Bill Text

Bill Information


Bill PDF |Add To My Favorites |Track Bill | print page

AB-799 Homelessness: financing plan.(2023-2024)

SHARE THIS:share this bill in Facebookshare this bill in Twitter
Date Published: 09/02/2023 04:00 AM
AB799:v95#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  September 01, 2023
Amended  IN  Senate  July 03, 2023
Amended  IN  Senate  June 22, 2023
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 19, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 799

Introduced by Assembly Members Luz Rivas, Friedman, Quirk-Silva, Ward, and Wilson
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Wendy Carrillo, Gabriel, Garcia, Kalra, Pellerin, and Schiavo)
(Coauthors: Senators Blakespear and Wahab)

February 13, 2023

An act to add Section 8257.3 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to housing.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 799, as amended, Luz Rivas. Homelessness: financing plan.
Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California by creating partnerships between federal, state, local, and nonprofit entities. Existing law requires the coordinating council to conduct, or contract with an entity to conduct, a statewide assessment to identify state programs that provide housing or services to persons experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, as defined, and collect and analyze data to provide a comprehensive view of the homeless response system.
This bill would require the council, in collaboration with continuums of care, counties, and big cities, as defined, and other stakeholders, to establish and regularly update a financing plan to solve homelessness by the year 2035. The bill would require the council to establish and update statewide performance metrics to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in homelessness and to increase successful exits from homelessness to permanent housing by updating the Statewide Action Plan for Preventing and Ending Homelessness in California, no later than January 1, 2025, and would require the council to publish these goals on its internet website, as specified. The bill would additionally require the council, in collaboration with other departments, to create a unified funding application aligning the timeline and application requirements for various state funding programs, including the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, no later than January 1, 2026, as specified.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares the following:
(a) California has the largest number of residents experiencing homelessness, with over 171,000 people experiencing homelessness on a given night, almost 30 percent of the nation’s number, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report.
(b) The vast majority of people experiencing homelessness in California are from California or lived in California for years before becoming homeless.
(c) A disproportionate number of Black and Indigenous Californians experience homelessness, and recent homeless data shows rapid rises of homelessness among Latinx Californians. Forty-five percent of Californians experiencing homelessness report a disabling condition.
(d) Homelessness is solvable with sustained investments in proven solutions for solving homelessness to the people of the State of California.
(e) Accountability in reducing homelessness and the number of Californians living unsheltered must begin with long-term state planning that sets state-level goals, along with collaboration between state, local, tribal, and federal entities in achieving those goals.
(f) The federal government has set a goal in their federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, published by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness in December 2022, to reduce homelessness by 25 percent by 2025.
(g) In determining whether recipients are using money effectively, the state must achieve transparency in how recipients are spending state funding and progress toward achieving state goals.
(h) To achieve reductions in homelessness, the state must ensure funding prioritizes evidence-based and data-informed solutions to homelessness through permanent housing placements and reducing racial disparities in housing outcomes.

SEC. 2.

 Section 8257.3 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:

8257.3.
 (a) In collaboration with continuums of care, counties, big cities, as defined in Section 50209 of the Health and Safety Code, and other stakeholders, including people with lived experiences of homelessness, the council, through the State Funding and Programs Working Group, Racial Equity Working Group, Youth and Young Adults Working Group, and an advisory committee, shall establish and regularly update a financing plan to solve homelessness by the year 2035, to include funding necessary to create enough housing to meet the unmet housing needs of people experiencing or expected to experience homelessness. The financing plan shall include anticipated state and local investments, and shall incorporate an analysis of state funding necessary to ensure contracts provide for the full cost of delivering required services and projects, including allowing for compensation and employee benefit packages that support competitive salaries and annual cost-of-living increases, and investments in career pathway programs to address workforce capacity.
(b) No later than January 1, 2025, in collaboration with continuums of care, counties, big cities, as defined in Section 50209 of the Health and Safety Code, and other stakeholders, the council shall establish and update statewide performance metrics to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in homelessness and to increase successful exits from homelessness to permanent housing by updating the Statewide Action Plan for Preventing and Ending Homelessness in California. The council shall establish these statewide performance metrics based on what is achievable with current and expected state, federal, and local investment. The council shall publish these goals on its internet website and update progress toward the goals annually.

(c)(1)The council, in collaboration with other departments, shall create a unified funding application aligning the timeline and application requirements for the state funding allocated to local governments, as described in paragraph (2), no later than January 1, 2026, through leadership from the State Funding and Programs Working Group. The application may be used by other state homelessness prevention programs. The council shall report to the Assembly Committees on Housing and Community Development and Human Services and the Senate Committees on Housing and Human Services on any statutory changes needed to enact the unified funding application, no later than December 31, 2024.

(2)For purposes of paragraph (1), “state funding” includes all of the following:

(A)The Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program (Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 50216) of Part 1 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code).

(B)The Encampment Resolution Funding Program (Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 50250) of Part 1 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code).

(C)The Family Homelessness Challenge Grants and Technical Assistance Program (Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 50255) of Part 1 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code).

(D)The Multifamily Housing Program, commonly known as Homekey (Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section 50675.1.1) of Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code).

(E)The Community Care Expansion Program (Chapter 20 (commencing with Section 18999.97) of Part 6 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code).

(F)The Behavioral Health Bridge Housing Program (Provision 17 of Item 4260-101-0001 of the Budget Act of 2022).