BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 384 Hearing Date: 1/12/2016
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|Author: |Leyva |
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|Version: |1/6/2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Alison Dinmore |
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SUBJECT: Veteran housing: multifamily units: underserved
veterans
DIGEST: This bill requires on or after January 1, 2017, that a
percentage of the state funds under the Veterans Housing and
Homeless Prevention (VHHP) Program be reserved for underserved
veterans.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Enacts the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act
of 2014 (VHHP or "the Act"), also known as Proposition 41,
which authorized the issuance of $600 million in general
obligation bonds to provide multifamily housing to veterans
pursuant to the VHHP. The VHHP required the California
Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), California Department of
Housing and Community Development (HCD), and California
Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) to establish and
implement a program that focuses on veterans at risk of
homelessness or experiencing temporary or chronic
homelessness. This program will fund the acquisition,
construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable
multifamily supportive housing, affordable transitional
housing, affordable rental housing, or related facilities for
veterans and their families to allow veterans to access and
maintain housing stability.
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2)Requires, pursuant to the VHHP, the program to do the
following:
a) Leverage public, private, and nonprofit funding sources.
b) Prioritize projects that combine housing and supportive
services, including but not limited to: job training,
mental health, drug treatment, case management, care
coordination, or physical rehabilitation.
c) Ensure that program guidelines and terms provide
requirements or scoring criteria to advance applicants that
combine permanent or transitional housing, or both, with
supportive services for veterans, or for partnering with
housing developers or service providers that offer housing
or services to veterans.
1)Defines "supportive housing" as housing occupied by the target
population and that is linked to on- or off-site services that
assist the resident in retaining the housing, improving his or
her health status, and maximizing his or her ability to live
and, when possible, work in the community. The intent is to
enable residents to maintain stable lives and places no limit
on the length of stay.
2)Defines "transitional housing" and "transitional housing
development" as a rental housing development that operates
under program requirements that call for the termination of
assistance and recirculation of the assisted unit to another
eligible program recipient at a predetermined future point in
time, but not less than six months.
This bill:
1)Requires a percentage of state funds used in accordance with
the VHHP, for all multifamily housing units acquired,
constructed, rehabilitated, or preserved on or after January
1, 2017, to be reserved for housing for underserved veterans.
This percentage shall be determined by CalVet, in consultation
with the appropriate local agencies.
2)Defines "underserved veterans" as those veterans either
experiencing homelessness at a disproportionate rate to their
veteran or non-veteran counterparts, as determined by the most
recent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Annual
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Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) that includes an assessment
of veteran homelessness, or other similar source the
department deems appropriate.
3)Requires CalVet to determine the percentage of funds to be
reserved annually, with the first determination to be made on
July 1, 2017 and each year thereafter on July 1. The
determination shall be made using the most recent AHAR that
includes an assessment of veteran homelessness, or other
similar source that the department deems appropriate.
4)Requires, when insufficient applications for proposed housing
projects meet the requirements of this bill, the reserved
funding to revert back to the Housing for Veterans Fund and be
available for other purposes authorized by the Act.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of the bill. According to the author, California's
vulnerable veteran population is more likely to face
homelessness due to a significant lack of affordable housing,
livable wages, and access to necessary health care services.
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
found that women veterans identifying themselves as homeless
more than doubled, increasing by more than 140% from 2006 to
2010. During the same time frame, there was a 45% increase in
homelessness for male veterans.
For female veterans, especially those who have suffered from
military sexual trauma, living in a housing facility that
houses mainly men poses serious safety and health risks.
Women do not feel comfortable or safe in these facilities.
Most (about 60%) of transitional housing facilities do not
allow young children. This limitation, combined with the
safety risks of living in male dominated facilities, makes
finding housing for female veterans with children nearly
impossible. SB 384 seeks to eliminate some of these barriers
by ensuring that funding is available for housing for
underserved veterans - allowing construction of facilities
that serve this vulnerable population.
2)Targeting funding to underserved homeless veteran populations.
The intent of this bill is to require funding to meet the
needs of underserved populations of homeless veterans,
including female veterans, children, and others that may have
special needs. While the bill requires the departments to
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reserve money for projects that serve underserved populations,
the departments have no control over those projects that apply
for funding. For this reason, if the departments receive
insufficient applications for funding to meet the requirements
of this bill, any reserved funding shall revert back to the
Housing for Veterans Fund and be available for other purposes
authorized by the Act.
The intent of the VHHP program is to serve homeless veterans
and in particular, the chronically homeless. The legislation
is written broadly to include all homeless veterans, including
underserved populations such as women and children. Arguably,
there is nothing in the legislation that precludes the
departments from funding projects that serve underserved
populations. The author argues, however, that this
legislation will ensure, to the extent possible, that state
funds will be specifically reserved to meet the special needs
of underserved populations, if such projects apply.
3)Too soon? The VHHP program recently received applications for
the second round of funding and likely will not make the
awards until the second quarter of this year. This second
round of funding followed a public process of receiving input
from stakeholders on experience from the first round.
Generally, with new programs such as this, it takes applicants
a couple of funding rounds to fully understand the
requirements that a state agency or agencies puts in place.
This program in particular places novel requirements that
applicants have not seen or experienced before. On January 5,
2016, during a joint Senate oversight hearing covering the
progress of the program, Senators of this committee heard from
some stakeholders that they were holding off applying until
the third round to fully understand the requirements in the
current guidelines. Making changes to the statute will
require the departments to make changes to the guidelines and
undergo the public review process, which could lead to
uncertainty for those seeking funding and further delay the
awarding of funding.
4)Double-referral. This bill was heard in Senate Veterans
Affairs Committee on April 14, 2015 and approved 5-0.
Related Legislation:
SB 689 (Huff) - requires state agencies to prioritize projects
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under the VHHP that, for the purposes of providing mental health
and drug services, either: 1) accept only residents that are
prequalified to receive services from the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA), or 2) if they accept residents who
receive services from agencies other than the VA, employ on
staff or contract for a qualified mental health professional
with at least two years' full-time relevant experience providing
services to veterans. This bill is currently in this Committee.
AB 253 (Hernandez) - requires state agencies to give a
preference to applicants for funding under the VHHP that
demonstrate a multiyear commitment of Mental Health Services Act
Funding for the applicant's project funding plan. This bill is
currently in this Committee.
AB 639 (Perez, Chapter 727, Statutes of 2013) - created the VHHP
and allows for $600 million in bonds to be used for housing
homeless and low-income veterans.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
January 6, 2016.)
SUPPORT:
American Legion - Department of California
AMVETS - Department of California
Military Officers Association of America, California Council of
Chapters
VFW - Department of California
Vietnam Veterans of America - California State Council
OPPOSITION:
None received
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