BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 683
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 6, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Norma Torres, Chair
AB 683 (Ammiano) - As Amended: March 24, 2011
SUBJECT : Homelessness
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD) to create a statewide Homeless Management
Information System (HMIS), contingent on receiving sufficient
federal and private funds. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires HCD to create a statewide HMIS to compile data for
the purpose of developing a composite portrayal of the
homeless population in the state, as well as services
currently provided to people who are homeless.
2)Requires HCD, with the cooperation and collaboration of the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Department
of Education, the Department of Health Care Services, the
Department of Mental Health, the Department of Social
Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the
Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, to draft and carry
out a strategy to create a de-identified integrated research
database to provide longitudinal, cost-based studies based on
the following information:
a) The number of people imprisoned each year who were
homeless upon arrest and the costs of their imprisonment;
b) The number of parolees experiencing homelessness
each year and the costs of their parole;
c) The number of children in California schools
experiencing homelessness;
d) Claims for Medi-Cal emergency department, hospital,
and nursing home services among people experiencing
homelessness, and the costs of those claims each year;
e) The number of children receiving foster care
services whose family members are homeless and the costs
of the foster care provided to those children each year;
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f) The number of people who are homeless receiving
services, the costs of those services, and outcomes of
those services through the Department of Mental Health,
the Department of Social Services, the Department of
Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Alcohol and Drug
Programs; and
g) The number of people living in housing funded
through programs administered by HCD who were homeless
upon admission.
3)Specifies that these new duties shall be implemented only when
sufficient federal and private sector funds have been received
to create the HMIS.
EXISTING LAW
1)Enacted in 1987, the Stuart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance
Act (McKinney-Vento) authorized federal funding for homeless
assistance programs administered by several federal agencies,
including the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), Health and Human Services, Labor,
Education, and Veterans Affairs. HUD operates two programs
through McKinney-Vento, the Federal Emergency Shelter Grant
Program and the Continuum of Care Program.
2)Enacted in May 2009, the Homeless Emergency Assistance and
Rapid Transition to Housing (Hearth) Act reauthorized and made
changes to McKinney-Vento, including increasing the priority
on homeless families with children and increasing prevention
resources.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
California has the highest number of people experiencing
homelessness in the country. Homelessness is traumatic for those
who suffer it, often leading to separated families, exacerbation
of health conditions, a rise in avoidable emergency room use,
social and academic delays among children, higher rates of
foster care, and greater likelihood of incarceration. Many
people who lack permanent shelter and the ability to access
regular support ricochet through separate and expensive public
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systems: overburdened corrections systems, overcrowded hospital
emergency rooms, mental health programs, substance abuse
treatment and detox facilities, shelters, and emergency housing.
Innovative approaches across the nation and within California
show promise for reducing homelessness and the resulting impact
on public services. These approaches rely on accurate data on
the homeless population and how the homeless interact with
various state programs, data that California does not collect.
Collecting and analyzing data regarding homelessness would
assist the state in using state resources more effectively and
help guide future state policy regarding homelessness, as
recognized in Goal 1.2 of California's Ten-Year Chronic Homeless
Action Plan, adopted by the state in February 2010.
AB 683 would require HCD to create a statewide HMIS to compile
data from continua of care throughout California for the purpose
of developing a composite portrayal of the homeless population
in the state, as well as services currently provided to people
who are homeless. Continua of care are local homeless assistance
program planning networks that coordinate efforts to address
homelessness, including deciding how to spend federal homeless
grant monies. Some are governmental entities, others are
non-governmental, and some are joint powers authorities. Local
continuums of care produce annual plans that identify the needs
of local homeless populations, the resources that are currently
available in the community to address those needs, and
additional resources needed to fill identified gaps. The
continuum of care process is a community-based approach that
encourages the creation of collaborative, comprehensive systems
to meet the diverse of needs of local homeless populations.
By gathering data from local continua of care and integrating it
with data from the numerous state agencies that interact with
homeless individuals, the state would have a valuable tool to
assist with structuring programs and services that assist the
homeless to improve outcomes and decrease administrative and
program costs. A state data warehouse on homelessness would
improve collaboration among state agencies, help assess the
costs of homelessness to the state, provide greater transparency
in state agency and grantees' operations, determine what
interventions work to prevent or end homelessness, identify gaps
in services, discover how patterns of service use relate to
patterns of homelessness, analyze trends in homelessness, assess
use of mainstream systems among people experiencing
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homelessness, and enhance planning and policy efforts to reduce
homelessness. Federal funds are available to create this type
of data warehouse, and the bill states that HCD does not have to
begin the process until federal and private funds have been
secured.
In addition to designing a statewide HMIS, the bill requires
HCD, in collaboration with other state agencies, to draft and
carry-out a strategy to create a de-identified (i.e., does not
contain names) integrated research database comprised of
information from the Departments of Correction and
Rehabilitation, Education, Health Care Services, Health, Social
Services, Veterans Affairs, and California Alcohol and Drug
Programs, to provide longitudinal, cost-based studies on the
following information:
The number of people imprisoned each year who were
homeless upon arrest and the costs of their imprisonment.
The number of parolees experiencing homelessness each
year and the costs of their parole.
The number of children experiencing homelessness in
California schools.
Claims for Medi-Cal emergency department, hospital, and
nursing home care among people experiencing homelessness,
and the costs of those claims each year.
The number of children receiving foster care services
whose family members are homeless and the costs of the
foster care provided to those children each year.
The number of people who are homeless receiving
services, the costs of those services, and outcomes of the
services through the Departments of Mental Health, Social
Services, Veterans Affairs, and California Drug and Alcohol
Programs.
The number of people living in housing funded through
programs administered by the Department of Housing and
Community Development who are homeless upon admission.
According to the bill's sponsor, the Corporation for Supportive
Housing, "California has the largest homeless population in the
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nation. Yet, we have very little data about our homeless
population. Our state agencies, for example, do not maintain
data on housing or shelter services homeless people receive, how
many homeless people get housed through state housing programs,
how many veterans experiencing homelessness access mental health
or Medi-Cal services, or how many people are homeless when
entering prison or while on parole. These data are critical in
determining state program and grantee use of state funds, as
well as in assessing how these funds could be used more
efficiently."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Corporation for Supportive Housing (sponsor)
EveryOne Home (Alameda County Continuum of Care)
United Homeless Healthcare Partners
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Anya Lawler / H. & C.D. / (916)
319-2085