BILL ANALYSIS �
Bill No: AB
2547
SENATE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Senator Roderick D. Wright, Chair
2011-2012 Regular Session
Staff Analysis
AB 2547 Author: Blumenfield
As Amended: May 25, 2012
Hearing Date: June 26, 2012
Consultant: Art Terzakis
SUBJECT
Statewide Office of the Homeless Youth Advocate
DESCRIPTION
AB 2547 creates the Statewide Office of the Homeless Youth
Advocate (OHYA) within the California Health and Human
Services Agency (HHS) to provide information and assistance
to eliminate obstacles and overlapping services for
homeless youth. Specifically, this measure:
1)Establishes OHYA within the HHS and requires the office
to:
a) Provide information, coordination assistance, and
technical assistance to reduce unnecessary
expenditures associated with duplicated services and
to improve the quality of services to homeless youth.
b) Identify procedural and substantive barriers and
obstacles that inhibit the provision of services to
homeless youth and make recommendations to specified
entities necessary to remove obstacles to services for
homeless youth.
c) Update information received from service providers
on available funding sources to assist homeless youth
and ensure that information is made available on its
Internet Web site.
AB 2547 (Blumenfield) continued
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d) Work with entities to identify, facilitate and
resolve issues that may inhibit the sharing of
information beneficial to helping homeless youth.
e) Provide a biennial report to the Governor and the
Legislature on the activities and performance of OHYA.
1)In order to meet the objectives of this measure,
encourages OHYA to work with other departments within
HHS, the California Department of Education (CDE), the
Administrative Office of the Courts, nonprofit
organizations, appropriate federal entities and other key
stakeholders.
EXISTING LAW
Under existing state law, several agencies have prescribed
responsibilities relating to homeless persons including,
among others, administering emergency shelter programs and
ensuring the provision of community mental health services
for homeless persons.
Existing federal law establishes the Stuart B. McKinney
Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney-Vento) and authorizes
federal funding for homeless assistance programs
administered by several federal agencies, including the
United States 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.
Existing federal law also provides for the Homeless
Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act
which reauthorized and made changes to McKinney-Vento,
including increasing the priority on homeless families with
children and increasing prevention resources.
BACKGROUND
Purpose of AB 2547: The author's office points out that
California has a significant problem with homeless youth
and there is no single state entity that is responsible for
coordinating services or ensuring their safety. This
measure, modeled after the Colorado Office of Homeless
Youth Services, is intended to: (a) break down barriers
that make it difficult for homeless youth to access
AB 2547 (Blumenfield) continued
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services; (b) provide better collaboration and effective
services among multiple local, state and federal programs;
and, (c) institute a proactive and productive environment
to better identify gaps and work in a more integrated
fashion to improve and expand services to a highly at-risk
population.
The author's office notes that AB 2547 "takes the first
step in addressing youth homelessness by creating the
Office of the Homeless Youth Advocate. This office will be
responsible for identifying and breaking down barriers to
those services currently available, facilitating
interagency collaboration, and serving as a resource for
homeless youth - disseminating information about their
rights, the services available, and how to get in touch
with local non-profits who help homeless youth."
Arguments in Support: Proponents state that research has
shown that homeless youth and young adults are at great
risk for mental health disabilities, physical abuse, sexual
exploitation, chemical or alcohol dependency, and death.
Additionally, youth and young adults who experience
homelessness are disproportionately likely to be arrested
and incarcerated as adults. Furthermore, proponents claim
that the cost of youth homelessness to the State of
California is considerable and that the current economic
recession has increased youth homelessness by limiting
opportunities for youth.
Proponents cite the following funding streams that flow
into the state that can benefit the homeless youth
population: the federal Workforce Investment Act, the
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, the
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions
Act, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Youth Act, and the Runaway
and Homeless Youth. Proponents believe the Legislature
should make it a priority for the state to support
cross-systems coordination and alliance building at the
state and local level to improve outcomes and effectively
utilize resources for this vulnerable population.
Senate Office of Research (SOR) and the California Research
Bureau (CRB): Based on research conducted in 2011 by the
SOR and the CRB's Homeless Youth Project 41 states have
interagency councils on homelessness, 34 states have
10-year plans to end homelessness, and 25 states
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specifically address unaccompanied homeless youth in their
statewide plans. It is estimated that there are 200,000
youth under the age of 18, and potentially thousands more
aged 18 - 24, experiencing homelessness in California. The
study also found that only 53 programs of any kind - from
street outreach to transitional living - existed in
California to reach unaccompanied homeless youth.
Additionally, of California's 58 counties, only one in 20
provided services of any kind.
The Emergency Youth Telephone Referral (EYTR) Project: The
California Emergency Management Agency (CalEMA) has been
running the EYTR Project for over a decade. CalEMA is
currently partnering with the California Coalition of
Youth, who staff and maintain a hotline designed to connect
homeless and runaway youth with services and resources. The
Youth Crisis Line connects an average of 12,000 homeless
youth with services each year.
Governor's Homeless Initiative of 2005: Governor
Schwarzenegger established an initiative to end long-term
homelessness in California by providing integrated
permanent housing and services to long-term homeless people
in partnership with local governments and the private
sector. When announcing the initiative, the Governor said
"with this initiative my administration is committing more
than $50 million in state funding to build permanent
housing units where residents have an affordable place to
live. This housing will also provide access to the health,
employment and other support services they need to
transition off the street."
As part of the Initiative described above, the Governor
stated that he would commit the following:
Up to $40 million in Proposition 46 funds to leverage
private sector resources to produce 400 to 500 new
supportive housing units;
$10 million in funds from the California Housing Finance
Agency to provide financial resources to community
organizations that lend to supportive housing projects;
and,
$875,000 in Proposition 63 and state general fund dollars
to provide for the formation of an interagency council on
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homelessness and pre-development costs such as permitting,
engineering costs, site development and environmental
reports.
PRIOR/RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 1167 (Fong) 2011-12 Session. Would have created the
California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Council)
consisting of representatives from multiple jurisdictions
to coordinate a statewide approach in responding to the
misfortune of the homeless and to identify and apply for
federal funding. (Died on Senate Appropriations Suspense
File)
AB 823 (Dickinson) 2011-12 Session. Would have established
the California Children's Coordinating Council to serve,
until January 1, 2019, as an advisory body responsible for
improving the collaboration among agencies that provide
services to the children and youth of the state. (Died on
Senate Appropriations Suspense File)
SB 119 (Lowenthal ) 2011-12 Session. Among other things,
would have created a licensing category for emergency youth
shelter facilities and directed the Department of Social
Services to adopt regulations for them by January 1, 2013.
(Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee at author's
request)
SB 123 (Liu) 2011-12 Session. Would have enacted the
California Runaway, Homeless, and Exploited Youth Act, and
would have required, subject to the availability of
adequate resources, the California Emergency Management
Agency to develop, in collaboration with the Senate Office
of Research and various interested parties, a statewide
plan for runaway, homeless, and exploited youth, as
specified. (Died on Senate Appropriations Suspense File)
AB 1177 (Fong) 2009-10 Session. Similar to AB 1167 (Fong)
of 2011 in that it would have required various state
agencies to meet quarterly to coordinate efforts on
homelessness. (Held in Senate Appropriations Committee)
AB 56 (Ma) 2007-08 Session. Would have created a
cabinet-level position of Secretary to End Poverty in
California, and would have provided that the secretary
shall be appointed by the Governor, subject to confirmation
by the Senate. Also, would have required the secretary to
AB 2547 (Blumenfield) continued
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review the work of the state agencies, departments, and
offices that implement and administer antipoverty programs
in the state to determine whether those agencies,
departments, and offices are operating in the most
efficient and effective manner possible. (Died on Assembly
Appropriations Suspense File)
SUPPORT: As of June 22, 2012:
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees
Bill Wilson Center
California Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
California Coalition for Youth
California Mental Health Directors Association
California State PTA
California Teachers Association
County of Los Angeles
Larkin Street Youth Services
San Diego Youth Services
South Bay Community Services
OPPOSE: None on file as of June 22, 2012.
FISCAL COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
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