BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2591
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 21, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 2591 (Weber) - As Amended: April 21, 2014
Policy Committee: Human
ServicesVote:5 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill enacts the Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs
Assistance Program. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the Department of Social Services (DSS) to
proportionally allocate funding appropriated by the
Legislature to counties based on each county's respective
number of homeless youth to establish a Homeless Youth Basic
Material Needs Assistance Program.
2)Defines basic material needs assistance as school supplies,
dental supplies and other hygienic products, shoes, clothes,
blankets, and other basic material needs.
3)Requires DSS to retain the moneys allocated for a county that
elects not to establish a program or that requests the
department to administer its program, and requires DSS to
directly administer a program for homeless youth in that
county.
4)Authorizes a county to join with one or more other counties to
pool resources and establish a multi-county Homeless Youth
Basic Material Needs Assistance Program.
5)Establishes requirements of the program, including
solicitation of proposals and contracting with one or more
nonprofit organizations.
6)Outlines requirements for the nonprofit organizations with
which counties or DSS contract for purposes of a program,
including a requirement to consult with the children and
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family commission pertaining to the county or counties served
by the program.
7)Requires each program to encourage contracted nonprofit
organizations to provide at least a 20% match for all moneys
received to furnish basic material needs to homeless youth and
work with the homeless liaison(s) of the local education
agencies.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)On-going costs to the DSS in the range of $100,000 to $200,000
(GF) to allocate the money to the counties.
2)Unknown, but likely significant costs (GF) to DSS to establish
and administer programs in counties that do not operate their
own programs.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the author, California's homeless
children who are enrolled in school face daily uncertainty
with respect to shelter, access to food, the ability to
maintain general hygiene, and access to other basic needs, all
of which compromise a child's ability to remain in school,
progress in his or her education and remain healthy. This
bill seeks to provide material basic needs to homeless
children and youth through coordinated local programs in order
to mitigate some of the effects of child homelessness.
2)Homelessness . In a July 2013 report, the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities highlighted the ways in which housing
instability results in poor school outcomes for children. The
report noted that frequent moves tend to worsen educational
performance, and that homeless children are more likely than
other low-income children to perform poorly on tests, and
either repeat a grade or drop out of school altogether.
National homeless student enrollment data from the U.S.
Department of Education's Education for Homeless Children and
Youth (EHCY) Program reveals that in the 2011-12 school year,
1,168,354 homeless children were enrolled in school; almost a
25% increase compared to the 939,903 homeless children
enrolled in school in the 2009-10 school year. According to
the California Department of Education, there were nearly
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260,000 homeless children enrolled in California's k-12
schools in the 2012-13 school year. Of those homeless
children, 224,161 were living in doubled-up situations, which
include cohabitating with other families, "couch surfing," or
living in a garage. Another 17, 844 were living in shelters,
10,073 lived in motels and hotels, and 7,578 were unsheltered.
3)Related Legislation .
a) SB 761 (DeSaulnier) 2014 requires the California
Department of Education (CDE) to designate a tax-exempt,
nonprofit organization to use funds appropriated from the
School Supplies for Homeless Children Fund to provide
school supplies and health-related products to partnering
learning education agencies for distribution to homeless
children SB 761 requires a 100% match for all funds
received. This bill is pending in the Assembly Revenue and
Taxation Committee.
b) SB 1571 (DeSaulnier) Chapter 459, Statutes of 2012,
established the School Supplies for Homeless Children Fund
and tax check off for the purpose of providing school
supplies to homeless children through a competitive grant
program.
c) SB 608 (DeSaulnier) Chapter 307, Statutes of 2011,
authorized the Prison Industry Authority to offer their
goods and services for sale to nonprofit organizations that
have entered into MOUs with LEAs for the purpose of
distributing the products and services are provided to
public school students at no cost to the students or their
families.
Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081