Bill Text: CA AB589 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Homeless youth: transitional housing.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2024-01-25 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB589 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB589-Amended.html
Bill Title: Homeless youth: transitional housing.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2024-01-25 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB589 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB589-Amended.html
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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 589
| Introduced by Assembly Member Boerner (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bonta, Jackson, McCarty, Ward, and Zbur) (Coauthors: Senators Blakespear, Padilla, and Wiener) |
February 09, 2023 |
An act to add and repeal Chapter 6.1 (commencing with Section 13710) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to homelessness.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 589, as amended, Boerner.
Homeless youth: transitional housing.
Existing law establishes homeless youth emergency service pilot projects in the City of Los Angeles and the City and County of San Francisco providing services to homeless minors, including food and access to an overnight shelter and counseling to address immediate emotional crises or problems. Existing law also requires similar programs to be established in the Counties of San Diego and Santa Clara, and all of these programs to be operated by an agency in accordance with a grant award agreement with the Office of Emergency Services.
Existing law requires the Governor to create the California Interagency Council on Homelessness and specifies the duties of the council. Existing law requires agencies and departments administering state programs to collaborate with the council to adopt guidelines and regulations to incorporate core components of
Housing First, which include, among other things, a tenant screening process that accepts applicants regardless of sobriety, not rejecting applicants based on poor credit or financial history, and prohibiting participation in services or program compliance from being a requirement for permanent housing.
This bill, until January 1, 2027, and upon appropriation by the Legislature for these purposes, would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to establish the Unicorn Homes Transitional Housing for Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth Program, to be administered by local community-based organizations that provide a majority of its services to the LGBTQ+ community. The bill would require the department to fund community-based organizations in the participating Counties of San Diego and Sacramento that provide transitional housing for LGBTQ+ youth, 18 to 24 years of age, inclusive, experiencing homelessness due to family rejection, with the ultimate goal of
reunification with the youth’s original family. The bill would require the community-based organization to place eligible youth with volunteer host families who meet specified criteria, pursuant to the results of a background check, and who are able to provide crisis intervention with a trauma-informed approach, as defined, to their care. The bill would also require the program to comply with the existing core components of Housing First.
The bill would require each community-based organization to prepare and submit an annual report to the department, with the first report due on or before December 1, 2024, and a final report due on or before June 30, 2026, which would be required to include specified information, including the number of times the organization was contacted by youths, how many of those contacts became participants in the program, and how many of those initial contacts became repeat contacts. The bill would also require the department to compile the
annual reports into a final report, to be submitted to the Legislature on or before December 31, 2026.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Chapter 6.1 (commencing with Section 13710) is added to Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:CHAPTER 6.1. Unicorn Homes Transitional Housing for Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth Program
13710.
To the extent that an appropriation is made by the Legislature for these purposes, the Department of Housing and Community Development shall establish the Unicorn Homes Transitional Housing for Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth Program as a three-year pilot program. The program shall be administered by local community-based organizations providing a majority of their services to the LGBTQ+ community in the Counties of San Diego and Sacramento.13711.
The program shall meet all of the following requirements:(a) Fund the community-based organizations providing emergency transitional housing for LGBTQ+ youth between 18 and 24 years of age, inclusive, experiencing homelessness due to family rejection, with the ultimate goal of the program being
reunification with the youth’s family when possible.
(b) Place eligible youths with volunteer host families. Any individual in the host family who is 18 years of age or older and with whom the youth would be living shall meet all of the following criteria, pursuant to the results of a background check conducted via Live Scan:
(1) Has not been convicted of driving under the influence within the past 10 years.
(2) Has not been convicted of a crime for which registration is required pursuant to under Section 290 of the Penal Code.
(3) Has not been convicted of domestic violence, child abuse, or human trafficking.
(4) Has not been convicted of a violent felony as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5 of the Penal Code.
(c) Place eligible youths with families who are able to provide crisis intervention with a trauma-informed approach to their care.
(d) Comply with the core components of Housing First outlined in subdivision (b) of Section 8255.
(e) For purposes of this section, a “trauma-informed approach” includes all of the following:
(1) Ensuring the physical
and emotional safety of the youth by understanding, recognizing, and responding to the effects of trauma.
(2) Preventing retraumatization to ensure that the youths feel physically, psychologically, and emotionally safe in their placement with a host family.
(3) Demonstrating trustworthiness and transparency when making decisions with the aim to build and maintain trust between the host family and the youth placed in their care.
(4) Leveling power differences for shared decisionmaking by ensuring that those impacted by decisions have a voice in the decisionmaking process.
(5) Empowering the youths to build on their strengths and identify strategies that
will help them heal from trauma.
13712.
(a) Each community-based organization that receives funding shall prepare an annual report, to be submitted to the Department of Housing and Community Development on or before December 31, 2024, and December 31, 2025, with the final report due on or before June 30, 2026. The report shall contain the following information, to the extent available:(1) The number of times the community-based organization was contacted by an LGBTQ+ youth potentially eligible for the program created by this chapter.
(2) How many of those initial contacts became participants in the program.
(3) How many of those initial contacts became repeat contacts.
(4) How many of those initial contacts were referred to other resources and services.
(5) How many of those initial contacts left the program for permanent housing.
(b) The Department of Housing and Community Development shall compile the annual reports into a final report to be submitted to the Legislature on or before December 31, 2026. A report to be submitted pursuant to under this section shall be submitted in compliance
with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
