BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Carol Liu, Chair
BILL NO: AB 683
A
AUTHOR: Ammiano
B
VERSION: June 21, 2012
HEARING DATE: July 2, 2012
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FISCAL: Yes
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CONSULTANT: Mareva Brown
SUBJECT
Homelessness: housing status data
SUMMARY
Requires the Employment Development Department, state
Department of Health Care Services and state Department of
Social Services to inquire about the housing status of
persons who apply for unemployment insurance benefits,
Medi-Cal benefits and CalWORKs or CalFresh benefits, with
the intent of determining whether an applicant is
experiencing or at risk for homelessness.
ABSTRACT
Existing law
1.Establishes the Unemployment Insurance program,
administered by the Employment Development Department, to
provide partial wage replacement benefits to eligible
individuals who are out of work due to no fault of their
own and meet other eligibility requirements with the
intent of providing temporary financial assistance.
Continued---
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2.Establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the
Department of Health Care Services to provide a variety
of medical services for children and adults with limited
income and resources.
3.Establishes the California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, administered
by the Department of Social Services and funded through a
combination of state, county and federal funds to provide
eligible low-income families cash assistance and
employment services. (WIC 11200 et seq.)
4.Establishes the CalFresh program, administered by the
Department of Social Services using federal funds
available through the USDA's Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) which are intended to aid
low-income California households that face hunger,
undernutrition, and malnutrition.
5.Requires applicants for each of the above programs to
complete online or paper applications that include
questions about an applicant's address and other
questions related to program eligibility, as specified.
6.Provides that applicants for CalWORKs, Medi-Cal and
CalFresh benefits may complete a common application for
any combination of these benefits.
This bill
1.Requires the state to ask applicants about their housing
status to determine if an applicant has stable housing,
is at risk of homelessness or is experiencing
homelessness when they apply for the following programs:
a. Unemployment Insurance benefits through the
Employment Development Department
b. Medi-Cal benefits through the Department of
Health Care Services
c. California Work Opportunity and Responsibility
to Kids (CalWORKs) and CalFresh benefits through the
Department of Social Services.
2.Requires both paper and electronic application forms for
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these benefits to include a specified list of questions
and answer options, including:
a. Whether an applicant owns, rents or has a
permanent residence
b. Whether an applicant who does not have
permanent residence lives with a friend or family
member, in a transitional living facility, at a
church or shelter, at a migrant camp, in a car, in a
place not intended for habitation, on the streets,
or in another location.
c. How long an applicant without permanent housing
has been without a permanent place to live.
3. Requires each department to implement this section
only when there is another reason to revise an
application for benefits.
FISCAL IMPACT
This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal committee.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill
More than 135,000 Californians experience homelessness on
any given night, according to data provided by the author.
While California's population represents 12 percent of the
nation, 21 percent of the country's homeless population
resides in California. Many people experience homelessness
repeatedly or for long periods, and multiple studies have
shown that people experiencing chronic homelessness are
more frequent users of expensive county and state programs
ranging from emergency room visits and hospitalizations to
jail and prison stays.
The author states that while federal data reveals some
impact of homelessness in California, our state data is
lacking. This bill attempts to collect more specific data
about the housing circumstances of applicants who are
seeking various types of public assistance in order to
determine whether these benefits assist people to exit
homelessness or to remain stably housed. According to the
author, adding specific questions to benefit application
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forms would "give the state a more comprehensive picture of
the homeless population using state social benefits.
Collecting data would assist the state in using its
resources more effectively to promote and foster housing
stability."
California's Ten-Year Chronic Homeless Action Plan
In 2010, the state released a plan to address chronic
homelessness, based on five years of work by an Interagency
Council comprised of state agency and department leaders.
First among the plan's five goals was to establish
prevention and the significant reduction of chronic
homelessness as a statewide priority. A key strategy was to
collect and analyze data on chronic homelessness and client
outcomes to monitor implementation of the state's action
plan and guide ongoing policy development.
Differing definitions of homelessness
Within the programs targeted by this bill, definitions of
homelessness differ. CalWORKs beneficiaries are considered
homeless when they lack a fixed nighttime residence, share
a residence with family or friends on a temporary basis,
reside in a shelter, commercial establishment or have been
issued notice to pay rent or quit. Nearly 15,000 California
families were receiving funds through the CalWORKs Homeless
Assistance Program, in April 2012, the most recent data
available.
CalFresh beneficiaries, by contrast, are considered
homeless when they are sleeping in "a place not designed
for, or ordinarily used, as a regular sleeping
accommodation for human beings (a hallway, a bus station, a
lobby or similar places.)" This definition makes clear that
the temporary housing with another individual, not
identified as family or friends, must be for less than 90
days. Applications for Medi-Cal and Unemployment Insurance
do not inquire about housing status.
Finding a common definition of homelessness for data
collection is a challenging task, with a significant piece
of the problem housed in federal statute, as was noted by
the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in a recent
report. In 2010, the office highlighted the need for a
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consistent definition of homelessness among federal
programs. Current definitions differ among agencies based
largely on the types of programs and targeted population of
those beneficiaries.
"For example, HUD's counts would not include families
living with others as a result of economic hardship,
who are considered homeless by Education. Data from
federally-funded mainstream programs such as HHS's
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families could improve
agencies' understanding of homelessness, but these
programs have not consistently collected or analyzed
information on housing status because this is not
their primary purpose." Homelessness: A Common
Vocabulary Could Help Agencies Collaborate and Collect
More Consistent Data, GAO, June 2010.
Application for benefits
Various state records show that, between 2011 and 2012,
approximately 1.8 million Californians received CalFresh
benefits; about 572,500 Californians received CalWORKs
benefits, about 7.7 million people received Medi-Cal
benefits and approximately 3.6 million received paid
unemployment. Some individuals may participate in more than
one these programs.
In order to access these benefits, applicants must fill out
a form which includes questions that determine the
eligibility for those services. For example, CalFresh and
CalWORKs each have program components created to support
individuals who experience homelessness, and may ask
questions to discern that information on an application.
However, those questions are unique to each program.
Additionally, neither set of those questions is reflected
in the Medi-Cal application form posted on the DHCS
website, nor in the EDD application form, which simply asks
if the applicant's work is seasonal and whether the mailing
address is a permanent address.
California has made a number of efforts to streamline
paperwork and eligibility requirements for applicants and
the county eligibility workers who serve them. For example,
individuals receiving CalWORKs are automatically eligible
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for Medi-Cal benefits and do not need to submit an
additional application for benefits.
Additionally, a common application is permitted to be used
for CalWORKs, CalFresh and Medi-Cal through the automated
SAWS system. That one-page form includes fields for
applicants to submit their home address, whether this
address is permanent, whether the applicant has "no home,"
a line to explain the applicant's housing situation if a
listed address is not a permanent home and whether anyone
in the household is a migrant or seasonal farmworker. As a
result, depending on how and where an individual received
their application, including whether the application is
online or is a paper form, different information may be
requested.
Related legislation
AB 1167 (Fong) 2011, would create the California
Interagency Council on Homelessness and prescribes the
membership and duties of the council. This bill is on the
Senate Appropriations Suspense file.
Comments
This bill attempts to strengthen California's collection of
data on homeless families by requiring questions be asked
upon application to four specific public assistance
programs.
It was substantially amended while on suspense in the
Appropriations committee from a bill that had required the
state Department of Housing and Community Development to
create a state homeless integrated data warehouse to
compile information from agencies via a Homeless Management
Information System.
Recognizing that definitions vary in federal and state
regulations and law, the author has chosen to identify
specific language to be included in all applications,
regardless of whether the language fits specific program
eligibility requirements. This is logical to capture
consistent data across a broader spectrum of the
population. However, it could pose a problem in instances -
like CalFresh - where specific questions must be asked in
order to ascertain eligibility for distinct benefits. If
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these questions were added, applicants could be asked to
answer two separate and slightly different sets of
questions about their housing status. The author might want
to consider eliminating CalFresh applications from this
requirement and modifying the language to capture data
closer to the CalFresh eligibility questions.
In an attempt to avoid the type of costs that stalled the
original bill in Appropriations, this version stops short
of requiring that any action be taken with the data once it
is collected on the forms. The author acknowledges that
this is impractical and has committed to continue working
with stakeholders on language that would provide a use for
the data in the least costly manner, should the bill move
forward to the Appropriations committee.
A more significant issue is that the questions posed in
this bill are not required to be answered in order for
applicants in any of the four programs to be determined
eligible for benefits. Staff recommends the following
amendments to clarify this and simplify the data collection
process:
13710
(c) Questions about housing status specified in this
section are to be considered optional for applicants, and
do not require answers in order for an application to be
considered complete, or for submission of an electronic
form. This information will not be used for determination
of benefit level or eligibility for services.
(d) When applicable, information about housing status, as
specified in (b) may be collected during an interview
process in lieu of on an initial application or
supplemental application form.
PRIOR VOTES
This bill has been significantly amended since it was last
heard in any committee.
POSITIONS
Support: Corporation for Supportive Housing (sponsor)
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Coalition of California Welfare Rights
Organizations, Inc.
Housing California
Oppose: None received
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