BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2256
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
2256 (Maienschein)
As Amended April 28, 2016
Majority vote
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|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 | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
AB 2256
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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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