BILL ANALYSIS �
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1929|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1929
Author: Chau (D)
Amended: 8/18/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 8-0, 6/18/14
AYES: Hernandez, Morrell, Beall, DeSaulnier, Evans, Monning,
Nielsen, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: De Le�n
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 11-0, 6/24/14
AYES: DeSaulnier, Gaines, Beall, Cannella, Galgiani, Hueso,
Lara, Liu, Pavley, Roth, Wyland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 5/27/14 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : California Housing Finance Agency: Mental Health
Services Act funding: special needs housing for
person with mental illness
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the California Housing Finance
Agency (CalHFA), with the concurrence of the Department of
Health Care Services (DHCS), to release unencumbered Mental
Health Services Fund (MHS Fund) monies dedicated to the Mental
Health Services Act (MHSA) housing program upon the request of
CONTINUED
AB 1929
Page
2
the respective county, and requires these counties to use these
to provide housing assistance, as defined, to identified target
populations, including persons with a serious mental disorder.
This bill makes legislative findings and declarations regarding
the need to encourage counties, the agency, and DHCS to continue
partnering in the development of supportive housing, and to
ensure county mental health departments are able to more fully
utilize the MHSA funds for supportive housing and other housing
assistance purposes. This bill declares that it clarifies
procedures and terms of the MHSA.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/18/14 require counties to expend
released funds to provide housing assistance to "target
populations" instead of to persons with serious mental illness
and remove provisions (1) clarifying CalHFA's authority to
continue the MHSA Housing Program and (2) allowing CalHFA to
charge a county a fee of up to 1% of future allocations, as
specified.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Authorizes CalHFA to finance permanent special needs housing,
including for those with mental health illness.
2.Establishes the MHSA Housing Program, which provides permanent
supportive housing for people with mental illness and
allocates up to $75 million per year for this purpose.
3.Imposes a tax of 1% on personal earnings of over $1 million
for the purpose of financing new or expanded mental health
services, pursuant to the MHSA. Allows the Legislature to add
provisions to clarify procedures and terms of the MHSA by a
majority vote.
This bill:
1.Requires CalHFA, with the concurrence of DHCS, to release
unencumbered MHS Fund monies dedicated to the MHSA Housing
Program upon the written request of the respective county.
Requires the county to use these MHS Fund monies released by
the agency to provide housing assistance to the target
populations, as specified.
CONTINUED
AB 1929
Page
3
2.Clarifies that "housing assistance" means each of the
following:
A. Rental assistance or capitalized operating subsidies.
B. Security deposits, utility deposits, or other move-in
cost assistance.
C. Utility payments.
D. Moving cost assistance.
E. Capital funding to build or rehabilitate housing for
homeless, mentally ill persons or mentally ill persons who
are at risk of being homeless.
3.Specifies that for purposes of administering those funds
released to a respective county, the county shall comply with
all of the requirements described in the MHSA, as specified.
4.Makes legislative findings and declarations regarding the need
to encourage counties, the agency, and DHCS to continue
partnering in the development of supportive housing, and to
ensure county mental health departments are able to more fully
utilize the MHSA funds for supportive housing and other
housing assistance purposes.
Comments
According to the author's office, supportive housing has proven
to be an effective strategy for reducing homelessness among
those with mental illness. At any given moment more than
133,000 Californians are homeless. Of these Californians,
roughly 33,800, or 25%, are considered chronically homeless.
According to researchers, at least one-third of chronically
homeless people are mentally ill.
This bill expressly authorizes county mental health departments,
CalHFA, and DHCS to partner in the development of permanent
supportive housing for people with mental illness. County
mental health departments may continue to deposit MHSA funding
with CalHFA. In return, counties may receive technical
assistance from CalHFA, as well as assistance with financing the
acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, refinancing, or
development of supportive housing units for people with mental
illness. CalHFA is authorized to charge counties a fee, paid
from MHSA funds, for providing this assistance.
CONTINUED
AB 1929
Page
4
Additionally, this bill releases unencumbered funds from the
original $400 million allocation to their respective counties,
upon request of those counties. As these funds were originally
set aside for housing purposes, counties must use them to
provide housing assistance for people with mental illness who
are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Releasing these funds
directly to the counties will better enable them to utilize
these funds for housing assistance.
In 2004, California voters approved Proposition 63 (MHSA). The
MHSA imposes a 1% tax on personal earnings over $1 million to
fund county-run mental health programs. Through Executive Order
S-07-06 in 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger directed the creation
of the MHSA Housing Program to provide, on behalf of counties,
both capital and operating subsidy funding for the development
of permanent supportive housing for individuals with serious
mental illness and who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
The Executive Order stated a goal of providing 10,000 permanent
supportive housing units for individuals with mental illness and
their families.
To administer the MHSA Housing Program, CalHFA and the
Department of Mental Health -subsequently folded into DHCS -
created a partnership. CalHFA underwrites the requests for
capital funds and capitalizes operating expenses. DHCS
evaluates each applicant's proposed target population and
supportive services plan. Once funds are awarded, CalHFA
oversees all development and financial aspects of the project,
and DHCS oversees the provision of services. CalHFA also
provides technical assistance to county mental health
departments to select special needs housing that would best meet
the needs of a county's residents with mental illness and
charges an administrative fee for this assistance.
In 2007, 50 county mental health departments agreed to a
one-time set-aside of $400 million of MHSA revenue for the MHSA
Housing Program to build an estimated 2,500 units of permanent
supportive housing for people with mental illness who are
homeless or at risk of homelessness. While most counties have
already used their share of the $400 million allocation, others
have not because they received small allocations that do not
make construction of housing units feasible.
CONTINUED
AB 1929
Page
5
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/19/14)
California American College of Emergency Physicians
California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies
California Mental Health Directors Association
California Psychiatric Association
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Housing California
Mental Health America of California
National Alliance on Mental Illness, California
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
San Diego Housing Federation
Western Center on Law and Poverty
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Supporters argue that this bill is
needed to codify practices and procedures from the Executive
Order that put into place the MHSA Housing Program, which since
its inception has helped to build more than 2,500 affordable
places for people with severe mental illnesses. Supporters
argue that this approach has demonstrated very good results for
people with mental disorders and could continue to be very
valuable in meeting the housing needs of this vulnerable
population.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 5/27/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Perea, John A. P�rez, V.
Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas,
Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski,
Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Patterson, Quirk-Silva, Vacancy
CONTINUED
AB 1929
Page
6
JL:k 8/19/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
**** END ****
CONTINUED