BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2256 Page 1 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 | | | | | | | | | | | | AB 2256 Page 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. AB 2256 Page 3 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; AB 2256 Page 4 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; AB 2256 Page 5 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 AB 2256 Page 6 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 AB 2256 Page 7 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 usersof 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 AB 2256 Page 8 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 AB 2256 Page 9