BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 683
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 26, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS AND CONSUMER
PROTECTION
Mary Hayashi, Chair
AB 683 (Ammiano) - As Amended: April 12, 2011
SUBJECT : Homelessness
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD) to create a statewide Homeless Integrated Data
Warehouse (HIDW), contingent on receiving sufficient federal and
private funds. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires HCD to create a statewide HIDW to compile data, as
specified, 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, to cooperate and collaborate with each of the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Department
of Education, the Department of Health Care Services, the
Department of Mental Health (DMH), the Department of Social
Services (DSS), the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), and
the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (DADP), to draft
and carry out a strategy to create a de-identified HIDW to
provide longitudinal, cost-based studies to determine all of
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) Relevant information regarding the number of people
who are homeless receiving services, the costs of those
services, and outcomes of those services through DMH,
DSS, DVA, and DADP; and,
g) The number of people living in housing funded
through programs administered by HCD who were homeless
upon admission.
3)Encourages local agencies providing services to homeless
persons that use a Homeless Management Information System
(HMIS) to collaborate with HCD in developing the HIDW.
4)Specifies that these new duties shall be implemented only when
sufficient federal and private sector funds have been received
to create the HIDW.
EXISTING STATE LAW :
1)Tasks several agencies with responsibilities related to
homelessness.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW :
2)Establishes the Stuart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act
(McKinney-Vento) authorized federal funding for homeless
assistance programs administered by several federal agencies,
including the United States (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.
3)Establishes the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid
Transition to Housing 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 :
Purpose of this bill . According to the author's office, "AB 683
would require HCD to create a statewide HIWD to compile data
AB 683
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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.
Collecting and analyzing data regarding homelessness would
assist the state in using its resources more effectively and
guide future state policy regarding homelessness?
"A statewide data warehouse on homelessness would improve
collaboration among state agencies, allow efficient assessment
of the costs of homelessness to the state, provide greater
transparency in state agency and grantees' operations, help
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, allow use of mainstream systems among
people experiencing homelessness, and enhance planning and
policy efforts to reduce homelessness."
Background . California has the highest number of people
experiencing homelessness in the country. One in 95
Californians will experience homelessness throughout the course
of a single year. The health, personal, and economic challenges
that chronically homeless individuals and families face and the
lack of effective, coordinated services to address these
problems often lead to a vicious cycle of housing instability
and health deterioration. Health conditions of those
experiencing long-term homelessness often prevent housing
stability, while persistent homelessness impedes access to
needed health and employment services. Consequently, people who
are chronically homeless cycle through costly emergency-driven
public systems - emergency shelters, emergency rooms,
detoxification centers, criminal justice facilities - without
getting the ongoing care they need to address severe mental
illness, substance abuse disorders, or chronic health
conditions. People who experience multiple episodes of
homelessness, who are chronically homeless, or who frequently
use avoidable crisis services use a disproportionate share of
public resources.
In 2010, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (Council)
developed a ten-year Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End
Homelessness (Plan) that included five goals, one of which was
to establish as a statewide priority the prevention and
significant reduction of chronic homelessness and included the
implementation of a HMIS. As defined by HUD's original mandate,
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HMIS is a computerized data collection tool designed to capture
client-level information over time on the characteristics and
service needs of men, women, and children experiencing
homelessness.
The Plan specifically listed a goal to collect and analyze data
on chronic homelessness and client outcomes to monitor
implementation of the state action plan and guide ongoing policy
and program development. Specifically, this goal encouraged the
developed of a statewide data clearinghouse of data collection
on chronic homelessness that tracks program in the reduction of
homelessness and monitors client outcome and program
effectiveness. This information would also enable states to
determine whether homeless prevention programs are
cost-effective, and to utilize the information for future
program funding decisions. This bill creates a statewide HIWD,
contingent on receiving sufficient federal and private funds.
The author's office has amended the bill to create a HIWD
instead of a HMIS to avoid requiring the state to use specific
proprietary software.
Support . According to the Corporation for Supportive Housing,
"California has the largest homeless population in the nation.
Yet, we have 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.
"AB 683 would require HCD to develop a data warehouse that would
track the number of homeless people accessing homeless services.
Eventually, this system could gather data from multiple
agencies administering programs affecting homelessness, which
would assist in ensuring program requirements maximize
efficiency, in coordinating agency response to homelessness, and
in making transparent the costs of homelessness."
Related Legislation . AB 1167 (Fong) of 2011 creates the Council
and requires various state agencies to meet quarterly to
coordinate efforts on homelessness. This bill is currently
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pending in the Assembly Housing and Community Development
Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Bay Area Counties Homeless Information Collaborative
Corporation for Supportive Housing
United Homeless Healthcare Partners
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Joanna Gin / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301