BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2256
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Date of Hearing: April 12, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES
Susan Bonilla, Chair
AB 2256
(Maienschein) - As Amended March 28, 2016
SUBJECT: Homelessness: report
SUMMARY: Requires homeless services providers to submit a
report to the California Health and Human Services Agency
containing specified data regarding persons experiencing
homelessness.
Specifically, this bill:
1)States that the purpose of collecting specific data related to
homelessness is to develop a statewide database of information
regarding homeless children or youth and homeless persons and
the public services being used in order to enable state and
local governments to develop better programs to target the
needs of those individuals and utilize funding and other
resources in the most efficient manner.
2)Requires a homeless provider to submit a report to the
California Health and Human Services Agency before January 1,
2018, and on or before January 1 each year, that contains the
following data regarding homeless children, youth, and adults
for the previous calendar year:
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a) The number of ambulance rides;
b) The number of hospital stays and length of each stay;
c) The number of emergency room visits;
d) The number of arrests and length of each incarceration;
e) The number of homeless children or youth and homeless
persons using services provided by the homeless services
provider; and
f) The latest estimate by a local agency in the area in
which services are provided on the total number of homeless
persons in that area, if available.
3)Requires the report to be submitted in an open format that
meets certain requirements, as specified.
4)Requires the data provided to the California Health and Human
Services Agency be published on the California Health and
Human Services Open Data Portal.
5)Defines "homeless children or youth" and "homeless persons" as
having the same definitions provided for in the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act.
6)Defines "homeless services provider" as a governmental or
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nonprofit provider that receives federal, state, or county or
municipal funding to provide services to homeless children or
youth and homeless persons or that is under contract to
provide those services by a local homeless continuum of care
organization.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes in federal law the McKinney-Vento Homeless
Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001 to ensure
educational rights and protections for youth experiencing
homelessness. (42 U.S.C. 11431 et seq.)
2)Defines "homeless children or youth" as individuals who lack a
fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. The
definition also includes:
a) Children and youth who are sharing the housing of other
persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a
similar reason;
b) Children who may be living in motels, hotels, trailer
parks, shelters, or awaiting foster care placement;
c) Children and youth who have 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;
d) Children and youth who are living in cars, parks, public
spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or
train stations, or similar settings; or
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e) Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they
are children who are living in similar circumstances to
those listed above. (42 U.S.C. Section 11301 et seq.)
3)Defines "homeless individual" and "homeless person" as:
a) An individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and
adequate nighttime residence;
b) 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 a human being, including a car, park, abandoned
building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground;
c) 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);
d) An individual who resided in a shelter or place not
meant for human habitation and who is exiting an
institution where he or she temporarily resided;
e) An individual or family who:
i. will imminently lose their housing,
including housing they own, rent, or live in without
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paying rent, are sharing with others, and rooms in
hotels or motels not paid for by federal, state, or
local government programs for low-income individuals
or by charitable organizations, as evidenced by:
1. a court order resulting from an
eviction action that notifies the individual or
family that they must leave within 14 days; or
2. credible evidence indicating
that the owner or renter of the housing will
not allow the individual or family to stay for
more than 14 days, and any oral statement from
an individual or family seeking homeless
assistance that is found to be credible shall
be considered credible evidence for purposes of
this clause;
ii. has no subsequent residence identified; and
iii. lacks the resources or support works needed
to obtain other permanent housing.
f) Unaccompanied youth and homeless families with children
and youth defined as homeless under other federal statutes
who:
i. have experienced a long term period without
living independently in permanent housing;
ii. have experienced persistent instability as
measured by frequent moves over such period; and
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iii. can be expected to continue in such status
for an extended period of time because of chronic
disabilities, chronic health or mental health
conditions, substance addiction, histories of
domestic violence or childhood abuse, the presence of
a child or youth with a disability, or multiple
barriers to employment. (42 U.S.C. Section 11301 et
seq.)
4)Establishes the California Health and Human Services Agency
which is tasked with providing a wide range of services in the
areas of health care, mental health, public health, alcohol
and drug treatment, income assistance, social services and
assistance to people with disabilities. (GOV 12803)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.
COMMENTS:
Homelessness in California: The federal McKinney-Vento Homeless
Assistance Act of 2001 defines homeless children and youths as
individuals who "lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime
residence," to include children and youths who: have to share
housing with others due to loss of housing or economic hardship;
are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camp grounds
because they lack other accommodations; are living in emergency
or transitional shelters; are awaiting foster placement; or have
a primary nighttime residence that is not designed as a regular
sleeping accommodation for human beings.
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According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development's 2015 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to
Congress, on a single night in January 2015, California reported
having 10,416 homeless unaccompanied youth; this equaled 28% of
the national total. California also reported having the largest
number (9,524) of unaccompanied homeless youth ages 18 to 24.
However, these counts only reflect the population of homeless
youth counted on one night. It is estimated that, throughout
the course of the year, many more youth experience homelessness.
For example, the Californian Homeless Youth Project reported
that, for the 2012-13 school year, nearly 270,000 students
experienced homelessness in California.
In 2011, the California Homeless Youth Project conducted a
point-in-time study to try to assess how many programs in the
state provided services and support specifically to
unaccompanied homeless youth, ultimately identifying 53
programs, from street outreach to transitional living, aimed at
reaching unaccompanied homeless youth. Thirty counties were
found to have no services of any kind specifically for homeless
youth.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), California accounted for 21% of the nation's homeless
population in 2015, with 115,738 people identified as homeless.
Between 2014 and 2015 California saw an increase in homelessness
cases with an additional 1,786 identified as homeless, however
between the years of 2007 and 2015, homelessness rates in
California actually declined with 23,248 fewer people
experiencing homelessness in 2015 than in 2007. California also
has the largest number of veterans experiencing homelessness at
11,311 cases, representing 24% of the national homeless veteran
population.
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California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal: The
California Health and Human Services (CHHS) Agency launched its
Open Data Portal Initiative in order to increase public access
to non-confidential health and human services data. According
to the CHHS website, the goal of the portal is to spark
innovation, promote research and economic opportunities, engage
public participation in government, increase transparency, and
inform decision-making. The portal offers access to
standardized data that can be easily retrieved, combined,
downloaded, sorted, searched, analyzed, redistributed and
re-used by individuals, business, researchers, journalists,
developers, and government to process, trend and innovate.
Continuums of Care: A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a regional or
local planning body that is designed to promote communitywide
commitment to the goal of ending homelessness; provide funding
for efforts by nonprofit providers, and State and local
governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families
while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to homeless
individuals, families, and communities by homelessness; promote
access to and effect utilization of mainstream programs by
homeless individuals and families; and optimize self-sufficiency
among individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development identifies four
necessary parts of a continuum:
1) Outreach, intake and assessment in order to identify
service and housing needs and provide a link to the
appropriate level of both;
2) Emergency shelter to provide an immediate and safe
alternative to sleeping on the streets, especially for
homeless families with children;
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3) Transitional housing with supportive services to allow
for the development of skills that will be needed once
permanently housed; and
4) Permanent and supportive housing to provide individuals
and families with an affordable place to live with services
if needed.
CoCs are tasked to track and manage the homeless community in
their area. One of the most important activities entrusted to
CoCs is the biannual count of the homeless population and an
annual enumeration of emergency systems, transitional housing
units and beds that make up the homeless assistance systems.
These counts provide an overview of the state of homelessness in
a CoC, and offer the information necessary to redirect services,
funding, and resources as necessary. The CoC also manages these
services, offering both prevention strategies and homeless
assistance programs to assist those at risk of experiencing
homelessness.
Homeless Management Information System (HMIS): According to
HUD, a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a
locally-administered data system used to record and analyze
client, service, and housing data for individuals and families
who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. HMIS is a valuable
resource because of its capacity to integrate and unduplicate
data across projects in a community. Aggregate HMIS data can be
used to understand the size, characteristics, and needs of the
homeless population at multiple levels, including project,
system, local, state and national. The Annual Homeless
Assessment Report (AHAR) is HUD's annual report that provides
Congress with detailed data on individuals and households
experiencing homelessness across the country each year.
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Project 25: In April 2015, the Fermanian Business & Economic
Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University released a study
entitled "Project 25: Housing the Most Frequent Users of Public
Services among the Homeless," which focused on individuals who
were among the most frequent user s of public services in the San
Diego metropolitan area and assessed the results of providing
housing and other services in an effort to reduce their use and
costs of public services. Project 25 consisted of 28
individuals and was designed to determine if the provision of
permanent housing with intensive individualized support, coupled
with an identified "Medical Home" could significantly reduce the
use and cost of various public programs by their most frequent
homeless users in the San Diego metropolitan area. The report
concluded that in the base year of 2010, the expenses of all
public services used by the 28 individuals totaled approximately
$3.5 million. Hospitalization accounted for over three-fifths
of the total at $2.2 million. In the first full year of
participation in the program (2012) these costs were reduced by
more than half to $1.5 million. In 2013, there was a further
reduction of 25% to $1.1 million. Overall the program showed a
67% reduction in total costs comparing the base year of 2010 to
2013. The average expense per person fell from over $124,000 in
2010 to about $41,000 in 2013.
Need for this bill: According to the author's office, "This
bill would require a homeless services provider to submit a
report to the California Health and Human Services Agency that
contains specified data regarding homeless children or youth and
homeless persons. [This bill] would require the data reported
to the California Health and Human Services Agency to be
published on the California Health and Human Services Open Data
Portal. The purpose of asking homeless services providers to
submit the information required by this act is to develop a
statewide database of information regarding homeless children or
youth and homeless persons and the public services being used.
The data will enable state and local governments to develop
better programs to target the needs of these individuals and
utilize funding and other resources in the most efficient
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manner. The formatting called for in the report is consistent
with the passage of AB 169 (Maienschein), Chapter 737, Statutes
of 2015 and will ensure broad public access to the information."
According to a report released by the California Homeless Youth
Project in January 2013 entitled "More Than a Roof: how
California Can End Youth Homelessness," California must improve
its data collection systems. Without adequate data collection
systems it is difficult to know whether current services are
sufficient, if California is addressing the most pressing needs
of this population, and whether programs are successful in
reducing the number of youth experiencing homelessness.
Staff comments: Should this bill move forward, the author may
wish to consider the following concerns:
Are homeless services providers as defined the most appropriate
organizations to be collecting this data? The bill defines a
homeless provider as "a governmental agency or nonprofit
provider that receives federal, state, or county or municipal
funding to provide services to homeless children or youth."
However, this definition is quite broad and may include
hospitals, county welfare agencies, nonprofit organizations, and
school districts, among others. The broad scope of this
definition may likely encompass some organizations that already
face tight budgets; requiring these organizations to perform
extra services in order to collect, compile, format and provide
data without additional funding to carry out these requirements
may have the impact of diverting funds from direct service
provision.
How reliable will the information be? The homeless services
providers described in this bill often do not have access to the
type of information being requested under the provisions of this
bill, such as the number and duration of hospital stays, number
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of arrests, and the like. Because of this lack of access,
homeless services providers rely on data that is self-reported
and therefore likely underreported. While self-reporting can be
cost-effective because it removes the requirement for more
sophisticated means of data collection, it is often incomplete.
Because the intent of this bill is to obtain a clear picture of
public services being utilized by those experiencing
homelessness and the associated costs of those services, one
must ask whether self-reported data is the most effective way to
obtain that information.
How do we measure success as it pertains to reducing
homelessness? The specific data requested under the provisions
of this bill are based on similar information requested under
Project 25, which reported an annual cost savings to San Diego
County of $2 million. However, this begs the question of how we
measure success when it comes to reducing homelessness. Is
success measured by reducing the costs associated with
hospitalization and incarceration that is shouldered by the
taxpayers, or is it in providing mental health services, job
training and permanent, affordable housing - with the ultimate
goal of facilitating the removal of barriers and acquisition of
education, sufficient income, and stable housing? Certainly, it
is helpful to know the associated costs of homelessness and on
public resources, however, the link between this information and
how it will contribute to the reduction in homelessness is
unclear.
PRIOR LEGISLATION:
AB 1403 (Maienschein), Chapter 188, Statutes of 2015, allowed
one or more private, non-profit 501(c) (3) corporations that
provide services to homeless persons for the prevention of
homelessness to form a joint powers agency, or enter into a
joint powers agreement, with one or more public agencies.
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AB 169 (Maienschein), Chapter 737, Statutes of 2015, required
local agencies to use specified open data standards if they
choose to post public records online that are prescribed as
"open."
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations, Inc.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Kelsy C. Castillo / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089
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