BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: ab 683
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: ammiano
VERSION: 6/13/11
Analysis by: Mark Stivers FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 21, 2011
SUBJECT:
Homeless data
DESCRIPTION:
This bill requires the Department of Housing and Community
Development to create a statewide data warehouse on
homelessness.
ANALYSIS:
Under existing federal law, known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless
Assistance Act, the United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) administers various programs relating to
homelessness, including the Continuum of Care Program, which is
a competitive award program designed to encourage cities and
counties to address the problems of housing and homelessness in
a coordinated and strategic fashion. The fundamental components
of a continuum of care include prevention, outreach, emergency
shelter, transitional housing, permanent housing, permanent
supportive housing, and supportive services.
In order to receive funding through the McKinney-Vento Homeless
Assistance Act, a state or local jurisdiction must develop a
continuum of care. Among other requirements, a continuum of
care must collect anonymous data on the homeless clients served
within the continuum and maintain the data in a homeless
management information system ((HMIS). Currently, there are 42
continua of care in California, covering all of the state except
for a few small, rural counties. Each one has an HMIS, though
the systems are not uniform. HUD collects HMIS data nationwide
and compiles it in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to
Congress, but the report contains very little state-specific
data.
In February 2010, the Schwarzenegger administration adopted the
California Ten Year Chronic Homelessness Action Plan. The plan
AB 683 (AMMIANO) Page 2
includes a strategy to collect and analyze data on chronic
homelessness and client outcomes in order to monitor
implementation of the plan and guide ongoing policy and program
development. In describing the strategy, the plan states:
In order to be most effective, the State's efforts to
address chronic homelessness should be grounded in data
about the characteristics and needs of this population and
about the effectiveness of the policy and program
interventions being used. Statewide data collection will
allow tracking of overall progress in substantially
reducing chronic homelessness and monitoring of client
outcomes and program effectiveness. Based on data analysis,
best practices can be identified and disseminated, policy
and programs can be adapted to facilitate improved
outcomes, cost savings can be redirected to support
effective interventions, and data can be used to lobby for
changes in policy, programs and funding.
This bill requires the Department of Housing and Community
Development (HCD), only if it receives sufficient federal and
private funds for this purpose, to create a state homeless
integrated data warehouse to compile data from HMISs in
California. Specifically, the bill:
Requires HCD to collaborate and coordinate with the Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 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 create the data
warehouse in a manner consistent with federal HMIS privacy
guidelines.
Encourages local agencies that use an HMIS to collaborate with
HCD in developing the data warehouse and requires
participating agencies to contribute data quarterly.
Establishes the purpose of the database to develop a composite
portrayal of the homeless population in the state and of the
services currently provided to people who are homeless or who
are at risk of becoming homeless and are receiving prevention
services.
Requires that the database include, at a minimum:
Basic demographic information about people experiencing
homelessness or at risk of homelessness including, if
available, ethnic, racial, and gender identity and sexual
orientation.
AB 683 (AMMIANO) Page 3
The number of individuals with disabilities and the
number of families with a head of household experiencing a
disability who have been homeless for at least one year or
at least four times in the last three years.
Homeless individuals' access to benefits.
The number of individuals and families experiencing
homelessness.
The number and entry/exit dates of individuals and
families living in emergency housing.
The number and entry/exit dates of homeless individuals
and families living in transitional housing.
The number and entry/exit dates of homeless individuals
and families living in permanent housing.
Last known location or zip code when housed.
Stated reasons for homelessness.
Disability status of people experiencing homelessness.
Veteran status of people experiencing homelessness.
If available, the number of unaccompanied youth
experiencing homelessness.
Requires HCD use the data warehouse to provide longitudinal,
cost-based studies to determine all of the following:
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.
Claims for Medi-Cal emergency department, hospital, and
nursing home services 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.
Relevant information regarding the number of people who
are homeless receiving services, the costs of those
services, and the outcomes of those services through the
State Department of Mental Health, State Department of
Social Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, and State
Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.
The number of people living in housing funded through
programs administered by HCD who were homeless upon
admission.
Requires HCD to create a users' group to ensure quality,
relevance, and appropriate access to the database.
AB 683 (AMMIANO) Page 4
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose of the bill . California has the highest number of
people experiencing homelessness in the country, and because
some of these homeless persons do not have access to
appropriate services, they become frequent users of costly
emergency services, such as hospital emergency rooms, detox
facilities, and jails. In order to both reduce homeless and
public costs associated with such emergency services,
California needs to understand the nature of its homeless
population and be able to evaluate what strategies work best.
According to the author, 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
best 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. The state could use the database to
determine costs of services it now provides to homeless
persons and how it could more effectively deliver these
services to decrease administrative and program costs.
2.Hoped for data not yet available . The bill requires HCD, if
funding is available, to undertake various studies using data
from the state database. The HMISs that feed into this
database, however, do not in most cases currently collect
these data. The bill proponents hope to start up the database
with currently available information and expand the database
later to add information related to homeless clients' use of
other public systems, such as prisons, jails, health care,
etc. None of the state departments named in the bill have an
HMIS or a system that tracks homelessness. These state
departments, however, do have data on their clients, and the
proponents hope to add a question relating to housing status
to these existing databases so that data and trends on
homeless persons can be incorporated into the state homeless
integrated data warehouse.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 54-23
Appr: 12-5
B&P: 7-2
AB 683 (AMMIANO) Page 5
HCD: 7-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 15,
2011)
SUPPORT: Corporation for Supportive Housing (sponsor)
The ARC of California
Bay Area Counties Homeless Information
Collaborative
County of Santa Clara
EveryOne Home
Housing California
National Alliance on Mental Illness, California
United Cerebral Palsey
United Homeless Healthcare Partners
OPPOSED: None received.