BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE HUMAN
SERVICES COMMITTEE
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
BILL NO: AB 2591
A
AUTHOR: Weber
B
VERSION: May 23, 2014
HEARING DATE: June 24, 2014
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FISCAL: Yes
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CONSULTANT: Mareva Brown
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SUBJECT
Homeless youth: basic material needs assistance
SUMMARY
This bill creates a Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs
Assistance program to be overseen by the California
Department of Social Services (CDSS). It requires that
money appropriated from the Legislature be distributed
proportionally to counties that elect to participate in the
program, based on the number of homeless youth in each
county. This bill also requires each local program to
contract with nonprofit organizations, as specified, and to
consult with the local children and families' commission if
the target population includes homeless youth from zero to
five years of age.
ABSTRACT
Existing law:
1)Establishes, in federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless
Assistance Act, which provides federal funding for local
homeless assistance projects. (42 USC � 11301, et seq.)
Continued---
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2)Includes in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act,
a definition of a homeless child or youth as one who
lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence
including:
a) Children and youths who are sharing the housing of
other persons due to loss of housing, economic
hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels,
hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the
lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are
living in emergency or transitional shelters; are
abandoned in hospitals; or are awaiting foster care
placement;
b) Children and youths who have a primary nighttime
residence that is a public or private place not
designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping
accommodation for human beings;
c) Children and youths who are living in cars, parks,
public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard
housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings;
and
d) Migratory children living in the circumstances
described above.
(42 USC � 11434a)
1)Establishes the United States Interagency Council on
Homelessness to coordinate a federal response to
homelessness and create a national partnership at every
level of government and with the private sector to end
homelessness. (42 USC � 11311)
2)States the intent of the Legislature that homeless youth
are entitled to a meaningful opportunity to meet the
challenging state pupil academic achievement standards to
which all pupils are held. (EDC 48850(a)(1))
3)Requires each state educational agency, pursuant to the
federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, to make
subgrants to local educational agencies (LEAs), as
specified, for the purpose of facilitating the
enrollment, attendance, and success in school of homeless
children and youths. (42 U.S.C. � 11433)
4)Requires each state to submit to the federal government a
plan to provide for the education of homeless children
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and youth, as specified. (42 U.S.C. � 11432(g))
5)Establishes in the state Treasury the School Supplies for
Homeless Children Fund to receive personal income tax
contributions to be distributed, in part, to the
California Department of Education (CDE) to provide
school supplies and health products to homeless children
through a competitive grant program. (RTC 18895 et seq.)
6)Establishes within the California Work Opportunity and
Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program additional
benefits for families who are homeless, including a
one-time benefit for temporary shelter of $65 per day for
a family of four or fewer members for no more than 16
consecutive days in a lifetime. Additionally, a homeless
family receiving CalWORKs benefits may receive one-time
assistance for a down-payment on permanent housing, as
specified, and other assistance, as specified. (WIC 11450
(f)(2))
This bill:
1) Adds a new chapter to the Welfare and Institutions
Code, commencing with section 13710, and names it the
Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance
Program.
2) Establishes the following definitions:
a. "Administering entity" means one of the
following:
i. A county that elects to
establish a program and does not join with
another county
ii. The counties that elect to
establish a program jointly
b. "Basic material needs assistance" means
school supplies, dental supplies and other
hygienic products, shoes, clothes, blankets, and
other basic material needs.
c. "Department" means the State Department
of Social Services.
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d. "Homeless youth" has the same meaning as
that term is defined in the federal
McKinney-Vento Act.
e. "Nonprofit organization" means a
nonprofit corporation qualified to do business in
California and qualified under Section 501(c)(3)
of the federal Internal Revenue Code.
f. "Program" means the Homeless Youth Basic
Material Needs Assistance Program.
3) Requires CDSS to allocate a proportional amount of
the money appropriated by the Legislature annually for
this purpose to each county that elects to establish a
program based on that county's respective number of
homeless youth. Requires that money allocated to the
county shall be used to establish and operate a
Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program
for the county.
4) Permits a county to join with one or more other
counties for the purpose of pooling the allocations
and establish a Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs
Assistance Program for those counties.
5) Requires each program established under this
chapter to do all of the following:
a. Solicit proposals from nonprofit
organizations for the purpose of providing basic
material needs assistance to homeless youth in
the manner directed by the administering entity,
subject to any requirements imposed by this
chapter.
b. Contract with one or more nonprofit
organizations to participate in the program based
on the proposals solicited under subdivision (a).
Selection shall be based on the nonprofit
organization's demonstrated ability to meet the
goals of the program, including, but not limited
to, an ability to form partnerships with local
education agencies (LEAs).
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c. Require each nonprofit organization
contracted under subdivision (b) to do all of the
following:
i. Assist homeless youth through
partnerships with LEAs, which shall be
formed to provide basic material needs
assistance to homeless youth.
ii. Give priority to providing
school supplies and dental supplies and
other hygienic products to homeless youth.
iii. Consult with the children and
family commission of the county or counties
served by the program to determine how to
best provide basic material needs assistance
to homeless youth from birth to 5 years of
age, inclusive, if the administering entity
elects to include homeless youth of that age
in its program.
d. Encourage each nonprofit organization to
provide at least a 20-percent match for all
moneys received from the administering entity
under this chapter and work with the homeless
liaison or liaisons of each LEA or their
LEA-employed designee.
FISCAL IMPACT
The Assembly Committee on Appropriations estimates this
bill will result in ongoing costs to CDSS in the range of
$100,000 to $200,000 to allocate the money to the counties.
Additionally, the committee projected unknown, but likely
significant costs (GF) to DSS to establish and administer
programs in counties that do not operate their own
programs.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Purpose of the bill:
According to the author, this bill fulfills an unmet need
for homeless children to receive basic material items that
currently are not provided through existing support
programs for homeless families. This bill would establish a
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policy to allocate resources through CDSS to county welfare
agencies to contract with local nonprofit community
organizations to distribute needed basic items to children
who are identified as homeless through the school system.
Money would be allocated to counties based on the number of
identified homeless children who reside there.
According to the bill's sponsor, children who do not have
backpacks, school supplies, basic hygiene items and other
essentials to feel comfortable in school are less likely to
attend school. Although a number of nonprofit organizations
provide different materials to students, the type and
amount vary widely and no current statewide program is in
place to provide those essential material items to
children.
Homeless children
According to data provided by the state Department of
Education, there were nearly 270,000 homeless school
children in the 2012-13 educational year, with nearly a
quarter of them living in Los Angeles County. Of the
state's homeless children, more than 80 percent, or 224,161
children, 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.
While larger concentrations of homeless children are in
Southern California, including Orange, Riverside and San
Bernardino Counties, there was more significant growth in
the Central Valley over recent years. In Sacramento County,
there were 12,000 homeless children attending kindergarten
through 12th grades. The bill's sponsor, K to College,
reports a conservative estimate of 30,000 more children in
preschool, including those living in motels, shelters,
cars, and garages and those without permanent fixed
addresses.
Nationally, homeless student enrollment data in the 2011-12
school year from the U.S. Department of Education's
Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program show a
nearly 25 percent increase from the 2009-10 school year:
from 940,000 students to nearly 1.2 million.
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Supportive services
Passed in 1987, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act
was the first significant piece of federal legislation to
address homelessness. In addition to providing funding for
shelters, it created an interagency council on homelessness
to focus on coordination at all levels of government and
within the nonprofit system. It also ensures homeless
children are able to attend their school of origin, have
free transportation to and from school, enroll in school
even without all required paperwork and provides other
rights. The act requires school districts to appoint local
educational liaisons for homeless children.
While other social services programs may have small
components that address homelessness, including the
CalWORKs assistance program, the primary source of support
for homeless children is through the local education
agencies and the McKinney-Vento funding.
Related legislation
SB 761 (DeSaulnier) 2014 requires the state Department of
Education to designate a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization
to use the School Supplies for Homeless Children Fund to
provide school supplies and health-related products to
local education agencies for distribution to homeless
children, and to provide a 100 percent match for all funds
received.
SB 1571 (DeSaulnier) Chapter 459, Statutes of 2012,
established the School Supplies for Homeless Children Fund
and tax check off to provide school supplies to homeless
children through a competitive grant program.
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 if the products and
services are provided to public school students at no cost
to the students or their families.
PRIOR VOTES
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Assembly Floor 78 - 0
Assembly Appropriations 13 - 0
Assembly Human Services 5 - 0
POSITIONS
Support: Alameda County Board of Supervisors
California Catholic Conference of Bishops
County Welfare Directors Association of
California
Oppose: None received.
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