BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1177
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Date of Hearing: May 20, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 1177 (Fong) - As Amended: April 16, 2009
Policy Committee: Business and
Professions Vote: 7 - 4
Human Services 5 - 2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill creates a California Interagency Council on
Homelessness. Specifically, this bill:
1)Creates a council on homelessness with a mission to construct
cross-agency and community cooperation in responding to
homelessness, to use a more efficient and supportive method in
implementing evidence-based approaches to address homelessness
and, to the extent possible, a plan to end homelessness in the
state.
2)Establishes specified membership for the council:
3)Requires the submission of all reports and documents created
by the council at least once per year to the Legislature.
4)Specifies that council duties include the following:
a) Quarterly public meetings.
b) Coordinating and plan the state's response to
homelessness.
c) Streamline the administration of programs across
agencies and jurisdictions.
d) Streamline the funding of homelessness programs to
leverage existing resources.
e) Identify best practices from other states in combating
homelessness.
f) Publish a plan to reduce or end homelessness within
three years.
g) Create a centralized database on homelessness by January
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15, 2015, if federal or other non-state money is available
for this purpose.
5)Authorizes the council to engage or accept the services of
agency personnel, contract with nonprofit organizations, or
employ council staff to conduct the business of the council if
funding is available.
6)Requires the council to operate within the existing budget of
each department or agency represented.
FISCAL EFFECT
Cost pressure for the lead agency in the range of $350,000 per
year. Once the council is established and operates as a
continuum of care or establishes a continuum of care for the
state, federal funds may be available to offset the costs of the
council.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author's office, the state has a
fragmented approach to homelessness. California has the
largest homeless population in the nation, but is the only
large state without an interagency council on homelessness.
More than 10 California agencies administer programs affecting
homelessness, but there is no official coordination to ensure
efficiencies. The state lacks basic coordination between
state agencies, local government, and non-profit
organizations.
AB 1177 will establish an Interagency Council on Homelessness
in the state consisting of representatives from multiple
jurisdictions in an attempt to draw down federal resources to
help the homeless and to ensure that the state takes a
coordinated approach to providing assistance for people who
are homeless.
2)Homelessness in California . It is difficult to quantify the
number of homeless in California. In 2005, the governor
estimated that the state has the highest ratio of homeless
people per capita in the nation, with 360,000 people sleeping
on the streets or in shelters on any given night. Housing
prices and growing income inequality are the two primary
factors in the growth of homelessness in California, rather
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than personal disabilities within the homeless population.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, 27% of
homeless men, women and children in California are chronically
homeless, 26% of them have families, and 70% of them do not
have shelter.
3)The Governor's Homeless Initiative . In November 2005, Governor
Schwarzenegger created the Governor's Homeless Initiative,
which included plans to form an interagency coordinating
council to reduce homelessness. The Business, Transportation
and Housing Agency's 2005-10 Consolidated Plan further
indicates the importance of an interagency council on
homelessness. Despite these intentions, a council has not met
regularly or publicly since the governor adopted the
initiative.
4)McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grant Funds . The
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance program is the largest
federal homeless assistance program, allocating $1.6 billion
in homeless assistance to states and local jurisdictions this
last year. To qualify for a grant under this program, a
jurisdiction must establish a "Continuum of Care," which is a
collaborative body that helps a community plan for a range of
responses to homelessness. It generally includes government,
stakeholder, and consumer representatives. The Continuum of
Care (CoC) does not create housing or provide services;
rather, it chooses projects within the jurisdiction that are
eligible for grant awards, then disburses and administers the
awards.
States are eligible to apply. In fact, only 12 states
(including California) do not receive these grant funds
directly. Though 42 local California CoC's received funding in
2008, the state could receive additional resources if the
state applied for CoC grants. Without an existing CoC, it is
difficult to estimate how much money California would receive.
However, to provide some context, the State of Rhode Island
received $3.7 million and Oregon received over $1.6 million in
2008. Michigan and Ohio, which, like California, have multiple
local CoC's, received $6.2 and $13.7 million, respectively, in
last year's funding round. All of these states have
significantly fewer homeless people than California. Since
funding is based on need, California is poised to receive
significant additional funding to assist communities that do
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not now receive direct allocations of CoC funding.
To apply, California would be required to undertake the
following new activities:
a) Form a Continuum of Care (which in this case could be
the council on homelessness created by this legislation);
b) Call for applications of project sponsors to receive
funding from the state;
c) Determine need based on existing data (federal funding
may be available through the Community Development
Technical Assistance fund to build a statewide data
warehouse to collect the required information); and
d) Apply for the federal funding.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081