BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                    AB 2256


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          ASSEMBLY THIRD READING


          AB  
          2256 (Maienschein)


          As Amended  April 28, 2016


          Majority vote


           ------------------------------------------------------------------ 
          |Committee       |Votes|Ayes                  |Noes                |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
          |Human Services  |7-0  |Bonilla, Grove,       |                    |
          |                |     |Calderon, Lopez,      |                    |
          |                |     |Maienschein,          |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |Mark Stone, Thurmond  |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
          |Appropriations  |20-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow,    |                    |
          |                |     |Bloom, Bonilla,       |                    |
          |                |     |Bonta, Calderon,      |                    |
          |                |     |Chang, Daly, Eggman,  |                    |
          |                |     |Gallagher, Eduardo    |                    |
          |                |     |Garcia, Roger         |                    |
          |                |     |Hernández, Holden,    |                    |
          |                |     |Jones, Obernolte,     |                    |
          |                |     |Quirk, Santiago,      |                    |
          |                |     |Wagner, Weber, Wood   |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |
          |                |     |                      |                    |








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          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)Makes Legislative findings and declarations that state 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 (CHHSA) by January  
            1, 2018, and on or before January 1 each year, that contains  
            specific data regarding homeless children, youth, and adults  
            for the previous calendar year.  Further requires this report  
            to be submitted in an open format that meets certain  
            stipulations, as specified.


          3)Requires the data provided to the CHHSA be published on the  
            California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal.


          4)Stipulates that the reporting requirements contained in this  
            bill shall only apply to service providers that have access to  
            the required information, as specified.









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          5)Requires that homeless services providers ensure that  
            submitted data be as accurate as practicable.


          6)Defines "homeless children or youth" and "homeless persons" as  
            having the same definitions provided for in the McKinney-Vento  
            Homeless Assistance Act.


          7)Defines "homeless services provider" to mean certain entities,  
            including specified governmental or nonprofit agencies,  
            attorneys licensed to practice law in California, local  
            education agencies, human services providers, and law  
            enforcement officers.


          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 United States Code Section (U.S.C.) 11431  
            et seq.)


          2)Defines "homeless children or youth" as individuals who lack a  
            fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. (42 U.S.C.  
            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;










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             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 meets certain housing  
               criteria;


             f)   Unaccompanied youth and homeless families with children  
               and youth defined as homeless under other federal statutes  
               that meet certain criteria (42 U.S.C. 11301 et seq.).


          4)Defines "homeless services provider" to mean certain entities,  
            including specified:


             a)   Governmental or nonprofit agencies;


             b)   Attorneys licensed to practice law in California;










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             c)   Local education agencies;


             d)   Human services providers; and


             e)   Law enforcement officers. (Health and Safety Code  
               Section (HSC) 103577)


          5)Establishes the California Health and Human Services Agency  
            (CHHSA) 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.   
            (Government Code Section (GOV) 12803)


          FISCAL EFFECT:  According to the Assembly Appropriations  
          Committee, this bill may result in the following costs:


          1)Unknown costs beginning in 2017-18 and ongoing, likely in the  
            hundreds of thousands of dollars (General Fund), to CHHSA to  
            review and de-identify the reports to ensure privacy and  
            confidentiality, and to standardize and aggregate the data.   
            Actual costs will depend on the number of reports received  
            from providers by CHHSA.


          2)Costs to CHHSA to post the reports are minor and absorbable.


          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  








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          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.


          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.


          California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal:  CHHSA  
          launched its Open Data Portal Initiative in order to increase  
          public access to non-confidential health and human services  
          data.  According to the CHHSA 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. 


          Homeless Management Information System (HMIS):  According to  
          Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a Homeless  
          Management Information System (HMIS) is a locally-administered  








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          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. 


          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.  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  








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          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  
          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."


          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. 


          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." 




          Analysis Prepared by:                                             
                          Kelsy Castillo / HUM. S. / (916) 319-2089  FN:  
          0003227









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