Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to provide grant funds to cities, continuums of care, and tribes in 5 rounds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the effort of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Existing law requires, to be eligible for a round 5 base program allocation, a jurisdiction that is not a tribe to apply as part of a region and to be signatory to a regionally coordinated homelessness action plan that has been approved by the council. Existing law requires the regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to include, among other things, an explanation of how each participating jurisdiction is utilizing local, state, and federal funding programs to end homelessness.

Existing law establishes the Encampment Resolution Funding program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to increase collaboration between the council, local jurisdictions, and continuums of care for specified purposes. Existing law requires the council to award moneys pursuant to the program as competitive grants, as specified, to be used to support encampment resolution and rehousing efforts for local jurisdictions. Existing law requires the council to prioritize funding applicants that demonstrate a commitment to cross-systems collaboration and innovative efforts to resolve encampment issues or have 50 or more individuals living in the encampment.

This bill would require the above-described regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to additionally include evidence and an explanation by a continuum of care that shares geographic boundaries with a city, county, or city and county that is using state funding allocated pursuant to the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program or is receiving state funding pursuant to the Encampment Resolution Funding program to provide services or housing for place-based encampment resolution, of collaboration with the city, county, or city and county that addresses how people served through encampment resolution have or will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems.

Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to provide grant funds to cities, continuums of care, and tribes in 5 rounds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the effort of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Existing law requires, to be eligible for a round 5 base program allocation, a jurisdiction that is not a tribe to apply as part of a region and to be signatory to a regionally coordinated homelessness action plan that has been approved by the council. Existing law requires the regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to include, among other things, an explanation of how each participating jurisdiction is utilizing local, state, and federal funding programs to end homelessness.

Existing law establishes the Encampment Resolution Funding program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to increase collaboration between the council, local jurisdictions, and continuums of care for specified purposes. Existing law requires the council to award moneys pursuant to the program as competitive grants, as specified, to be used to support encampment resolution and rehousing efforts for local jurisdictions. Existing law requires the council to prioritize funding applicants that demonstrate a commitment to cross-systems collaboration and innovative efforts to resolve encampment issues or have 50 or more individuals living in the encampment.

This bill would require the above-described regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to additionally include evidence and an explanation by a continuum of care that shares geographic boundaries with a city, county, or city and county that is using state funding allocated pursuant to the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program or is receiving state funding pursuant to the Encampment Resolution Funding program to provide services or housing for place-based encampment resolution, of collaboration with the city, county, or city and county that addresses how people served through encampment resolution have or will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems.

Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to provide grant funds to cities, continuums of care, and tribes in 5 rounds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the effort of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Existing law requires that for an applicant to receive a round 4 program allocation to submit an application to the council that includes, among other information, a local homelessness action plan based on specified data. requires, to be eligible for a round 5 base program allocation, a jurisdiction that is not a tribe to apply as part of a region and to be signatory to a regionally coordinated homelessness action plan that has been approved by the council. Existing law requires the regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to include, among other things, an explanation of how each participating jurisdiction is utilizing local, state, and federal funding programs to end homelessness.

Existing law establishes the Encampment Resolution Funding program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to increase collaboration between the council, local jurisdictions, and continuums of care for specified purposes. Existing law requires the council to award moneys pursuant to the program as competitive grants, as specified, to be used to support encampment resolution and rehousing efforts for local jurisdictions. Existing law requires the council to prioritize funding applicants that demonstrate a commitment to cross-systems collaboration and innovative efforts to resolve encampment issues or have 50 or more individuals living in the encampment.

This bill would require the above-described regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to additionally include evidence and an explanation by a continuum of care that shares geographic boundaries with a city, county, or city and county that is using state funding allocated pursuant to the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program or is receiving state funding pursuant to the Encampment Resolution Funding program to submit evidence provide services or housing for place-based encampment resolution, of collaboration with the city, county, or city and county that addresses how people served through encampment resolution have or will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems.

Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to provide grant funds to cities, continuums of care, and tribes to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the effort of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Existing law requires that for an applicant to receive a round 4 program allocation to submit an application to the council that includes, among other information, a local homelessness action plan based on specified data.

Existing law establishes the Encampment Resolution Funding program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to increase collaboration between the council, local jurisdictions, and continuums of care for specified purposes. Existing law requires the council to award moneys pursuant to the program as competitive grants, as specified, to be used to support encampment resolution and rehousing efforts for local jurisdictions. Existing law requires the council to prioritize funding applicants that demonstrate a commitment to cross-systems collaboration and innovative efforts to resolve encampment issues or have 50 or more individuals living in the encampment.

This bill would require a continuum of care that shares geographic boundaries with a city, county, or city and county that is using state funding allocated pursuant to the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program or the Encampment Resolution Funding program to submit evidence of collaboration with the city, county, or city and county that addresses how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems.

Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to provide grant funds to cities, continuums of care, and tribes to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the effort of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Existing law requires that for an applicant to receive a round 4 program allocation to submit an application to the council that includes, among other information, a local homelessness action plan based on specified data.

This bill would require an applicant, beginning with round 4 of the program, to submit evidence that a city, county, or city and county has developed and approved policies or has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the continuums of care with which they share geographic boundaries that specifies how referrals to permanent housing and other resources will be prioritized through the local coordinated entry system for people living in homeless encampments. a continuum of care that shares geographic boundaries with a city, county, or city and county that is using state funding allocated pursuant to the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program or the Encampment Resolution Funding program to submit evidence of collaboration with the city, county, or city and county that addresses how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems.

Existing law, the Zenovich-Moscone-Chacon Housing and Home Finance Act, states that the Legislature finds and declares that the subject of housing is of vital statewide importance to the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the state for specified reasons.

This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to those provisions.

CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS

CSA1 Bill Id:AB 1285

Author:(Wicks)

As Amended Ver:August 31, 2023

Majority vote

SUMMARY

Requires continuums of care (CoCs) that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated pursuant to round five of the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program or the Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding to additionally include in their regionally coordinated homelessness action plans evidence and an explanation of their collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution have or will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems (CESs).

Senate Amendments

Move the requirements of the bill to round five of the HHAP funding application.

COMMENTS

Cities can apply for ERP funds to mitigate encampments. As part of the program, they are required to demonstrate how they intend to use the funds to connect all individuals living in the encampment to services and housing. Cities face challenges in moving people into temporary or permanent housing because the mechanism for prioritizing people for housing is the CES. Unless the city has housing units or resources that they control and can use to house people from encampments, individuals need to be funneled through the CES system.

CES should remain an unbiased tool for housing people based on their need; however, to facilitate better coordination among the state's resources for addressing homelessness, there should be some ability to coordinate between cities that are using either HHAP or ERP funds to move people out of encampments into temporary or permanent housing through CES. This bill would require cities, counties, and CoCs to develop a process for prioritizing people living in encampments for permanent housing in the CES. Cities, counties, and CoCs applying for HHAP round four funding and future rounds would be required to develop an MOU or policies that prioritize people in encampments for permanent housing in the CES.

According to the Author

"Homelessness is one of the most challenging and complex social issues facing our state. The state is providing unprecedented resources to address the crises through the HHAP, Home Key, and the ERP. This bill helps to ensure greater coordination of these programs by requiring CoCs, cities, can counties to consider how referrals to permanent housing through the CES can prioritize people living in encampments for permanent housing."

Arguments in Support

According to the sponsor, the City of Berkeley, the city received funding for a Homekey project to acquire the Golden Bear Inn but could not use the units to move people from People's Park because Homekey requires that units be filled using the CES referrals. This challenge illustrates the need for some additional coordination in CES for individuals in encampments.

Arguments in Opposition

None on file.

FISCAL COMMENTS

According to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations: The California Interagency Council on Homelessness (CA-ICH) anticipates minor and absorbable costs.

VOTES:

ASM HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: 6-0-2

YES: Wicks, Wendy Carrillo, Gabriel, Kalra, Quirk-Silva, Sanchez

ABS, ABST OR NV: Joe Patterson, Ward

ASM APPROPRIATIONS: 15-0-1

YES: Holden, Megan Dahle, Bryan, Calderon, Wendy Carrillo, Dixon, Mike Fong, Hart, Lowenthal, Mathis, Papan, Pellerin, Robert Rivas, Sanchez, Ortega

ABS, ABST OR NV: Weber

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0-4

YES: Addis, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Juan Carrillo, Wendy Carrillo, Cervantes, Chen, Connolly, Megan Dahle, Davies, Dixon, Essayli, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Garcia, Gipson, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Hoover, Irwin, Jackson, Jones‑Sawyer, Lackey, Lee, Low, Lowenthal, Maienschein, McCarty, McKinnor, Muratsuchi, Stephanie Nguyen, Ortega, Pacheco, Jim Patterson, Joe Patterson, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Quirk‑Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Soria, Ta, Ting, Valencia, Villapudua, Waldron, Wallis, Ward, Weber, Wicks, Wilson, Wood, Zbur, Rendon

ABS, ABST OR NV: Aguiar-Curry, Kalra, Mathis, Papan

SENATE FLOOR: 40-0-0

YES: Allen, Alvarado-Gil, Archuleta, Ashby, Atkins, Becker, Blakespear, Bradford, Caballero, Cortese, Dahle, Dodd, Durazo, Eggman, Glazer, Gonzalez, Grove, Hurtado, Jones, Laird, Limón, McGuire, Menjivar, Min, Newman, Nguyen, Niello, Ochoa Bogh, Padilla, Portantino, Roth, Rubio, Seyarto, Skinner, Smallwood-Cuevas, Stern, Umberg, Wahab, Wiener, Wilk

SENATE FLOOR: 38-0-2

YES: Allen, Alvarado-Gil, Archuleta, Ashby, Atkins, Becker, Blakespear, Bradford, Caballero, Cortese, Dahle, Dodd, Durazo, Glazer, Gonzalez, Grove, Hurtado, Jones, Limón, McGuire, Menjivar, Min, Newman, Nguyen, Niello, Ochoa Bogh, Padilla, Portantino, Roth, Rubio, Seyarto, Skinner, Smallwood-Cuevas, Stern, Umberg, Wahab, Wiener, Wilk

ABS, ABST OR NV: Eggman, Laird

UPDATED

VERSION: August 31, 2023

CONSULTANT: Lisa Engel / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085 FN: 0001895

 THIRD READING  

Bill No: AB 1285

Author: Wicks (D)

Amended: 8/31/23 in Senate

Vote: 21

SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/19/23

AYES: Alvarado-Gil, Ochoa Bogh, Hurtado, Menjivar, Wahab

SENATE HOUSING COMMITTEE: 11-0, 7/10/23

AYES: Wiener, Ochoa Bogh, Blakespear, Caballero, Cortese, McGuire, Padilla, Seyarto, Skinner, Umberg, Wahab

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/25/23 (Consent) - See last page for vote

SUBJECT: Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program and Encampment Resolution Funding program

SOURCE: City of Berkeley

DIGEST:

This bill requires continuums of care (CoCs) that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated pursuant to round 5 of the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program or the Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding to additionally include in their regionally coordinated homelessness action plans evidence and an explanation of their collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution have or will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems (CESs).

Senate Floor Amendments of 8/31/23 remove the bill’s language from a newly created Health and Safety Code 50220.9 and instead add the new requirement language to existing Health and Safety Code 50233 for the HHAP program. The amendments also remove the allowance that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) may be used as proof of collaboration efforts of the CoC with a city or county, and remove the new requirements from round 4 of HHAP and instead make them applicable in HHAP round 5.

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. Defines “coordinated entry system (CES)” to mean a system developed for coordinating the implementation of a housing and service system within its geographic area that meets the needs of homeless individuals (including unaccompanied youth) and families and designed to coordinate homelessness program participant intake, assessment, and provision of referrals. (Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 578.7)
2. Defines, in federal statute, the word “homeless” for the purpose of housing assistance, to mean an individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, such as:
   1. 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, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground;
   2. A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state, or local government programs for low-income individuals); or
   3. Exiting an institution where he or she resided for 90 days or less and who resided in an emergency shelter or place not meant for human habitation immediately before entering that institution. (42 CFR 91.5)
3. Establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) to oversee and coordinate the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations in California, and to identify resources and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. (WIC 8255 et. seq.)
4. Sets the goals for the Cal ICH including, but not limited to, identification of resources and services to prevent and end homelessness; creating partnerships among local, state, federal entities to arrive at strategies to end homelessness; coordinating existing homelessness funding; making policy and procedural recommendations to the Legislature; and, creating a Homeless Data Integration System, as provided. (WIC 8257(b))
5. Establishes the HHAP program to provide jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing, and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. (HSC 50217)
6. Requires the Cal ICH to make an application for round four HHAP program allocations available no later than September 30, 2022, and for the Council within 30 days of receiving an application for HHAP to either approve the application or return it to the applicant with written, detailed comments and request one or more specific amendments to the application as specified. Further requires applicants, among other things, to submit a local landscape analysis, and a local homelessness action plan, as specified. (HSC 50220.8 et. seq.)
7. Establishes the ERA program to increase collaboration between the Cal ICH, local jurisdictions and CoCs to assist local jurisdictions in ensuring the safety and wellness of people experiencing homelessness in encampments, to provide encampment resolution grants to resolve critical encampment concerns and transition individuals into safe and stable housing, and encourage a data-informed, coordinated approach to address encampment concerns. (HSC 50251(a))
8. Requires the Cal ICH to distribute ERA round 1 and any additional funding rounds, as provided. (HSC 50252)
9. Requires, for a CoC to receive HHAP funding, the CoC to provide the Cal ICH data on the demographics and characteristics of the homeless populations in the jurisdiction and on current programs providing housing and homeless services, as reported to the federal government through HMIS and point-in-time counts. (HSC 50219(a)(7))
10. Requires a jurisdiction that is not a tribe, in order to be eligible for a round 5 base program allocation, to apply as part of a region and must be signatory to a regionally coordinated homelessness action plan that has been approved by the council, as specified. (HSC 50233)

This bill:

1. Requires CoCs that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated under ERP or round 5 of HHAP, in addition to existing requirements, to also include in regionally coordinated homelessness action plans evidence and an explanation of their collaboration efforts with that city or county to provide services or housing for place-based encampment resolution that specifies how people served through encampment resolution have or will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within CESs.
2. Prohibits the above changes from being interpreted to supersede or limit the federal requirements of coordinated entry systems.
3. Removes the additional requirement in 1) from round 4 of the HHAP program.
4. Removes the allowance that continuums of care may use a memorandum of understanding as evidence of collaboration with the city or county.

Background

According to the author, “Homelessness is one of the most challenging and complex social issues facing our state. The state is providing unprecedented resources to address the crises through the HHAP, Home Key, and the ERP. AB 1285 helps to ensure greater coordination of these programs by requiring CoCs, cities, can counties to consider how referrals to permanent housing through the CES can prioritize people living in encampments for permanent housing.”

California Homelessness Data. Since 2016, homelessness in America, and particularly in California, has been growing at an increasing rate. Homelessness has been correlated with a number of negative effects, including high rates of chronic disease and acute illness, a broad range of mental health and substance use issues, greater exposure to violence, malnutrition, extreme weather, and criminal charges. The health, personal, and economic challenges that chronically homeless individuals and families face and the lack of effective, coordinated services to address these problems often lead to a cycle of housing instability and health deterioration. Persistent homelessness impedes access to needed health and employment services. Additionally, the conditions of homelessness often make it more difficult to exit homelessness, by creating barriers to the resources necessary to obtain income through training, education, and employment.

Continuums of Care and the Coordinated Entry System. There are currently 44 CoCs across California’s 58 counties. CoCs are often led by a county or non-profit organization, though in some cases, they are led by a city, and are composed of a number of representative organizations that serve individuals facing homelessness. These can include nonprofit homeless providers, governments, victim service providers, hospitals, mental health agencies, affordable housing developers, and law enforcement, among others. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires CoCs to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness and enter it into a database. This is accomplished by using the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which is a local information technology system. Each CoC is responsible for selecting a HMIS software solution that complies with HUD's data collection, management, and reporting standards. HMIS in California is composed of each CoC’s database. HUD requires each CoC’s HMIS to comply with their data collection, management, and reporting standards and also requires CoCs to enter data from both the annual PIT count and annual Housing Inventory Count into HMIS.

The CES is an evidence-based strategy that focuses on housing and service coordination for people experiencing homelessness. HUD defines the CES as a “process developed to ensure that all people experiencing a housing crisis have fair and equal access and are quickly identified, assessed for, referred, and connected to housing and assistance based on their strengths and needs." In 2013, HUD began requiring recipients of federal CoC grant funding to use the CES due to its proven efficacy in a number of different communities with significant homeless populations, including CoCs in California. The HMIS holds the information of the CES participants and creates a real-time list of individuals experiencing homelessness in communities so that providers can match people to available housing resources and services to fit their needs. According to HUD, CES processes are intended to help communities prioritize people who are most in need of assistance. A CES can serve adults (age 18+), families (household with a child under age 18), and youth (age 18-24), and program services offered are tailored for people experiencing homelessness from each of these household types.

This bill requires CoCs to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county, such as an MOU, that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within CESs.

California Interagency Council on Homelessness. SB 1220 (Rivas, L., Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) renamed the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) to Cal ICH, named the secretaries of BCSH and CHHS as co-chairs of the council, and changed the membership composition from one that included a mix of state and local agencies, persons who previously experienced homelessness, and homeless advocacy groups to one composed of state departments’ and offices’ directorate, including the Departments of Rehabilitation, Aging, Social Services, State Hospitals, and the state’s Medicaid Director.

The Cal ICH is tasked to continue the work it began as HCFC, which was created by SB 1380 (Mitchell, Chapter 847, Statutes of 2016), such as coordinating the state’s response to homelessness, and creating partnerships among state agencies and departments, local government agencies, nonprofits, and federal agencies, among others. The Cal ICH is also responsible for administering and distributing funding associated with the HHAP program, for which $2.95 billion in funding allocated throughout the state to cities, counties, and CoCs to address immediate, local homelessness challenges. Cal ICH also administers the ERP.

Encampment Resolution Program. The ERP is a competitive grant program administered by the Cal ICH that provides funds to CoCs, cities, and counties to fund actionable, person-centered local proposals that resolve the experience of unsheltered homelessness for people residing in encampments. Applicants of ERP grants may apply for ERP funds to mitigate homeless encampments. The ERP requires cities to demonstrate how they intend to use the funds to connect all of the individuals living in an encampment to services, supports, and housing and also demonstrate how they will coordinate with local partners to transition those living in encampments into permanent housing solutions. Many cities face challenges moving people into temporary or permanent housing because priority for services is assessed via the CES, unless the city has housing units or resources they control and can use to house people from encampments, but most do not. The 2021-22 Budget included $50 million for ERP and $300 million in the 2022-23 Budget.

Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP). Created by AB 101 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2019), HHAP is a state funded, block grant program designed to provide jurisdictions with funding to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges. HHAP’s flexible funding is informed by a “best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing.” To date, the state has awarded four rounds of funding throughout the state to cities, counties, and CoCs to address the homeless crisis. HHAP has received $2.95 billion in funding from 2019 to 2023.

There are some concerns by observers that increased coordination is needed between local agencies receiving HHAP or ERP funding to ensure that people experiencing homelessness receive the services and supports they need in a timely, orderly manner. This bill seeks to do this by requiring CoCs that both share geographic boundaries with a city or county and are using HHAP or ERP funds, to additionally include in their regionally coordinated homelessness action plans they submit to the Cal ICH, evidence and an explanation of their collaborative efforts to provide services or housing for place-based encampment resolution, which specifies how people served through encampment resolution have or will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within CESs.

Related/Prior Legislation

AB 1413 (Ting, 2023) moves the administration of all housing homeless grant programs from Cal ICH to the Department of Housing and Community Development. The components of the bill were included in the 2023 Budget. The bill was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 140 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 111, Statutes of 2021), among other things, required Cal ICH to conduct a statewide assessment to identify state programs that provide housing or services to persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and to collect and analyze data from those programs necessary to provide a comprehensive view of the homelessness response system, as provided.

AB 1220 (Luz Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) renamed HCFC to Cal ICH, named the Secretary of Cal HHS as co-chair, reconstituted the Cal ICH membership, and required the Cal ICH to meet at least twice yearly with an advisory committee, among other things, and as provided.

AB 977 (Gabriel, Chapter 397, Statutes of 2021) required recipients of state homeless programs to enter data on the individuals and families it serves into its local HMIS beginning on January 1, 2023.

AB 101 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2019), among other things, established and provided $650 million in funding for the HHAP Program.

SB 1380 (Mitchell, Chapter 847, Statutes of 2016) created the HCFC to coordinate the state’s response to homelessness and required California to adopt the Housing First model, as provided.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No

SUPPORT: (Verified 8/30/23)

City of Berkeley (source)

City of Emeryville

City of Redwood City

OPPOSITION: (Verified 8/30/23)

None received

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/25/23

AYES: Addis, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Juan Carrillo, Wendy Carrillo, Cervantes, Chen, Connolly, Megan Dahle, Davies, Dixon, Essayli, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Garcia, Gipson, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Hoover, Irwin, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, Lackey, Lee, Low, Lowenthal, Maienschein, McCarty, McKinnor, Muratsuchi, Stephanie Nguyen, Ortega, Pacheco, Jim Patterson, Joe Patterson, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Soria, Ta, Ting, Valencia, Villapudua, Waldron, Wallis, Ward, Weber, Wicks, Wilson, Wood, Zbur, Rendon

NO VOTE RECORDED: Aguiar-Curry, Kalra, Mathis, Papan

Prepared by: Bridgett Hankerson / HUMAN S. / (916) 651-1524

9/2/23 8:20:24

**** END ****

CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS

CSA1 Bill Id:AB 1285

Author:(Wicks)

As Amended Ver:June 28, 2023

Majority vote

SUMMARY

Requires, beginning with round four of Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program and Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding, and in addition to existing requirements, a continuum of care (CoC) that shares geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated pursuant to HHAP or ERP to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems (CESs). The bill allows evidence of collaboration to include a memorandum of understanding.

Senate Amendments

Make technical and clarifying changes.

COMMENTS

Cities can apply for ERP funds to mitigate encampments. As part of the program, they are required to demonstrate how they intend to use the funds to connect all individuals living in the encampment to services and housing. Cities face challenges in moving people into temporary or permanent housing because the mechanism for prioritizing people for housing is the CES. Unless the city has housing units or resources that they control and can use to house people from encampments, individuals need to be funneled through the CES system.

CES should remain an unbiased tool for housing people based on their need; however, to facilitate better coordination among the state’s resources for addressing homelessness, there should be some ability to coordinate between cities that are using either HHAP or ERP funds to move people out of encampments into temporary or permanent housing through CES. This bill would require cities, counties, and CoCs to develop a process for prioritizing people living in encampments for permanent housing in the CES. Cities, counties, and CoCs applying for HHAP round four funding and future rounds would be required to develop an MOU or policies that prioritize people in encampments for permanent housing in the CES.

According to the Author

"Homelessness is one of the most challenging and complex social issues facing our state. The state is providing unprecedented resources to address the crises through the HHAP, Home Key, and the ERP. This bill helps to ensure greater coordination of these programs by requiring CoCs, cities, can counties to consider how referrals to permanent housing through the CES can prioritize people living in encampments for permanent housing."

Arguments in Support

According to the sponsor, the City of Berkeley, the city received funding for a Homekey project to acquire the Golden Bear Inn but could not use the units to move people from People’s Park because Homekey requires that units be filled using the CES referrals. This challenge illustrates the need for some additional coordination in CES for individuals in encampments.

Arguments in Opposition

None on file.

FISCAL COMMENTS

According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (CA-ICH) anticipates minor and absorbable costs.

VOTES:

ASM HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: 6-0-2

YES: Wicks, Wendy Carrillo, Gabriel, Kalra, Quirk-Silva, Sanchez

ABS, ABST OR NV: Joe Patterson, Ward

ASM APPROPRIATIONS: 15-0-1

YES: Holden, Megan Dahle, Bryan, Calderon, Wendy Carrillo, Dixon, Mike Fong, Hart, Lowenthal, Mathis, Papan, Pellerin, Robert Rivas, Sanchez, Ortega

ABS, ABST OR NV: Weber

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0-4

YES: Addis, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Juan Carrillo, Wendy Carrillo, Cervantes, Chen, Connolly, Megan Dahle, Davies, Dixon, Essayli, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Garcia, Gipson, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Hoover, Irwin, Jackson, Jones‑Sawyer, Lackey, Lee, Low, Lowenthal, Maienschein, McCarty, McKinnor, Muratsuchi, Stephanie Nguyen, Ortega, Pacheco, Jim Patterson, Joe Patterson, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Quirk‑Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Soria, Ta, Ting, Valencia, Villapudua, Waldron, Wallis, Ward, Weber, Wicks, Wilson, Wood, Zbur, Rendon

ABS, ABST OR NV: Aguiar-Curry, Kalra, Mathis, Papan

SENATE FLOOR: 38-0-2

YES: Allen, Alvarado-Gil, Archuleta, Ashby, Atkins, Becker, Blakespear, Bradford, Caballero, Cortese, Dahle, Dodd, Durazo, Glazer, Gonzalez, Grove, Hurtado, Jones, Limón, McGuire, Menjivar, Min, Newman, Nguyen, Niello, Ochoa Bogh, Padilla, Portantino, Roth, Rubio, Seyarto, Skinner, Smallwood-Cuevas, Stern, Umberg, Wahab, Wiener, Wilk

ABS, ABST OR NV: Eggman, Laird

UPDATED

VERSION: June 28, 2023

CONSULTANT: Lisa Engel / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085 FN: 0001282

 CONSENT 

Bill No: AB 1285

Author: Wicks (D)

Amended: 6/28/23 in Senate

Vote: 21

SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/19/23

AYES: Alvarado-Gil, Ochoa Bogh, Hurtado, Menjivar, Wahab

SENATE HOUSING COMMITTEE: 11-0, 7/10/23

AYES: Wiener, Ochoa Bogh, Blakespear, Caballero, Cortese, McGuire, Padilla, Seyarto, Skinner, Umberg, Wahab

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/25/23 (Consent) - See last page for vote

SUBJECT: Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program and Encampment Resolution Funding program

SOURCE: City of Berkeley

DIGEST:

This bill requires continuums of care (CoCs) that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated pursuant to Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program or the Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding, to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems (CESs).

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. Defines CES to mean a system developed for coordinating the implementation of a housing and service system within its geographic area that meets the needs of homeless individuals (including unaccompanied youth) and families and designed to coordinate homelessness program participant intake, assessment, and provision of referrals. (Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 578.7)
2. Defines, in federal statute, the word “homeless” for the purpose of housing assistance, to mean an individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, such as:
   1. 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, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground;
   2. A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state, or local government programs for low-income individuals); or
   3. Exiting an institution where he or she resided for 90 days or less and who resided in an emergency shelter or place not meant for human habitation immediately before entering that institution. (42 CFR 91.5)
3. Establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) to oversee and coordinate the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations in California, and to identify resources and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. (WIC 8255 et. seq.)
4. Sets the goals for the Cal ICH including, but not limited to, identification of resources and services to prevent and end homelessness; creating partnerships among local, state, federal entities to arrive at strategies to end homelessness; coordinating existing homelessness funding; making policy and procedural recommendations to the Legislature; and, creating a Homeless Data Integration System, as provided. (WIC 8257(b))
5. Establishes the HHAP program to provide jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing, and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. (HSC 50217)
6. Requires the Cal ICH to make an application for Round 4 HHAP program allocations available no later than September 30, 2022, and for the council within 30 days of receiving an application for HHAP to either approve the application or return it to the applicant with written, detailed comments and request one or more specific amendments to the application as specified. Further requires applicants, among other things, to submit a local landscape analysis, and a local homelessness action plan, as specified. (HSC 50220.8 et. seq.)
7. Establishes the ERP program to increase collaboration between the Cal ICH, local jurisdictions and CoCs to assist local jurisdictions in ensuring the safety and wellness of people experiencing homelessness in encampments, to provide encampment resolution grants to resolve critical encampment concerns and transition individuals into safe and stable housing, and encourage a data-informed, coordinated approach to address encampment concerns. (HSC 50251(a))
8. Requires the Cal ICH to distribute ERP Round 1 and any additional funding rounds, as provided. (HSC 50252)
9. Requires, for a CoC to receive HHAP funding, the CoC to provide the Cal ICH data on the demographics and characteristics of the homeless populations in the jurisdiction and on current programs providing housing and homeless services, as reported to the federal government through Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and point-in-time counts (PIT). (HSC 50219(a)(7))

This bill:

1. Requires CoCs that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated under ERP or HHAP Round 4, in addition to existing requirements, to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within CESs.
2. Allows for the evidence of collaboration to include a memorandum of understanding.

Background

1. According to the author, “Homelessness is one of the most challenging and complex social issues facing our state. The state is providing unprecedented resources to address the crises through the HHAP, Home Key, and the ERP. This bill helps to ensure greater coordination of these programs by requiring CoCs, cities, can counties to consider how referrals to permanent housing through the CES can prioritize people living in encampments for permanent housing.”
2. California Homelessness Data. Since 2016, homelessness in America, and particularly in California, has been growing at an increasing rate. Homelessness has been correlated with a number of negative effects, including high rates of chronic disease and acute illness, a broad range of mental health and substance use issues, greater exposure to violence, malnutrition, extreme weather, and criminal charges. The health, personal, and economic challenges that chronically homeless individuals and families face and the lack of effective, coordinated services to address these problems often lead to a cycle of housing instability and health deterioration. Persistent homelessness impedes access to needed health and employment services. Additionally, the conditions of homelessness often make it more difficult to exit homelessness, by creating barriers to the resources necessary to obtain income through training, education, and employment.
3. Continuums of Care (CoCs) and the Coordinated Entry System (CES). There are currently 44 CoCs across California’s 58 counties. CoCs are often led by a county or non-profit organization, though in some cases, they are led by a city, and are composed of a number of representative organizations that serve individuals facing homelessness. These can include nonprofit homeless providers, governments, victim service providers, hospitals, mental health agencies, affordable housing developers, and law enforcement, among others. The Department Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires CoCs to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness and enter it into a database. This is accomplished by using the HMIS, which is a local information technology system. Each CoC is responsible for selecting a HMIS software solution that complies with HUD's data collection, management, and reporting standards. HMIS in California is composed of each CoC’s database. HUD requires each CoC’s HMIS to comply with their data collection, management, and reporting standards and also requires CoCs to enter data from both the annual PIT count and annual Housing Inventory Count into HMIS.

The CES is an evidence-based strategy that focuses on housing and service coordination for people experiencing homelessness. HUD defines the CES as a “process developed to ensure that all people experiencing a housing crisis have fair and equal access and are quickly identified, assessed for, referred, and connected to housing and assistance based on their strengths and needs." In 2013, HUD began requiring recipients of federal CoC grant funding to use the CES due to its proven efficacy in a number of different communities with significant homeless populations, including CoCs in California. The HMIS holds the information of the CES participants and creates a real-time list of individuals experiencing homelessness in communities so that providers can match people to available housing resources and services to fit their needs. According to HUD, CES processes are intended to help communities prioritize people who are most in need of assistance. A CES can serve adults (age 18+), families (household with a child under age 18), and youth (age 18-24), and program services offered are tailored for people experiencing homelessness from each of these household types.

This bill requires CoCs to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county, such as an MOU, that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within CESs.

1. California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH). SB 1220 (Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) renamed the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) to Cal ICH, named the secretaries of business and Consumer Services, and Housing (BCSH) and California Housing and Human Services (CalHHS) as co-chairs of the council, and changed the membership composition from one that included a mix of state and local agencies, persons who previously experienced homelessness, and homeless advocacy groups to one composed of state departments’ and offices’ directorate, including the Department of Rehabilitation, Department of Aging, Department of Social Services, Department of State Hospitals, and the state’s Medicaid Director.

The Cal ICH is tasked to continue the work it began as HCFC, which was created by SB 1380 (Mitchell, Chapter 847, Statutes of 2016), such as coordinating the state’s response to homelessness, and creating partnerships among state agencies and departments, local government agencies, nonprofits, and federal agencies, among others. The Cal ICH is also responsible for administering and distributing funding associated with the HHAP program, for which $2.95 billion in funding allocated throughout the state to cities, counties, and CoCs to address immediate, local homelessness challenges. Cal ICH also administers the ERP.

1. Encampment Resolution Program (ERP). The ERP is a competitive grant program administered by the Cal ICH that provides funds to CoCs, cities, and counties to fund actionable, person-centered local proposals that resolve the experience of unsheltered homelessness for people residing in encampments. Applicants of ERP grants may apply for ERP funds to mitigate homeless encampments. The ERP requires cities to demonstrate how they intend to use the funds to connect all of the individuals living in an encampment to services, supports, and housing and also demonstrate how they will coordinate with local partners to transition those living in encampments into permanent housing solutions. Many cities face challenges moving people into temporary or permanent housing because priority for services is assessed via the CES, unless the city has housing units or resources they control and can use to house people from encampments, but most do not. The 2021-22 Budget included $50 million for ERP and $300 million in the 2022-23 Budget.
2. Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP). Created by AB 101 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2019), HHAP is a state funded, block grant program designed to provide jurisdictions with funding to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges. HHAP’s flexible funding is informed by a “best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing.” To date, the state has awarded four rounds of funding throughout the state to cities, counties, and CoCs to address the homeless crisis. HHAP has received $2.95 billion in funding from 2019 to 2023.

There are some concerns by observers that increased coordination is needed between local agencies receiving HHAP or ERP funding to ensure that those people experiencing homelessness receive the services and supports they need in a timely, orderly manner. This bill seeks to do this by requiring CoCs that share geographic boundaries with a city or county is using HHAP or ERP funds to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county showing how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within CES.

Related/Prior Legislation

AB 1413 (Ting, 2023) moves the administration of all housing homeless grant programs from Cal ICH to the Department of Housing and Community Development. The components of this bill were included in the 2023 Budget. The bill was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 140 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 111, Statutes of 2021) required Cal ICH to conduct a statewide assessment to identify state programs that provide housing or services to persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and to collect and analyze data from those programs necessary to provide a comprehensive view of the homelessness response system, as provided.

AB 1220 (Luz Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) renamed HCFC to Cal ICH, named the Secretary of Cal HHS as co-chair, reconstituted the Cal ICH membership, and required the Cal ICH to meet at least twice yearly with an advisory committee, among other things, and as provided.

AB 977 (Gabriel, Chapter 397, Statutes of 2021) required recipients of state homeless programs to enter data on the individuals and families it serves into its local HMIS beginning on January 1, 2023.

AB 101 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2019) established and provided $650 million in funding for the HHAP Program, among other things.

SB 1380 (Mitchell, Chapter 847, Statutes of 2016) created the HCFC to coordinate the state’s response to homelessness and required California to adopt the Housing First model, as provided.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No

SUPPORT: (Verified 8/14/23)

City of Berkeley (source)

City of Emeryville

City of Redwood City

OPPOSITION: (Verified 8/14/23)

None received

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/25/23

AYES: Addis, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Juan Carrillo, Wendy Carrillo, Cervantes, Chen, Connolly, Megan Dahle, Davies, Dixon, Essayli, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Garcia, Gipson, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Hoover, Irwin, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, Lackey, Lee, Low, Lowenthal, Maienschein, McCarty, McKinnor, Muratsuchi, Stephanie Nguyen, Ortega, Pacheco, Jim Patterson, Joe Patterson, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Robert Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Soria, Ta, Ting, Valencia, Villapudua, Waldron, Wallis, Ward, Weber, Wicks, Wilson, Wood, Zbur, Rendon

NO VOTE RECORDED: Aguiar-Curry, Kalra, Mathis, Papan

Prepared by: Bridgett Hankerson / HUMAN S. / (916) 651-1524

8/16/23 14:50:45

**** END ****

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HOUSING

Senator Scott Wiener, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Bill No: AB 1285 Hearing Date: 7/10/2023

SUBJECT: Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program and Encampment Resolution Funding program

DIGEST: This bill requires continuums of care (CoCs) that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated pursuant to Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program or the Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding, to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems (CESs).

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. Defines “CES” to mean a system developed for coordinating the implementation of a housing and service system within its geographic area that meets the needs of homeless individuals (including unaccompanied youth) and families and designed to coordinate homelessness program participant intake, assessment, and provision of referrals.
2. Establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) to oversee and coordinate the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations in California, and to identify resources and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California.
3. Establishes the HHAP program to provide jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing, and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing.
4. Establishes the ERP program to increase collaboration between Cal-ICH, local jurisdictions and CoCs to assist local jurisdictions in ensuring the safety and wellness of people experiencing homelessness in encampments, to provide encampment resolution grants to resolve critical encampment concerns and transition individuals into safe and stable housing, and encourage a data-informed, coordinated approach to address encampment concerns
5. Requires, for a CoC to receive HHAP funding, the CoC to provide Cal-ICH data on the demographics and characteristics of the homeless populations in the jurisdiction and on current programs providing housing and homeless services.

This bill:

1. Requires CoCs that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated pursuant to HHAP or ERP funding to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within CESs, beginning with round four of HHAP.

COMMENTS:

1. Author’s statement. “Homelessness is one of the most challenging and complex social issues facing our state. The state is providing unprecedented resources to address the crises through the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, Home Key, and the Encampment Resolution Program. AB 1285 helps to ensure greater coordination of these programs by requiring Continuums of Care, cities, and counties to consider how referrals to permanent housing through the Coordinated Entry System can prioritize people living in encampments for permanent housing.”
2. Homelessness crisis in California. According to the most recent point in time (PIT) count, 171,521 people were experiencing homelessness in California—representing 30% of the nation’s homeless population. Two-thirds of the homeless population in California is unsheltered. Over half (51%) of all unsheltered people in the US were in California. California has the largest concentration of severely unaffordable housing markets in the nation and the statewide average home value reached a new record in June 2022 at $793,300. Over three quarters (78%) of extremely low-income households in California are paying more than half of their income on housing costs compared to just 6% of moderate-income households.

A lack of affordable housing is the biggest contributor to homelessness. As housing costs continue to rise, rent becomes less affordable for lower-income households, who are forced to live beyond their means (paying more than 30% of income on housing costs) or are pushed out of their homes, leading to rapid increases in homelessness. Variation in rates of homelessness cannot be explained by variation in rates of individual factors such as poverty or mental illness, however, cities with higher rents and lower rental vacancy rates (i.e., tighter housing markets) are directly linked to higher per capita rates of homelessness. Additionally, the data show that many people experiencing homelessness are employed; the problem is that their income alone often isn’t enough to maintain stable housing. This can result in financial insecurity, which is both a main cause and a prolonging factor of homelessness.

1. CoCs and the CES. There are currently 44 CoCs across California’s 58 counties. CoCs are often led by a county or non-profit organization, though in some cases, they are led by a city, and are composed of a number of representative organizations that serve individuals facing homelessness. These can include nonprofit homeless providers, governments, victim service providers, hospitals, mental health agencies, affordable housing developers, and law enforcement, among others. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires CoCs to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness and enter it into a database. This is accomplished by using the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which is a local information technology system. Each CoC is responsible for selecting a HMIS software solution that complies with HUD's data collection, management, and reporting standards. HMIS in California is composed of each CoC’s database. HUD requires each CoC’s HMIS to comply with their data collection, management, and reporting standards and also requires CoCs to enter data from both the annual PIT count and annual Housing Inventory Count into HMIS.

The CES is an evidence-based strategy that focuses on housing and service coordination for people experiencing homelessness. HUD defines the CES as a “process developed to ensure that all people experiencing a housing crisis have fair and equal access and are quickly identified, assessed for, referred, and connected to housing and assistance based on their strengths and needs." In 2013, HUD began requiring recipients of federal CoC grant funding to use the CES due to its proven efficacy in a number of different communities with significant homeless populations, including CoCs in California. The HMIS holds the information of the CES participants and creates a real-time list of individuals experiencing homelessness in communities so that providers can match people to available housing resources and services to fit their needs. According to HUD, CES processes are intended to help communities prioritize people who are most in need of assistance. A CES can serve adults (age 18+), families (household with a child under age 18), and youth (age 18-24), and program services offered are tailored for people experiencing homelessness from each of these household types.

1. Encampment resolution. The ERP is a competitive grant program administered by the Cal-ICH that provides funds to CoCs, cities, and counties to fund actionable, person-centered local proposals that resolve the experience of unsheltered homelessness for people residing in encampments. Applicants of ERP grants may apply for ERP funds to mitigate homeless encampments. The ERP requires cities to demonstrate how they intend to use the funds to connect all of the individuals living in an encampment to services, supports, and housing and also demonstrate how they will coordinate with local partners to transition those living in encampments into permanent housing solutions. Many cities face challenges moving people into temporary or permanent housing because priority for services is assessed via the CES, unless the city has housing units or resources they control and can use to house people from encampments, but most do not. The 2021-22 Budget included $50 million for ERP and $300 million in the 2022-23 Budget.
2. HHAP. Created by AB 101 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2019), HHAP is a state funded, block grant program designed to provide jurisdictions with funding to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges. HHAP’s flexible funding is informed by a “best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing.” To date, the state has awarded four rounds of funding throughout the state to cities, counties, and CoCs to address the homeless crisis. HHAP has received $2.95 billion in funding from 2019 to 2023.
3. Existing flexibility in coordinating entry. CoCs can use CES to provide a balance between equity and a system that prioritizes people based on their individual needs with flexibility based on geographic needs. CES allows for dynamic policies and flexibility to meet local needs. For example:
   1. As housing supply ebbs and flows, San Francisco builds in the assumption that referral criteria will loosen and tighten as more resources become available, referred to as dynamic prioritization.
   2. In Houston, Texas, their simple CES system is based on chronic homeless status and length of time experiencing homelessness to prioritize those with the greatest need.
   3. Dallas, Texas allows for flexibility to rehouse individuals that have recently become homeless but present barriers that increase their likelihood of experiencing long-term homelessness if not rehoused.
   4. Miami-Dade County allows for regular adjustment of prioritization for referrals to respond to shifts as needed.

Despite this flexibility, there are some concerns by observers that increased coordination is needed between local agencies receiving HHAP or ERP funding to ensure that those people experiencing homelessness receive the services and supports they need in a timely, orderly manner. This bill seeks to do this by requiring CoCs that share geographic boundaries with a city or county is using HHAP or ERP funds to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county showing how people served through encampment resolution will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within CES.

1. Double-referral. This bill passed out of the Senate Human Services Committee on June 19 with a 5-0 vote.

Related Legislation:

AB 1413 (Ting, 2023) — moves the administration of all housing homeless grant programs from Cal ICH to the Department of Housing and Community Development. This bill is scheduled to be heard in this committee concurrently with this bill.

AB 1377 (Friedman, 2023) — requires HHAP applicants to provide data and a narrative summary of specific and quantifiable steps that the applicant has taken to improve the delivery of housing and services to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness on transit facilities. This bill is scheduled to be heard in this committee concurrently with this bill.

AB 140 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 111, Statutes of 2021) — among other things, required Cal ICH to conduct a statewide assessment to identify state programs that provide housing or services to persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and to collect and analyze data from those programs necessary to provide a comprehensive view of the homelessness response system, as provided.

AB 1220 (Luz Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) — renamed HCFC to Cal ICH, named the Secretary of Cal HHS as co-chair, reconstituted the Cal ICH membership, and required the Cal ICH to meet at least twice yearly with an advisory committee, among other things, and as provided.

AB 977 (Gabriel, Chapter 397, Statutes of 2021) — required recipients of state homeless programs to enter data on the individuals and families it serves into its local HMIS beginning on January 1, 2023.

AB 101 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2019) — among other things, established and provided $650 million in funding for the HHAP Program.

SB 1380 (Mitchell, Chapter 847, Statutes of 2016) — created the HCFC to coordinate the state’s response to homelessness and required California to adopt the Housing First model, as provided.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No

POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on Wednesday,

July 5, 2023.)

SUPPORT:

City of Berkeley (Sponsor)

City of Emeryville

City of Redwood City

OPPOSITION:

None received.

-- END --

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES

Senator Alvarado-Gil, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Subject: Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program and Encampment Resolution Funding program.

SUMMARY

This bill requires, beginning with round 4 of the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program and in addition to existing requirements, continuums of care (CoCs) that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated pursuant to HHAP or the Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding, to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems (CESs). The bill also allows evidence of collaboration to include a memorandum of understanding.

ABSTRACT

Existing Law:

1. Defines “coordinated entry system (CES)” to mean a system developed for coordinating the implementation of a housing and service system within its geographic area that meets the needs of homeless individuals (including unaccompanied youth) and families and designed to coordinate homelessness program participant intake, assessment, and provision of referrals. (Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 578.7)
2. Defines, in federal statute, the word “homeless” for the purpose of housing assistance, to mean an individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, such as:
   1. 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, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground;
   2. A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state, or local government programs for low-income individuals); or
   3. Exiting an institution where he or she resided for 90 days or less and who resided in an emergency shelter or place not meant for human habitation immediately before entering that institution. (42 CFR 91.5)
3. Establishes the Cal ICH to oversee and coordinate the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations in California, and to identify resources and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. (WIC 8255 et. seq.)
4. Sets the goals for the Cal ICH including, but not limited to, identification of resources and services to prevent and end homelessness; creating partnerships among local, state, federal entities to arrive at strategies to end homelessness; coordinating existing homelessness funding; making policy and procedural recommendations to the Legislature; and, creating a Homeless Data Integration System, as provided. (WIC 8257(b))
5. Establishes the HHAP program to provide jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing, and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. (HSC 50217)
6. Requires the Cal ICH to make an application for round 4 HHAP program allocations available no later than September 30, 2022, and for the council within 30 days of receiving an application for HHAP to either approve the application or return it to the applicant with written, detailed comments and request one or more specific amendments to the application as specified. Further requires applicants, among other things, to submit a local landscape analysis, and a local homelessness action plan, as specified. (HSC 50220.8 et. seq.)
7. Establishes the ERA program to increase collaboration between the Cal ICH, local jurisdictions and CoCs to assist local jurisdictions in ensuring the safety and wellness of people experiencing homelessness in encampments, to provide encampment resolution grants to resolve critical encampment concerns and transition individuals into safe and stable housing, and encourage a data-informed, coordinated approach to address encampment concerns. (HSC 50251(a))
8. Requires the Cal ICH to distribute ERA round 1 and any additional funding rounds, as provided. (HSC 50252)
9. Requires, for a CoC to receive HHAP funding, the CoC to provide the Cal ICH data on the demographics and characteristics of the homeless populations in the jurisdiction and on current programs providing housing and homeless services, as reported to the federal government through HMIS and point-in-time counts. (HSC 50219(a)(7))

This Bill:

1. Requires CoCs that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated under ERP or HHAP round 4, in addition to existing requirements, to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within CESs.
2. Allows for the evidence of collaboration to include a memorandum of understanding.

FISCAL IMPACT

According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis, Cal ICH anticipates this bill has minor and absorbable costs.

BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION

Purpose of the Bill:

According to the author, “Homelessness is one of the most challenging and complex social issues facing our state. The state is providing unprecedented resources to address the crises through the HHAP, Home Key, and the ERP. AB 1285 helps to ensure greater coordination of these programs by requiring CoCs, cities, can counties to consider how referrals to permanent housing through the CES can prioritize people living in encampments for permanent housing.”

California Homelessness Data

Since 2016, homelessness in America, and particularly in California, has been growing at an increasing rate. Homelessness has been correlated with a number of negative effects, including high rates of chronic disease and acute illness, a broad range of mental health and substance use issues, greater exposure to violence, malnutrition, extreme weather, and criminal charges. The health, personal, and economic challenges that chronically homeless individuals and families face and the lack of effective, coordinated services to address these problems often lead to a cycle of housing instability and health deterioration. Persistent homelessness impedes access to needed health and employment services. Additionally, the conditions of homelessness often make it more difficult to exit homelessness, by creating barriers to the resources necessary to obtain income through training, education, and employment.

Each January, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has local community Continuums of Care (CoCs) conduct a Point in Time (PIT) count of people experiencing homelessness. HUD defines homelessness as either “sheltered” or “unsheltered”. Sheltered homelessness is when a person is living in a temporary place, such as a temporary shelter and unsheltered homelessness is living out in the open or in places not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for people (i.e. the streets, vehicles, or parks). The PIT count is required by HUD as a condition of receiving federal funding. According to the 2022 PIT count, 171,521 people experienced homelessness in California, representing 30 percent of the nation’s homeless population. Additionally, California accounted for 50 percent of all people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the nation (115,491 people), more than nine times the number of unsheltered people in the state with the next highest number, Washington (12,668). The PIT count also showed:

• Major city CoCs had the largest percentage of people experiencing homelessness in unsheltered locations, 43 percent, followed by largely rural CoCs, 41 percent.
• In all categories of CoCs, nearly all unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness (88-93 percent) were between the ages of 18 and 24. Largely rural CoCs had the highest percentage of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness under the age of 18 (12 percent).
• Nationwide, between 2020 and 2022, 35 states experienced an increase in the number of individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness, including California with an increase of 18.3 percent (8,948 individuals).
• More than two thirds of all people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. (72 percent) did so in households without children present.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic’s disruptions, the January 2021 PIT count efforts were refocused to survey people experiencing sheltered homelessness and a report focused on this was released in February 2022.^[1] HUD cautioned that the 2021 data may not fully represent the number of people experiencing sheltered homelessness due to the Covid-19 pandemic limitations. HUD began requiring counts of both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness again in 2022 and released its 2022 PIT count in December 2022. To address changes in the count during the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the data in the 2022 PIT count is averaged across the three year period.

Homeless advocates and others typically feel the annual PIT count is limited, because while these numbers provide a snapshot of the state’s homeless population during a single night, they likely underestimate the scope of the crisis because: (1) the HUD PIT count only measures the homeless population on one day of the year, and (2) it does not capture everyone experiencing homelessness, as some do not wish to be counted, while others cannot be counted because their location is not known to the counters. These shortcomings were further highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic related limitations on data collection efforts and resulting focus on sheltered homelessness in 2021. Additionally, as many of the Covid-19 restrictions on congregate care settings were relaxed in 2022, and later ended in 2023, we will likely see a continued increase in sheltered homelessness as capacity limitations are lifted at emergency shelters.^[2]

Continuums of Care (CoCs) and the Coordinated Entry System (CES)

There are currently 44 CoCs across California’s 58 counties. CoCs are often led by a county or non-profit organization, though in some cases, they are led by a city, and are composed of a number of representative organizations that serve individuals facing homelessness. These can include nonprofit homeless providers, governments, victim service providers, hospitals, mental health agencies, affordable housing developers, and law enforcement, among others. HUD requires CoCs to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness and enter it into a database. This is accomplished by using the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which is a local information technology system. Each CoC is responsible for selecting a HMIS software solution that complies with HUD's data collection, management, and reporting standards. HMIS in California is composed of each CoC’s database. HUD requires each CoC’s HMIS to comply with their data collection, management, and reporting standards and also requires CoCs to enter data from both the annual PIT count and annual Housing Inventory Count into HMIS.

The CES is an evidence-based strategy that focuses on housing and service coordination for people experiencing homelessness. HUD defines the CES as a “process developed to ensure that all people experiencing a housing crisis have fair and equal access and are quickly identified, assessed for, referred, and connected to housing and assistance based on their strengths and needs." In 2013, HUD began requiring recipients of federal CoC grant funding to use the CES due to its proven efficacy in a number of different communities with significant homeless populations, including CoCs in California. The HMIS holds the information of the CES participants and creates a real-time list of individuals experiencing homelessness in communities so that providers can match people to available housing resources and services to fit their needs. According to HUD, CES processes are intended to help communities prioritize people who are most in need of assistance. A CES can serve adults (age 18+), families (household with a child under age 18), and youth (age 18-24), and program services offered are tailored for people experiencing homelessness from each of these household types.

This bill would require CoCs to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county, such as an MOU, that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within CESs.

California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH)

SB 1220 (Rivas, L., Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) renamed the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) to Cal ICH, named the secretaries of BCSH and CHHS as co-chairs of the council, and changed the membership composition from one that included a mix of state and local agencies, persons who previously experienced homelessness, and homeless advocacy groups to one composed of state departments’ and offices’ directorate, including the Departments of Rehabilitation, Aging, Social Services, State Hospitals, and the state’s Medicaid Director. The director of DDS does not currently sit on the Council.

SB 1220 also added an advisory committee that meets twice a year with the Cal ICH. The advisory committee is composed of the following members: a survivor of gender-based violence who formerly experienced homelessness; a person with a disability who formerly experienced homelessness; representatives of local agencies or organizations that participate in HUD’s Continuum of Care Program; stakeholders with expertise in solutions to homelessness and best practices from other states; representatives of committees on African Americans, youth, and survivors of gender-based violence; a current or formerly homeless person who lives in California; an individual with a developmental disability who currently or formerly experienced homelessness; and a current or formerly homeless youth who lives in California. One advisory committee member will be chosen to participate in the quarterly council meetings to report their committee’s activities to the Cal ICH.

The Cal ICH is tasked to continue the work it began as HCFC, which was created by SB 1380 (Mitchell, Chapter 847, Statutes of 2016), such as coordinating the state’s response to homelessness, and creating partnerships among state agencies and departments, local government agencies, nonprofits, and federal agencies, among others. The Cal ICH is also responsible for administering and distributing funding associated with the HHAP program, for which $2.95 billion in funding allocated throughout the state to cities, counties, and CoCs to address immediate, local homelessness challenges. Cal ICH also administers the ERP.

Encampment Resolution Program (ERP)

The ERP is a competitive grant program administered by the Cal ICH that provides funds to CoCs, cities, and counties to fund actionable, person-centered local proposals that resolve the experience of unsheltered homelessness for people residing in encampments. Applicants of ERP grants may apply for ERP funds to mitigate homeless encampments. The ERP requires cities to demonstrate how they intend to use the funds to connect all of the individuals living in an encampment to services, supports, and housing and also demonstrate how they will coordinate with local partners to transition those living in encampments into permanent housing solutions. Many cities face challenges moving people into temporary or permanent housing because priority for services is assessed via the CES, unless the city has housing units or resources they control and can use to house people from encampments, but most do not. The 2021-22 Budget included $50 million for ERP and $300 million in the 2022-23 Budget.

Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP)

Created by AB 101 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2019), HHAP is a state funded, block grant program designed to provide jurisdictions with funding to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges. HHAP’s flexible funding is informed by a “best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing.” To date, the state has awarded four rounds of funding throughout the state to cities, counties, and CoCs to address the homeless crisis. HHAP has received $2.95 billion in funding from 2019 to 2023.

There are some concerns by observers that increased coordination is needed between local agencies receiving HHAP or ERP funding to ensure that those people experiencing homelessness receive the services and supports they need in a timely, orderly manner. This bill seeks to do this by requiring CoCs that share geographic boundaries with a city or county is using HHAP or ERP funds to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county showing how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within CES.

Related/Prior Legislation:

AB 1413 (Ting, 2023) removes the administration of all housing homeless grant programs from Cal ICH to the Department of Housing and Community Development, and eliminates the bonus pot in HHAP and makes it available in round four and five of HHAP. The bill is scheduled to be heard in this Committee on June 19, 2023.

AB 1377 (Friedman, 2023) requires HHAP applicants to provide data and a narrative summary of specific and quantifiable steps that the applicant has taken to improve the delivery of housing and services to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness on transit facilities owned and operated by a transit district in their jurisdiction. This bill is scheduled to be heard in this Committee on June 19, 2023.

SB 1353 (Wilk, 2022) would have required local government entities to provide specified homelessness information for their jurisdiction to Cal ICH by January 1, 2025, required Cal ICH to develop and maintain a publicly available homelessness dashboard to post this data, to provide a report to the Legislature on the data gathered by January 1, 2026, as specified. SB 1353 was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 140 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 111, Statutes of 2021) among other things, required Cal ICH to conduct a statewide assessment to identify state programs that provide housing or services to persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and to collect and analyze data from those programs necessary to provide a comprehensive view of the homelessness response system, as provided.

AB 1220 (Luz Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) renamed HCFC to Cal ICH, named the Secretary of Cal HHS as co-chair, reconstituted the Cal ICH membership, and required the Cal ICH to meet at least twice yearly with an advisory committee, among other things, and as provided.

AB 977 (Gabriel, Chapter 397, Statutes of 2021) required recipients of state homeless programs to enter data on the individuals and families it serves into its local HMIS beginning on January 1, 2023. SB 977 also requires all CoCs to provide collected data elements, as specified.

AB 1845 (Luz Rivas, 2020) would have created the Governor’s Office to End Homelessness under the Direction of the Secretary of Homelessness and would have moved the HCFC from the Business Consumer Services and Housing Agency into the Governor’s Office to End Homelessness. AB 1845 was vetoed by the Governor.

AB 101 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2019) among other things, established and provided $650 million in funding for the HHAP Program.

SB 850 (Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 48, Statues of 2018) provided funding for homelessness initiatives, and required that the Governor appoint up to 17 members to HCFC, including the BCSH Secretary, or designee, to serve as chair, a representative from the Department of Transportation and a formerly homeless youth, as provided.

SB 1380 (Mitchell, Chapter 847, Statutes of 2016) created the HCFC to coordinate the state’s response to homelessness and required California to adopt the Housing First model, as provided.

COMMENTS

Over the last three years, the state has made a substantial investment to decrease the number of people at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness, including increasing HHAP funding for local jurisdictions. However, local jurisdiction (CoCs, counties and cities) do not always collaborate on solutions to address homelessness, despite their proximity to one another. This bill seeks to ensure that CoCs are working with nearby cities and counties receiving HHAP and ERP funding to address homelessness, which may lead to better outcomes for people experiencing homelessness as they navigate through the CES.

Double Referral: This bill is double referred to Senate Housing Committee.

PRIOR VOTES

POSITIONS

Support:

City of Redwood City

Oppose:

None received

-- END --

1. The 2021 Report can be found at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/home.html. ↑

2. .The 2022 Report can be found at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar/2022-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-in-the-us.html ↑

Date of Hearing: May 17, 2023

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Chris Holden, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 1285

Author:(Wicks) – As Amended Ver:May 1, 2023

Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: No

SUMMARY:

This bill requires, beginning with round four of Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program and Encampment Resolution Program (ERP) funding, and in addition to existing requirements, a the continuum of care (CoC) that shares geographic boundaries with a city or county using state funding allocated pursuant to HHAP or ERP to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county that specifies how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems (CESs). The bill allows evidence of collaboration to include a memorandum of understanding.

FISCAL EFFECT:

The California Interagency Council on Homelessness (CA-ICH) anticipates minor and absorbable costs.

COMMENTS:

1. Purpose. This bill is sponsored by the City of Berkeley. According to the author:

Homelessness is one of the most challenging and complex social issues facing our state. The state is providing unprecedented resources to address the crises through HAAP Program, Home Key, and the ERP. [This bill] helps to ensure greater coordination of these programs by requiring CoCs, cities, can counties to consider how referrals to permanent housing through the Coordinated Entry System can prioritize people living in encampments for permanent housing.

1. Background. Over 173,000 individuals in California experience homelessness on any given night, based on the most recent annual point-in-time (PIT) count conducted in January 2022. Of those individuals, over 115,000 are unsheltered, representing half of the country’s unsheltered population. California accounted for 30% of the country’s homeless population in 2022, despite our state making up less than 12% of the nation’s total population. Further, 30% of people experiencing homelessness in California identify as Black/African American, while comprising only 6% of the state’s overall population.

CES. The CES is a CoC-established system-wide process to quickly and equitably coordinate the access, assessment, prioritization, and referrals to housing and services for people experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness. The CES is an evidence-based strategy designed to link people experiencing homelessness to the most appropriate housing solution based on their needs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires CoCs receiving federal funds to utilize the CES. 

There are 44 CoCs in the state. Each CoC geographically covers the county in which it is situated. A CoC is either controlled by county government or is created as a nonprofit with representation from local nonprofit homelessness services providers and in some cases representatives from the county and cities it covers geographically. The CES is meant to be a community-wide tool and to prioritize people across the entire county based on need.

Cities can apply for ERP funds to mitigate homeless encampments. As part of the program, cities are required to demonstrate how they intend to use the funds to connect all individuals living in the encampment to services and housing. Cities face challenges in moving people into temporary or permanent housing because, unless the city has housing units or resources they control and can use to house people from encampments, the city must prioritize individuals through the countywide CES system.

Observers believe better coordination is needed between local agencies using HHAP or ERP funds to move people out of encampments into temporary or permanent housing through CES. This bill requires CoCs that share geographic boundaries with a city or county using HHAP or ERP funds to submit evidence of collaboration with the city or county showing how people served through encampment resolution will be prioritized for permanent housing within CES.

HHAP. ousingThe HHAP program, administered by CA-ICH provides jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address immediate homelessness challenges. Large cities (with a population of 300,000 or more), counties, continuums of care (CoCs), and tribes can apply for HHAP funding. HHAP has received $2.95 billion in funding from the 2019 to 2023 fiscal years. Round four of the HHAP Program included robust accountability provisions, including the requirement that applicants develop a Local Action Plan and performance goals.

ERP. The ERP is a competitive program administered by CA-ICH that provides funds to CoCs, cities, and counties to fund actionable, person-centered local proposals that resolve the experience of unsheltered homelessness for people residing in encampments. Applicants for ERP are required to show how they will coordinate with local partners to transition people out of encampments into permanent housing. The 2021-22 budget included $300 million for this program and the 2022-23 budget included $400 million.

Analysis Prepared by: Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081

Date of Hearing: April 26, 2023

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Buffy Wicks, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 1285 (

Author:Wicks) – As Amended Ver:April 19, 2023

SUBJECT: Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program

SUMMARY: Requires, beginning with round four of the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) Program, an applicant to submit evidence that a city, county, or city and county developed and approved polices or entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the continuum of care (CoC) with which they share geographic boundaries that specifies how referrals to permanent housing and other resources will be prioritized through the local coordinated entry system (CES) for people living in homeless encampments.

EXISTING LAW:

1. Established HHAP to provide jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Directs the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (CA-ICH) to administer HHAP. (Government Code (GC) Section 50216)
2. Requires HHAP to be used for evidence-based solutions that address and prevent homelessness among eligible populations, including any of the following:
3. Rapid rehousing, including rental subsidies and incentives to landlords, such as security deposits and holding fees;
4. Operating subsidies in new and existing affordable or supportive housing units, emergency shelters, and navigation centers. Operating subsidies may include operating reserves;
5. Street outreach to assist persons experiencing homelessness to access permanent housing and services;
6. Services coordination, which may include access to workforce, education, and training programs, or other services needed to promote housing stability in supportive housing;
7. Systems support for activities necessary to create regional partnerships and maintain a homeless services and housing delivery system, particularly for vulnerable populations, including families and homeless youth;
8. Delivery of permanent housing and innovative housing solutions, such as hotel and motel conversions;
9. Prevention and shelter diversion to permanent housing, including rental subsidies; and
10. Interim sheltering, limited to newly developed clinically enhanced congregate shelters, new or existing noncongregate shelters, and operations of existing navigation centers and shelters based on demonstrated need. Demonstrated need for purposes of this paragraph shall be based on the following:
11. The number of available shelter beds in the city, county, or region served by a continuum of care;
12. The number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the homeless point-in-time count;
13. Shelter vacancy rate in the summer and winter months;
14. Percentage of exits from emergency shelters to permanent housing solutions; and
15. A plan to connect residents to permanent housing. (GC Section 50220.7)
16. Requires, beginning with the third round of HHAP, applicants to provide the following information for all rounds of program allocations through a data collection, reporting, performance monitoring, and accountability framework, as established by CA-ICH:
17. Data on the applicant’s progress towards meeting their outcome goals, which must be submitted annually on December 31 of each year through the duration of the program;
18. If the applicant has not made significant progress toward their outcome goals, the applicant must submit a description of barriers and possible solutions to those barriers;
19. Applicants that do not demonstrate significant progress towards meeting outcome goals must accept technical assistance from the council and may also be required to limit the allowable uses of these program funds, as determined by the council;
20. A quarterly fiscal report of program funds expended and obligated in each allowable budget category approved in their application for program funds; and
21. If the applicant has not made significant progress toward their outcome goals, then the applicant must report on their outcome goals in their quarterly report. (GC Section 50220.7)
22. Requires CA-ICH to post a statewide report that aggregates each applicant’s outcome goals into a single statewide set of metrics. (GC Section 50220.7)
23. Require each recipient that receives a round three program allocation to submit to CA-ICH a final report, as well as detailed uses of all program funds, no later than October 1, 2026. (GC Section 50220.7)
24. Requires each recipient that receives a round four program allocation to submit to CA-ICH a final report, as well as detailed uses of all program funds, no later than October 1, 2027. (GC Section 50220.7)

FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.

COMMENTS:

Author’s Statement: According to the author, “Homelessness is one of the most challenging and complex social issues facing our state. The state is providing unprecedented resources to address the crises through the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, Home Key, and the Encampment Resolution Program. AB 1285 helps to ensure greater coordination of these programs by requiring CoCs, cities, can counties to consider how referrals to permanent housing through the Coordinated Entry System can prioritize people living in encampments for permanent housing.”

HHAP: The HHAP program was created to provide jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Large cities (with a population of 300,000 or more), counties, CoCs, and tribes can apply for HHAP funding. HHAP has received $2.95 billion in funding from 2019-23. Round three of the HHAP Program included robust accountability provisions, including the requirement that applicants develop a Local Action Plan and performance goals.

Local Action Plans required HHAP recipients to set outcome goals that prevent and reduce homelessness over a three-year period, informed by the findings from a local landscape analysis and the jurisdiction's base system performance measure from 2020 calendar year data in the Homeless Data Integration System. The outcome goals include definitive metrics, based on the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's system performance measures, to do the following:

• Reduce the number of persons experiencing homelessness;
• Reduce the number of persons who become homeless for the first time;
• Increase the number of people exiting homelessness into permanent housing;
• Reduce the length of time persons remain homeless;
• Reduce the number of persons who return to homelessness after exiting homelessness to permanent housing; and
• Increase successful placements from street outreach.

Applicants recently submitted applications for round four of HHAP and are currently receiving funds. There is funding for a round five of HHAP. Applications for round five will be due sometime next year.

Homelessness in California: Over 173,000 individuals in California experience homelessness on any given night, based on the most recent annual Point in Time (PIT) Count conducted in January 2022. Of those individuals, over 115,000 are unsheltered, meaning they live on the streets, sleep in cars, camp in parks, or are otherwise staying in places not meant for human habitation. California accounted for 30 percent of the country’s homeless population in 2022, despite our state making up less than 12 percent of the nation’s total population. In addition, California is home to half of the country’s unsheltered people, and significant racial disproportionality exists among those experiencing homelessness, as 30 percent of people experiencing homelessness identify as Black/African American, while only comprising 6 percent of the state’s overall population.

The crisis is driven in large part by the lack of affordable rental housing for lower income people. According to the California Housing Partnership Corporation’s (CHPC)’s Housing Need Dashboard, in the current market, nearly 2 million extremely low-income and very low-income renter households are competing for roughly 683,000 available and affordable rental units in the state. Over three-quarters of the state’s extremely low-income households and over half of the state’s very low-income households are severely rent burdened, paying more than 50 percent of their income toward rent each month. CHPC estimates that the state needs an additional 1.2 million housing units affordable to very low-income Californians to eliminate the shortfall.

Homekey: Homekey provides grant funding to local public entities to quickly acquire, rehabilitate, or master-lease a broad range of housing types for people experiencing homelessness, including hotels, motels, hostels, single-family homes and multifamily apartments, adult residential facilities, and manufactured housing, and to convert commercial properties and other existing buildings to permanent or interim housing. In an effort to encourage greater coordination at the local level among CoCs, cities, and counties, which are all part of the homelessness response system, Homekey program rules require people placed in Homekey projects to be pulled from CES.

Encampment Resolution Program (ERP): ERP is a competitive program administered by CA-ICH that provides funds to CoCs, cities, and counties to fund actionable, person-centered local proposals that resolve the experience of unsheltered homelessness for people residing in encampments. Applicants for ERP are required to show how they will coordinate with local partners to transition people out of encampments into permanent housing. The 2021-22 budget included $300 million for this program and the 2022-23 budget included $400 million.

Coordinated Entry System (CES): The CES is a CoC-established system-wide process to quickly and equitably coordinate the access, assessment, prioritization and referrals to housing and services for people experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness. CES is an evidence-based strategy that focuses on housing and service coordination designed to link people experiencing homelessness to the most appropriate housing solution based on their needs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development require CoCs receiving federal funds to utilize the CES. 

There are 44 CoCs in the state. Each CoC geographically covers the county in which it is situated. A CoC is either controlled by county government or it is created as a nonprofit with representation from local nonprofit homelessness services providers and in some cases representatives from the county and cities it covers geographically. The CES is meant to be a community-wide tool and therefore people entered into system are from the entire county. The CES is also meant to remove racial bias in who is prioritized for housing and services and prioritize people based on need. As previously mentioned, significant racial disproportionality exists among those experiencing homelessness, with people who identify as Black/African American very overrepresented. HUD recently provided additional guidance to CoCs regarding integrating racial equity into the CES. HUD embarked on a new way of approaching this work through the “Coordinated Entry Equity Demonstration.” Two cohorts of CoCs worked together to design more equitable CES processes, especially assessment and prioritization processes, to significantly improve the system experience and the housing stability outcomes for Black, Brown, Indigenous, and all people of color.

Cities can apply for ERP funds to mitigate encampments. As part of the program, they are required to demonstrate how they intend to use the funds to connect all individuals living in the encampment to services and housing. Cities face challenges in moving people into temporary or permanent housing because the mechanism for prioritizing people for housing is the CES. Unless the city has housing units or resources that they control and can use to house people from encampments, individuals need to be funneled through the CES system.

It’s important that CES remain an unbiased tool for housing people based on their need; however, to facilitate better coordination among the state’s resources for addressing homelessness, there should be some ability to coordinate between cities that are using either HHAP or ERP funds to move people out of encampments into temporary or permanent housing through CES. This bill would require cities, counties, and CoCs to develop a process for prioritizing people living in encampments for permanent housing in the CES. Cities, counties, and CoCs applying for HHAP round four funding and future rounds would be required to develop an MOU or policies that prioritize people in encampments for permanent housing in the CES.

Arguments in Support: According to the sponsor, the City of Berkeley, the city received funding for a Homekey project to acquire the Golden Bear Inn but could not use the units to move people from People’s Park because Homekey requires that units be filled using the CES referrals. This challenge illustrates the need for some additional coordination in CES for individuals in encampments.

Arguments in Opposition: None on file.

Committee Amendments: The committee may wish to consider further refinements to the language in the bill to make it clear that the CoC is the lead in developing policies that address how people living in encampments should be prioritized for permanent housing and that policies should be required when cities and counties are using their HHAP or ERP funds for encampment resolution.

REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:

Support

City of Berkeley (Sponsor)

Opposition

None on file.

Analysis Prepared by: Lisa Engel / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085