Bill Text: CA SB123 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: California Runaway, Homeless, and Exploited Youth Act.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-01-31 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB123 Detail]

Download: California-2011-SB123-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 123	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Liu
   (Coauthor: Senator Lowenthal)
   (Coauthor: Assembly Member Beall)

                        JANUARY 25, 2011

   An act to add Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 2110) to Division
2.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to runaway and
homeless youth.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 123, as introduced, Liu. California Runaway, Homeless, and
Exploited Youth Act.
   Existing law establishes the Runaway Youth and Families in Crises
Project, and imposes certain administrative duties on the California
Emergency Management Agency relating to the operation of that
project. Existing law requires the state advisory group established
pursuant to the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Act of 1974 to perform specified functions relating to the collection
and dissemination of information relating to homeless youth.
   This bill would enact the California Runaway, Homeless, and
Exploited Youth Act, and would require the California Emergency
Management Agency to provide information, coordination, and support
services to public and private entities serving runaway, homeless,
and exploited youth. The bill would also require the agency to
develop a statewide plan for runaway, homeless, and exploited youth,
as specified, and to present this plan to the Legislature by January
1, 2013. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Providing services to runaway, homeless, and exploited youth
is extremely challenging due to the need for services in a great
number of diverse, yet overlapping, areas such as education, housing,
employment, community support, family support and reunification,
health care, and counseling.
   (b) Despite the fact that more than 200,000 unaccompanied
children, between 12 and 17 years of age, experience homelessness
each year in California, the state has no clear and coordinated
policy to reduce youth homelessness.
   (c) Research has shown that runaway, homeless, and exploited youth
are at great risk for physical abuse, sexual exploitation, mental
health disabilities, chemical or alcohol dependency, and death.
   (d) The cost of youth homelessness to the State of California is
also considerable. Youth who experience homelessness are
disproportionately likely to be arrested and incarcerated as adults,
costing California taxpayers over fifty thousand dollars ($50,000)
per inmate in 2010.
   (e) Worsening matters is the current economic recession, which has
expanded youth homelessness by limiting employment opportunities for
youth. As of July 2010, unemployment among transition-age youth
reached 49 percent, the highest level since the Bureau of Labor
Statistics began collecting data in 1948.
   (f) While the California Emergency Management Agency is the state
agency that administers programming related to youth homelessness and
exploitation, it does so without a strong mandate or clear vision as
to how its activities and funding will significantly impact youth
homelessness in California. It is also limited by a budget of just
three hundred fifty-six thousand dollars ($356,000) per year, as of
2010, to serve all of California's homeless youth.
   (g) The issues that face runaway, homeless, and exploited youth
are so diverse, there is a great need for cooperation among private
nonprofit entities and public entities serving these youth to break
down barriers and provide more seamless, collaborative, and effective
services.
   (h) In the public sector, there is an additional need for enhanced
cooperation among the departments of corrections, education, health
care policy and financing, human services, public safety, public
health, and the judiciary to more fully serve homeless and exploited
youth.
   (i) To address this serious issue, it is imperative that the state
make an explicit commitment to ending youth homelessness and
exploitation. It must ascertain the extent of the problem, our
capacity to solve it, the cost of ending youth homelessness, and
potential sources of necessary revenue.
  SEC. 2.  Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 2110) is added to
Division 2.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:
      CHAPTER 4.  CALIFORNIA RUNAWAY, HOMELESS, AND EXPLOITED YOUTH
ACT


   2110.  This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the
California Runaway, Homeless, and Exploited Youth Act.
   2111.  For purposes of this chapter:
   (a) "Exploited youth" means an individual under 18 years of age
who is trafficked or prostituted, involved in pornography or
stripping, a victim of rape or incest, or engaged in survival sex,
which is the exchange of sex for money or other consideration, such
as food or shelter, in order to ensure his or her survival.
   (b) "Homeless youth" means an individual under 18 years of age who
is unable to live in a safe environment with a relative and lacks
safe alternative living arrangements, or an individual under 24 years
of age who is without shelter.
   (c) "Runaway youth" means a nonemancipated individual under 18
years of age who leaves his or her home or a place of legal residence
without the permission of a parent or legal guardian.
   2112.  (a) The California Emergency Management Agency shall
provide information, coordination, and support services to public and
private entities serving runaway, homeless, and exploited youth.
   (b) The agency shall develop a statewide plan for runaway,
homeless, and exploited youth, and shall present this plan to the
Legislature by January 1, 2013. In developing this plan, the agency
shall do all of the following:
   (1) Determine the statewide demand for shelter, housing, and
supportive services for runaway, homeless and exploited youth.
   (2) Identify data and outcome measures from which to evaluate
public investment in runaway, homeless, and exploited youth services.

   (3) Propose a consistent revenue stream from state government to
meet the demand for shelter, housing, and services for these youth.
   (4) Examine the federal definition of "status offender" and make
legislative recommendations regarding the relevant sections of state
law.
   (5) Specify the role of the child welfare system in preventing and
addressing homelessness for minors experiencing abuse and neglect.
   (6) Specify the role of law enforcement in responding to runaway
youth.
   (c) When developing the statewide plan pursuant to subdivision
(b), the agency shall utilize an open planning process that engages
stakeholders statewide, including runaway, homeless, and exploited
youth, parents, homeless youth service providers, advocates, and
researchers, and representatives of interested state agencies.
   (d) The agency shall administratively interpret the provisions of
this chapter, in consultation with the State Department of Social
Services, the State Department of Education, the Department of
Housing and Community Development, the State Department of Mental
Health, and any other state department that may be appropriate.