BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2061
A
AUTHOR: Chau
B
VERSION: June 10, 2014
HEARING DATE: June 24, 2014
2
FISCAL: Yes
0
6
CONSULTANT: Mareva Brown
1
SUBJECT
Child welfare services: families experiencing homelessness
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Department of Social
Services (CDSS) to include innovative, evidence-based
strategies in the federal Title IV-E waiver capped
allocation demonstration project to achieve supportive
housing, rapid rehousing, and permanent housing, as
described, for families that include a child placed in
foster care, who are receiving child welfare services, and
who are experiencing homelessness. These strategies would
be included in the waiver, subject to federal approval.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
1)Requires CDSS and county welfare departments to maintain
a system of child welfare services to serve the needs of
children who are alleged to be abused or neglected, to
reduce the necessity for removing these children from
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STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2061 (Chau)
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their homes, to encourage speedy reunification of
families when it can be safely accomplished, and to
locate permanent homes and families for children who
cannot return to their biological families. (WIC 300 et
seq., WIC 16500)
2)Requires the state to seek federal funds to assist in
financing public programs including federal Title IV-E
funds, and requires in federal law that states shall
provide a plan, comply with federal directives and
collect relevant data, in order to receive Title IV-E
federal payments for foster care and adoption assistance.
(42 USC � 671) (WIC 16500.8)
3)Authorizes CDSS to conduct a demonstration project in up
to 20 counties, based on the terms of a federal Title
IV-E waiver, to allow flexible use of federal and state
foster care funds by using a federal capped allocation
model over a 5-year period. (WIC 18260)
4)Requires that any county, state, or federal savings in
the foster care program that occur as a result of the
demonstration project must be reinvested by counties in
child welfare services program improvements. Requires
foster care savings to be used to support the counties in
developing a broader and more responsive array of
services to improve outcomes for children and families.
Permits any unexpended state and federal funds may be
retained by each county for expenditure in subsequent
fiscal years for purposes consistent with this section.
(WIC 18260 (b))
5)Defines a standard of habitability for rental dwellings.
(CIV 1941)
This bill:
1)Makes various Legislative findings and declarations
including that homelessness and housing instability
interfere with the reunification of children in foster
care with birth families, and that as many as 30 percent
of children in foster care who cannot be reunited with
birth families could be reunited if the family were able
to access a safe place to live.
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2061 (Chau)
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2)Creates a new section in Welfare and Institutions Code
requiring CDSS, subject to federal approval, to include
innovative, evidence-based strategies in the federal
Title IV-E waiver capped allocation demonstration project
to assist families that include a child placed in foster
care, who are receiving child welfare services, and who
are experiencing homelessness to achieve the following:
a. Supportive housing, including housing with no
limit on length of stay, that is occupied by the
target population, and that is linked to onsite or
offsite services that assist the supportive housing
resident in retaining the housing, improving his or
her health status, and maximizing his or her ability
to live and, when possible, work in the community.
b. Rapid rehousing, including assistance that
enables an individual or family experiencing
homelessness to be quickly stabilized and housed in
permanent housing affordable to the individual or
family.
c. Permanent housing, including housing without a
limit on the length of stay that meets the standards
of Section 1941.1 of the Civil Code.
FISCAL IMPACT
This version of the bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal
committee.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
According to the author, homelessness and housing
instability interfere with the reunification of children in
foster care with their birth families. Nearly one-half of
children in foster care have birth parents with a history
of homelessness and as many as 30 percent of children in
foster care who are not eligible for reunification with
their birth families could be reunited if the family were
able to access a safe place to live.
The author states that counties receiving Title IV-E
waivers from the federal government are allowed to use
evidence-based strategies on alternative services that
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2061 (Chau)
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promote safety, permanency and well-being for children.
CDSS is currently negotiating a waiver of Title IV-E funds,
typically used to pay for foster care placement, with the
federal government. This waiver would allow participating
counties to use foster care placement funds more flexibly,
to pay for innovations that keep children with their
families and allow children placed in foster care to be
reunited with their families. AB 2061 would direct CDSS to
include evidence-based housing strategies in their Title
IV-E Waiver application.
Foster care
Slightly more than 61,000 children were in California's
foster care system as of January 1, 2014, according to data
compiled and reported by the Center for Social Services
Research at U.C. Berkeley. In California, CDSS oversees a
county-administered child welfare services system which
responded to approximately 40,000 reports of abuse, neglect
or exploitation in 2012. Children whose care is overseen by
the child welfare system are alleged to be abused or
neglected.
The goal of the child welfare system, when possible, is to
reunite the child with the parent by providing training,
support and services to the parent. The reunification
process requires the courts to facilitate frequent visits
between the child and biological parent and, in some cases,
permits parents to retain some decision-making about the
child's life.
Housing
According to a report released in February 2014 by the
California Housing Partnership Corporation, there are not
enough homes in the private housing market available to
low- and moderate-income households. The report noted a
shortfall of more than 950,000 homes available to the
state's lowest income families.<1> The shortfall is
particularly acute in the rental housing market, typically
the last resort for lower-income families, many of whom
were forced out of single-family homes during the Great
-------------------------
<1>
http://www.chpc.net/dnld/CHPCHousingNeedReport020814FINAL.pd
f
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2061 (Chau)
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Recession and have little chance of becoming homeowners in
the near future, according to the report. It indicated that
median rents in California increased by more than 20
percent from 2000 to 2012, while the median income dropped
by 8 percent.
COMMENTS
The original version of this bill established a Housing
Program for Homeless Families Receiving Child Welfare
Services and sought $3 million to fund four-year grants to
counties. Eligible families under the bill would have been
homeless or had been homeless in the last year, voluntarily
agreed to participate in the program, and would be
receiving child welfare and family reunification services.
However, the appropriation was stripped in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee and the author instead sought to
focus efforts through counties participating in the federal
IV-E demonstration project.
The current version of the bill requires CDSS to include
innovative, evidence-based housing strategies in the
federal Title IV-E waiver capped allocation demonstration
project to assist families that include a child placed in
foster care, who are receiving child welfare services.
However, negotiations with the federal government around
specific goals of the demonstration projects already have
resolved most of the program's design. The state's request
to extend the current Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration
Project was sent to the federal Administration for Children
and Families on March 29, 2013. At this point, the author
instead wishes to use this bill to encourage the state and
counties to consider including housing in the flexible
funding strategy for families for whom homelessness is
preventing reunification with their children when the
renegotiates the waiver in future years. Counties may
currently include housing in their flexible funding
strategies, as appropriate to meet the goals of the
program.
Staff therefore recommends the following amendments:
18262.
The department , subject to federal approval , shall
STAFF ANALYSIS OF ASSEMBLY BILL 2061 (Chau)
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encourage participating counties to consider use of include
innovative, evidence-based strategies in the with the
optional portion of their federal Title IV-E waiver capped
allocation demonstration project pursuant to Section 18260
to assist families that include a child placed in foster
care, who are receiving child welfare services, and who are
experiencing homelessness to achieve the following.
PRIOR VOTES
Assembly Floor 64 - 6
Assembly Appropriations 12 - 0
Assembly Human Services 5 - 0
POSITIONS
Support: Children Now
Corporation for Supportive Housing
County Welfare Directors Association
Housing California
Oppose: None received.
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