, to assist them with their immediate survival
needs, and to address their long-term need to reunite with their
parents or find a suitable home.

(7) Two homeless youth emergency service pilot programs, one
in the City of Los Angeles, and one in the City and County of San
Francisco, have demonstrated the need for ongoing programs to
meet the needs of homeless minors and the effectiveness of these
programs in meeting these needs.

(8) While critical, immediate crisis intervention does not go far
enough to help these youth make a successful transition to
adulthood. Evidence supports transitional living programs as the
key driver of positive outcomes for homeless youth.

(b) The purpose of this chapter begin delete is therefore end delete begin insert is, therefore, end insert to
maintain one homeless youth emergency project in the County of
Los Angeles and one in the City and County of San Francisco,
where the problem is most acute, and to the extent funds are
appropriated in the Budget Act of 1991, to establish additional
homeless youth emergency service pilot projects pursuant to this
chapter. It is the further purpose of this chapter to examine the
condition of homeless youth in major urban areas of this state with
populations of 500,000 or more, as well as other urban, suburban,
and rural areas, and develop a profile of homeless youth in terms
of background and available services, in order to locate these youth,
to provide for their emergency survival needs, and to assist them
in reunification with their parents or in finding a suitable home.

SEC. 2.  

Section 13700.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code
is amended to read:

13700.5.  

For purposes of this chapter, “office” means the Office
of Emergency Services.

SEC. 3.  

Section 13701 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:

13701.  

Each homeless youth project established under this
chapter shall provide services that shall include, but are not limited
to, all of the following:

(a) Food and access to an overnight shelter.

(b) Counseling to address immediate emotional crises or
problems.

(c) Outreach services to locate homeless youth and link them
with services, and drop-in facilities to make the services accessible
to the street population.

(d) Screening for basic health needs and referral to public and
private agencies for health care.

(e) Linkage to other services offered by public and private
agencies.

(f) Long-term stabilization planning so that the youth may be
returned to the parental home under circumstances favoring
long-term reunification with the family, or so that the youth can
be suitably placed in a situation outside the family when family
reunification is not possible.

(g) Followup services to ensure that the return to the family or
the placement outside the family is stable.

(h) Transitional living services for homeless youth 18 through
24 years of age, inclusive, for a period of up to 36 months, with
access to education and employment assistance, independent living
skill development, and family engagement and interventions.

SEC. 4.  

Section 13703 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:

13703.  

(a) One homeless youth emergency service project
shall be established in the County of Los Angeles and one shall
be established in the City and County of San Francisco. One
homeless youth emergency service project shall also be established
in the County of San Diego, and one shall be established in the
County of Santa Clara. The office shall establish additional
homeless youth emergency service projects in begin delete the County of
Orange and end delete other counties, with a priority given to counties that
lack existing services for runaway and homeless youth. begin insert The office
shall, with input from stakeholders, develop criteria for the
selection of grantees and the determination of grant amounts under
the grant program. For purposes of this section, stakeholders shall
include, but not be limited to, current and former homeless youth
and representatives from advocacy groups serving homeless youth. end insert
Each project may have one central location or may have more than
one location in the service area in order to serve effectively the
area population of homeless youth. Each project shall be operated
by an agency in accordance with the grant award agreement with
the office.

(b) (1) The office shall prepare and disseminate a request for
proposals for grantees under this chapter by February 15, 1986.
The office shall enter into grant award agreements, and the
operation of pilot projects shall begin, not later than June 1, 1986.
With respect to projects to be established in the County of San
Diego and the County of Santa Clara, the office shall prepare and
disseminate a request for proposals for grantees under this chapter
by March 31, 1992. The office shall enter into grant award
agreements and the operation of these projects shall begin not later
than July 1, 1992.

(2) With respect to additional homeless youth emergency service
projects to be established pursuant to funding appropriated by the
act that added this paragraph, the office shall prepare and
disseminate requests for proposals begin delete not end delete begin insert no end insert later than March 31,
2017.

(c) An agency eligible to apply for funds under this chapter and
to operate a homeless youth emergency service project shall be a
private, nonprofit agency with a demonstrated record of success
in the delivery of services to homeless youth. The agency selected
for each project shall demonstrate the ability to provide each of
the services described in Section 13701, either directly or under
subcontract with a competent provider. Preference shall be given
to agencies that demonstrate a history of coordination with other
public and private agencies in the service region that provide
services to homeless youth. Preference shall also be given to
agencies that will involve a network of youth-serving agencies in
the delivery of services to homeless youth under this chapter.

SEC. 5.  

The sum of twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000)
is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the Office of
Emergency Services to provide additional funding for homeless
youth emergency service projects established pursuant to Chapter
6 (commencing with Section 13700) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the
Welfare and Institutions Code.