BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1593
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 9, 2000
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Alan Lowenthal, Chair
SB 1593 (Burton) - As Proposed to be Amended: August 9, 2000
SENATE VOTE : Not relevant.
SUBJECT : Housing programs: homeless
SUMMARY : Makes changes to various programs within the
Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for the
benefit of homeless persons. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires HCD to evaluate and report on the number of
successful applications funded within the Multifamily Housing
Program for each applicant type and make adjustments to the
award process, if needed, to ensure an equitable distribution
of awards among applicant types, including hard-to-serve
special needs populations.
2)States legislative intent to encourage coordination among
public agencies that fund or provide services to homeless
individuals and agencies that discharge people from their
institutions (i.e., child welfare agencies, health care
programs, and jails and prisons.
3)States legislative intent to increase the availability of
year-round shelter to meet the special needs of people who are
unable or unwilling to comply with traditional housing
programs.
4)Defines a "safe haven" as supportive housing for seriously
mentally ill homeless persons with substance addictions that
have been unwilling or unable to participate in high demand
housing programs.
5)Requires providers of emergency shelter or transitional
housing to provide adequate facilities within their range of
services so that all members of a family may be housed
together regardless of gender or age, to the greatest extent
feasible.
6)Requires Emergency Housing And Assistance Program (EHAP) funds
allocated to nonurban counties that are not expended after two
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fiscal years, to be allocated to an urban county in the
following year.
7)Requires HCD to consider increasing maximum EHAP grant limits
to $300,000 for operating grants and $500,000 for capital
grants.
8)Increases the amount any eligible organization within a region
may receive in an EHAP funding round from $500,000 to
$1,000,000.
9)Provides that eligible designated local boards may use a
percentage of the regional award funds for administrative
costs.
10)Requires HCD to determine the percentage of regional award
funds that designated local boards may use for administrative
costs, but limits the amount to no more than 2%.
11)Requires designated local boards to include a statement of
how the priorities in their local shelter strategy will
complement the local continuum of care planning process.
12)Requires designated local boards to include a statement of
how grant recipients will be encouraged to develop year-round
emergency shelters and transitional housing for various
populations including families, youth, physical and mentally
disabled persons, substance addicted persons, persons living
with HIV/AIDS, the elderly and pregnant women.
13)Requires the designated board to describe how the local plan
serves the needs of individuals and families at risk of
homelessness as a result of eviction.
14)Adds veterans to the list of low-income individuals included
in the target population for the Supportive Housing Program.
15)Adds the Tax Credit Allocation Committee to the list or
directors of various state agencies participating in the
Supportive Housing Program Council.
16)Provides that grants from funds transferred to HCD and
awarded for housing costs may be awarded for a period not to
exceed 15 years.
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17)Provides that recipients of grants awarded from the
Supportive Housing program shall provide $1.50 in matching
funds for each $1 awarded in the third and subsequent years.
18)Requires lead agencies in the Supportive Housing Grants
Program to give preference to proposals that demonstrate
linkages to programs established under the Adult and Older
Adult Mental Health System of Care Act or other integrated
services projects supported with state and local government
funds.
19)Allows up to 5% of the funds in the supportive housing
initiative to be used for administrative costs.
20)Requires a report to be prepared by the lead agency that
receives funding under the Supportive Housing Initiative Act
and requires the report to include:
a) the number of persons housed pursuant to the program.
b) the extent of housing stability.
c) demographics of the persons housed pursuant to the
program, such as veterans, persons with mental illness,
people with substance abuse histories, single adults, and
families with children.
d) the counties in which the housing is located.
e) the changes in income levels of those housed.
f) improvements in health status, to the extent available.
EXISTING LAW
1)Provides the Emergency Housing and Assistance Program that
allocates funds to counties on a formula grant basis to
provide a variety of services such as providing emergency
shelter or transitional housing, supervising and counseling
clients, and providing residential rental assistance or
housing vouchers (Health and Safety Code Section 50800 et
seq.)
2)Provides the Statewide Supportive Housing Initiative Act that
awards competitive grants to either local or nonprofit
agencies that provide integrated housing and support services
to very low-income Californians (Health and Safety Code
Section 53250 et seq.).
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3)Provides the Multifamily Housing Program that provides
deferred payment loans to fund project for the development and
construction of new, and rehabilitation of transitional or
rental housing developments (Health and Safety Code Section
50675 et seq.).
4)Requires HCD to evaluate applications for funding based on
weighted underwriting and evaluative criteria that give
consideration to projects that meet specific criteria such as:
a) Serving low-income households,
b) Addressing the most serious identified local housing
needs,
c) Containing a significant percentage of units for
families or special needs populations (Health and Safety
Code Section 50675.7).
FISCAL EFFECT : Unkown
COMMENTS :
Background
This bill seeks to implement some of the recommendations of the
Senate Task Force on Homelessness that are contained in the
final report, released in June 2000. The task force examined a
variety of state and federal programs that have some contact
with the homeless population and from that they made a set of
recommendations as to how California might improve its funding
and services for the homeless.
The task force was convened by the Senate Pro Tem John Burton
and Senator Ross Johnson. It was made up of 17 members
representing private, public and nonprofit sectors, the
faith-based community, as well as client advocacy organizations
and service providers.
Scope of the homeless problem in California
Due to the inherent difficulty in counting the homeless, there
are many estimates on the number of homeless persons in
California. According to HCD's 1990-97 Statewide Housing Plan
Update, there are approximately 360,000 homeless people in the
state. HCD acknowledges that this figure should be taken as a
broad minimum measure. The nonprofit organization Housing
California estimated in 1997 that California's homeless
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population was 972,000.
HCD states that while homeless individuals and families are
present in every county, the greatest concentrations in both
number and share of population were centered in metropolitan
areas, particularly in the largest urban centers such as Los
Angeles and San Francisco.
According to HCD, nearly two-thirds of the homeless are
individuals, with about 37% of the population in families.
Local facilities to assist these individuals and families are
insufficient to meet overall need. Local sources estimate that
there is a sufficient inventory of available facilities to meet
the needs of only about one in six homeless individuals and only
one in five homeless families.
Adult Systems of Care Pilot Projects
This bill requires lead agencies in the Supportive Housing
Grants Program to give preference to proposals that demonstrate
linkages to programs established under the Adult and Older Adult
Mental Health System of Care Act or other integrated services
projects supported with state and local government funds.
The Adult and Older Adult Mental Health System of Care Act pilot
projects were enacted by AB 34 (Steinberg), Chapter 617,
Statutes of 1999. The 1999-00 state budget provided $10 million
for AB 34 pilot programs directed at serving homeless persons,
parolees, and probationers who are seriously and persistently
mentally ill. The bill required that three selected counties
implement pilot programs which use intensive, integrated
community outreach and a variety of services to target the
individual needs of those persons who are either homeless, at
risk of homelessness, or at risk of incarceration.
Three counties were awarded allocations under the AB 34 pilot
program: Los Angeles County received $4.8 million, Stanislaus
County received $1.9 million and Sacramento County received $2.8
million.
The Department of Mental Health reported the results of the
first year of the program to the Legislature on May 1, 2000. The
Department found that the effect of the intensive, integrated
outreach and community-based services was to enable the target
population to reduce symptoms that impaired their ability to
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live independently, work, maintain community supports, care for
their children, remain healthy, and avoid crime.
Funding for housing programs in the 2000-01 budget
Emergency Housing and Assistance Program: In the past two fiscal
years, EHAP has had a $2 million operating budget. In the
2000-01 budget the Legislature appropriated $35 million to
support the program. The funds will be divided between
operating grants ($10 million) and capital grants ($25 million).
Multifamily Housing Program: The 2000-01 budget provides $177
million for support of the Multifamily Housing Program. The
first Notice of Funds Available for this program, which was
established by SB 1121 (Alarcon), Chapter 637, Statutes of 1999,
will be issued before the end of the year.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Western Center on Law and Poverty
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Chereesse Thymes / H. & C.D. /
(916)319-2085