BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2033
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 12, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2033 (Torres) - As Amended: April 19, 2010
Policy Committee: Housing and
Community Development Vote: 8 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD) to establish a state continuum of care (CoC)
covering areas of the state that are not currently represented
by a CoC (balance-of-state) in order to allow the state to draw
down additional federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance
funding. In addition, the bill requires HCD to report to the
Legislature if it fails to apply for federal funding prior to
September 1, 2011, and in each subsequent year until September
1, 2015.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Because the communities within a potential balance-of-state
CoC are small counties, an application, particularly the
initial application, would be limited to describing a few
projects communities would pursue. Based on the experiences of
several rural counties that have formed a collaborative, the
costs of developing that initial application would be in the
range of $25,000.
2)The state will be able to use up to 6% of a total grant award
to administer the McKinney-Vento grants. If, as the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has
estimated, California receives a grant of $900,000 for current
counties without CoCs, HCD could use up to $54,000 to
administer the grant. Considering an initial grant would only
fund a small number of housing units and new data systems,
this funding would be more than adequate to fund an annual
survey of financial records, oversight of compliance with
accounting, and electronically gather the data subgrantees
AB 2033
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collect. If additional communities decide to opt into a
balance of state CoC, California would receive a higher grant
award, providing additional administrative funds.
3)If HCD is unable to develop the CoC and apply for balance of
state McKinney-Vento funding by September 1, 2011, the bill
requires the department report to the Legislature on the
reason for that failure. The cost of the report should me
minor and absorbable within existing resources.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . AB 2033 requires HCD to apply for funding under the
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act by developing an
application for the balance-of-state funding available to
counties that are not applying on their own by September 1,
2011. If HCD does not apply by September 30, 2011, they are
required to report back to the Legislature regarding the
reason for not applying.
As noted above, at least $900,000 in federal funding could be
drawn down to address homelessness in smaller, rural
communities in the state. Many states receive the balance-of
-state CoC funding from HUD for areas that do not have a local
CoC but California has not taken the necessary steps to do so.
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
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)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
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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.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081