Existing law requires the Interagency Council on Homelessness to set and measure progress toward goals to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California by setting specific, measurable goals aimed at preventing and ending homelessness among youth in the state, including, among others, decreasing the duration and frequency of experiences of homelessness among Californias youth.

This bill would additionally require the council to set the goals of decreasing the number of young people experiencing homelessness in the state who struggle with food insecurity and decreasing the unemployment rate among young people experiencing homelessness by increasing access to employment opportunities and economic stability.

Existing law requires the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to set and measure progress toward goals to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California by setting specific, measurable goals aimed at preventing and ending homelessness among youth in the state, including, among others, decreasing the duration and frequency of experiences of homelessness among Californias youth.

This bill would additionally require the council to set the goals of decreasing the number of young people experiencing homelessness in the state who struggle with food insecurity and decreasing the unemployment rate among young people experiencing homelessness by increasing access to employment opportunities and economic stability.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Social Services, which has authority over various programs aimed at providing services for needy individuals, including programs targeted for at-risk youth.

This bill would state that it is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation authorizing the department to incentivize youth and young adults at risk of becoming homeless to enter into education, job training, and substance use treatment programs.

 THIRD READING  

Bill No: AB 1817

Author: Alanis (R)

Amended: 8/15/24 in Senate

Vote: 21

SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/17/24

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

SENATE HOUSING COMMITTEE: 10-0, 7/2/24

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

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 8/15/24

AYES: Caballero, Jones, Ashby, Becker, Bradford, Seyarto, Wahab

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 73-0, 5/21/24 - See last page for vote

SUBJECT: Homeless youth

SOURCE: Author

DIGEST:

This bill updates the goals of the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to include goals pertaining to decreasing food insecurity and increasing employment opportunities for youth experiencing homelessness. It also requires the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) to set and measure the progress of those goals.

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. Defines, in the federal McKinney-Vento Act Homeless Assistance Act, “homeless children and youth” as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, including children who are sharing the housing of other people, living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camp grounds, emergency or transitional shelters, abandoned in hospitals or awaiting foster care placement, or who are living in a place not generally used for sleeping, such as cars, parks, public places, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, and migratory children living in the circumstances above. (Title 42 United States Code (USC) 11434(a)(2))
2. Requires homeless youth emergency service pilot programs to be created in the counties of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Santa Clara to provide services for the immediate needs of youth experiencing homelessness including but not limited to access to food and temporary shelter, counseling and linkages to services. (WIC 13700)
3. Requires the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to develop CalFresh information on expedited services for people experiencing homelessness, including youth experiencing homelessness (WIC 18904.25)
4. Requires the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship to create a subcommittee to study and report on issues related to homeless youth and foster youth in apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. (Labor Code 3071.7)
5. Requires the Governor to create an Interagency Council on Homelessness (WIC 8257 et seq)
6. Makes findings and declarations establishing the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to improve prevention and early intervention services for youth at risk of experiencing homelessness and increase access to services for youth experiencing homelessness. (WIC 8259)
7. Defines “homeless youth” as unaccompanied youth between 12 and 24 years old who is experiencing homelessness as defined in the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. It also includes youth that are pregnant or parenting. (WIC 8260(d))
8. Requires the Cal ICH to set and measure progress towards the goals of the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California (WIC 8261 (a))

This bill:

1. Requires the Cal ICH to create specific and measurable goals that decrease number of youth experiencing homelessness who struggle with food insecurity.
2. Requires the Cal ICH to create specific and measurable goals that decrease unemployment by increasing access to employment opportunity and economic security.

Comments

According to the author, “[this bill] would update the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to establish a more extensive list of goals that includes not only shelter, but an emphasis on food security and economic stability as well. These additional goals reflect the struggles that homeless youth have experienced increasingly over time, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time for California to take a more comprehensive approach to the youth homelessness crisis by adding goals related to food security and employment opportunities to end youth homelessness once and for all.”

Homeless Youth. There are many definitions of homeless youth found within federal code and program eligibility. For example, the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act defines “homeless youth” as individuals who are less than 21 years of age and for whom it is not possible to live in a safe environment with a relative and who have no other safe alternative living arrangement. This definition only includes those youth who are unaccompanied by families or caregivers. Through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the Federal Government defines “homeless children and youth” as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, including children who are sharing the housing of other people, living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camp grounds, emergency or transitional shelters, abandoned in hospitals or awaiting foster care placement, or who are living in a place not generally used for sleeping, cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, and migratory children living in the circumstances above. The McKinney-Vento Act defines “unaccompanied youth” to mean a youth experiencing homelessness, as defined above, and not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian. As such, the McKinney-Vento Act definition of homeless children and youth may include both those youth experiencing homelessness with their family or caregiver and those youth experiencing homelessness alone. This bill relies on the McKeinney- Vento Act definition for homelessness including children under the age of 18 and youth up to the age of 24 but narrowed to only unaccompanied youth. Unaccompanied youth are captured as a unique subset of data in the annual United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Point in Time Count (PIT).

Department of Housing and Urban Development Point in Time Count. Most homelessness data stems from HUD PIT. Annually, HUD directs local community Continuums of Care (CoCs) to conduct a PIT of people experiencing homelessness in January, and includes people experiencing homelessness who are “sheltered” – living in temporary shelters – and those who are “unsheltered,” or 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 is required by HUD as a condition of receiving federal funding. The PIT captures homeless children and youth data in two ways, through reporting numbers on homeless families with children and reporting numbers on unaccompanied homeless youth. According to HUD, counting unaccompanied youth is very challenging because this population are less likely to use residential services, they congregate away from adults experiencing homeless, and often hide from law enforcement because they are minors.

In the 2023 PIT, California was reported to have 10,173 unaccompanied homeless youth and of those 6,934 were unsheltered, which is an increase from 2022 when the PIT identified 9.590 unaccompanied homeless youth. The 2023 PIT found the total unaccompanied homeless youth in the United States was 34,703. This means California is home to one-third of the unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness in the country.

California Interagency Council on Homelessness. The California Interagency Cal ICH was created in 2021 by AB 1220 (L. Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) as a successor to the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) to address the coordination and oversight of homelessness programs. The bill also made changes to the membership of the Cal ICH and provided the Cal ICH with additional authority to access information from other departments. To ensure the Cal ICH has access to information about homelessness programs throughout state agencies, the Cal ICH is allowed to require state departments that have homelessness programs to participate in Cal ICH workgroups or other collaborative work. They can also require those departments or agencies to provide the Cal ICH data on those programs. Unlike the HCFC, the Cal ICH also requires department directors, agency secretaries, and executive directors to participate on the council rather than their representatives.

In addition to improving coordination between agencies, the Cal ICH is also charged with coordinating existing and competitive funding for homelessness initiatives, find new funding initiatives, make policy recommendations, broker agreements between state agencies, increase accountability, create reports for the Governor and Legislature, and create a statewide database for local homelessness data. This bill continues to refine those responsibilities by bringing attention to the Homeless Youth Act and focusing on specific challenges this population faces.

Homeless Youth Act of 2018. The Homeless Youth Act of 2018 (Act) was created by SB 918 (Weiner, Chapter 841, Statutes 2018) within the HCFC before it became the Cal ICH. The Act placed additional responsibilities on the HCFC to focus on youth facing homelessness. The Act’s current goals reflect the overall goals of the Cal ICH to decrease homelessness and increase coordination. Specifically the Act required the Cal ICH to pursue the following goals:

1. Decrease the number of youth experiencing homelessness
   
2. Decreasing homelessness caused by separation from family or legal guardian
   
3. Decreasing the rate and length of youth experiencing homelessness
   
4. Decreasing barriers to service by increasing cross- systems partnerships government entities service this population.
   

This bill adds two additional goals related to food security and employment.

Related/Prior Legislation

SB 918 (Weiner, Chapter 841, Statutes 2018) created Homeless Youth Act of 2018, which adds new responsibilities related to homeless youth to the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Cal ICH.

AB 1220 (Luz Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes 2021) created the California Interagency Council to coordinate state homelessness resources and programming.

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

According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, Cal ICH estimates the following General Fund costs:

• Staffing: $194,000 in the first year and $186,000 annually thereafter to manage the interagency data agreements with the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Employment Development Department (EDD), oversee the contractor in importing and merging datasets, oversee the analysis of sensitive datasets, and develop the format for reporting on these measures.
• Data Fee: $200,000 annually to request sensitive and confidential data sets from DSS and EDD, in order to conduct analysis of data and develop measures informed by the data. Estimates are based on current department fees.
• Vendor: Mid to high hundreds of thousands in the first year and high tens of thousands ongoing thereafter for a contractor to develop a pipeline to import the data, create structures to store the data, conduct data matches and quality checks, and develop data security processes, and for ongoing maintenance of data.

SUPPORT: (Verified 8/16/24)

CA Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies

California Coalition for Youth

Los Angeles County Office of Education

OPPOSITION: (Verified 8/16/24)

None received

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 73-0, 5/21/24

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

NO VOTE RECORDED: Cervantes, Megan Dahle, Friedman, Gabriel, Holden, Mathis, Luz Rivas

Prepared by: Naima Ford Antal / HUMAN S. / (916) 651-1524

8/19/24 10:47:15

**** END ****

SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Senator Anna Caballero, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular Session

AB 1817 (Alanis) - Homeless youth

Bill Summary:

AB 1817 would add to the existing list of California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) goals to prevent and end homelessness among youth.

*********** ANALYSIS ADDENDUM – SUSPENSE FILE ***********

The following information is revised to reflect amendments

adopted by the committee on August 15, 2024

Fiscal Impact:

Cal ICH estimates the following General Fund costs:

• Staffing: $194,000 in the first year and $186,000 annually thereafter to manage the interagency data agreements with the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Employment Development Department (EDD), oversee the contractor in importing and merging datasets, oversee the analysis of sensitive datasets, and develop the format for reporting on these measures.
• Data Fee: $200,000 annually to request sensitive and confidential data sets from DSS and EDD, in order to conduct analysis of data and develop measures informed by the data. Estimates are based on current department fees.
• Vendor: Mid to high hundreds of thousands in the first year and high tens of thousands ongoing thereafter for a contractor to develop a pipeline to import the data, create structures to store the data, conduct data matches and quality checks, and develop data security processes, and for ongoing maintenance of data.

Author Amendments:

Make technical changes to reflect the updated code section.

-- END --

SENATE COMMITTEE ON

Senator Anna Caballero, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular Session

AB 1817 (Alanis) - Homeless youth

Bill Summary:

AB 1817 would add to the existing list of California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) goals to prevent and end homelessness among youth.

Fiscal Impact:

Cal ICH estimates the following General Fund costs:

• Staffing: $194,000 in the first year and $186,000 annually thereafter to manage the interagency data agreements with the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Employment Development Department (EDD), oversee the contractor in importing and merging datasets, oversee the analysis of sensitive datasets, and develop the format for reporting on these measures.
• Data Fee: $200,000 annually to request sensitive and confidential data sets from DSS and EDD, in order to conduct analysis of data and develop measures informed by the data. Estimates are based on current department fees.

• Vendor: Mid to high hundreds of thousands in the first year and high tens of thousands ongoing thereafter for a contractor to develop a pipeline to import the data, create structures to store the data, conduct data matches and quality checks, and develop data security processes, and for ongoing maintenance of data.

Background:

Current law establishes the Cal ICH, formerly the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council. The goals for the Cal ICH include, but are not limited to, identification of benefits, 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. The Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency serve as co-chairs of the council.

Current law requires the council to set and measure progress towards goals to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California. These goals must include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Measurably decreasing the number of young people experiencing homelessness in the state.
• Measurably increasing permanency rates among young people experiencing homelessness by decreasing the length and occurrences of young people experiencing homelessness caused by a youth’s separation from family or a legal guardian.
• Decreasing the duration and frequency of experiences of homelessness among California’s youth.
• Decreasing barriers to services through promoting cross-systems partnerships to expedite access to services, including social services, child welfare services, regional center services, and mental health services.

Proposed Law:

AB 1817 would add the following to the existing list of Cal ICH goals to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California:

• Decreasing the number of young people experiencing homelessness in the state who struggle with food insecurity.
• Decreasing the unemployment rate among young people experiencing homelessness by increasing access to employment opportunities and economic stability.

-- END --

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HOUSING

Senator Nancy Skinner, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Bill No: AB 1817 Hearing Date: 7/2/2024

SUBJECT: Homeless youth

DIGEST: This bill amends the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 by adding two additional goals related to food security and employment, as specified.

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Establishes the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to improve prevention and early intervention services for youth at risk of experiencing homelessness and increase access to services for youth experiencing homelessness.
4. Defines “homeless youth” as unaccompanied youth between 12 and 24 years old who is experiencing homelessness as defined in the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
5. Requires Cal ICH to set and measure progress towards the goals of the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California.

This bill:

1. Requires Cal-ICH to create specific and measurable goals that decrease number of youth experiencing homelessness who struggle with food insecurity.
2. Requires Cal-ICH to create specific and measurable goals that decrease unemployment by increasing access to employment opportunity and economic security.

COMMENTS:

1. Author’s statement. “AB 1817 would update the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to establish a more extensive list of goals that includes not only shelter, but an emphasis on food security and economic stability as well. These additional goals reflect the struggles that homeless youth have experienced increasingly over time, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time for California to take a more comprehensive approach to the youth homelessness crisis by adding goals related to food security and employment opportunities to end youth homelessness once and for all.”
2. Cal-ICH. Cal-ICH, formerly known as the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC), was created to oversee the implementation of “Housing First” policies, guidelines, and regulations to reduce the prevalence and duration of homelessness in California. Housing First is an evidence-based model that focuses on the idea that homeless individuals should be provided shelter and stability before underlying issues can be successfully addressed. Housing First utilizes a tenant screening process that promotes accepting applicants regardless of their sobriety, use of substances or participation in services. As the state’s homelessness crisis has worsened, the role of Cal-ICH has significantly increased, until recently, as was has been charged with administering two significant programs dedicated to addressing homelessness, the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program (HHAPP).
3. Homelessness Numbers. According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, chronically homeless people are people with disabilities who also experience extended or repeated episodes of homelessness. The 2020 point in time (PIT) count found that 48,812, or 40%, of individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness were in California; 84% of chronically homeless people in California were unsheltered. Nationally, 110,528 (over a quarter of all homeless individuals) were chronically homeless.^[1] Notably, chronically homeless people are a subpopulation that Cal-ICH is required to quantify, and localities must address this subpopulation in local landscape analyses in order to receive HHAPP funding.

4) Homeless Youth Act of 2018. The Homeless Youth Act of 2018 was created by AB 918 (Weiner, Chapter 841, Statutes of 2018) within Cal-ICH. The Act placed additional responsibilities on the HCFC to focus on youth facing homelessness. The Act’s current goals reflect the overall goals of the Cal-ICH to decrease homelessness and increase coordination. Specifically, the Act required the Cal-ICH to pursue the following goals:

1. Decrease the number of youth experiencing homelessness
2. Decreasing homelessness caused by separation from family or legal guardian
3. Decreasing the rate and length of youth experiencing homelessness
4. Decreasing barriers to service by increasing cross- systems partnerships government entities service this population.
   

This bill adds two additional goals related to food security and employment.

1. Incoming! This bill passed out of the Senate Human Services Committee on June 17, 2024 with a 5-0 vote.

Related Legislation:

SB 918 (Weiner, Chapter 841, Statutes 2018) — created the Homeless Youth Act of 2018, which adds new responsibilities related to homeless youth to the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Cal-ICH.

AB 1220 (Luz Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes 2021) — created Cal-ICH to coordinate state homelessness resources and programming.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: Fiscal Com.: Local:

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

June 26, 2024.)

SUPPORT:

California Coalition for Youth
Los Angeles County Office of Education

OPPOSITION:

None received.

-- END --

1. Henry et al. “The 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress.” (US Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2021). https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2020-AHAR-Part-1.pdf ↑

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES

Senator Alvarado-Gil, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Subject: Homeless youth

SUMMARY

This bill updates the goals of the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to include goals pertaining to decreasing food insecurity and increasing employment opportunities for youth experiencing homelessness. It also requires the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) to set and measure the progress of those goals.

ABSTRACT

Existing Law:

1. Defines, in the federal McKinney-Vento Act Homeless Assistance Act, “homeless children and youth” as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, including children who are sharing the housing of other people, living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camp grounds, emergency or transitional shelters, abandoned in hospitals or awaiting foster care placement, or who are living in a place not generally used for sleeping, such as cars, parks, public places, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, and migratory children living in the circumstances above. (Title 42 United States Code (USC) 11434(a)(2))
2. Requires homeless youth emergency service pilot programs to be created in the counties of Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Santa Clara to provide services for the immediate needs of youth experiencing homelessness including but not limited to access to food and temporary shelter, counseling and linkages to services. (WIC 13700)
3. Requires the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to develop CalFresh information on expedited services for people experiencing homelessness, including youth experiencing homelessness (WIC 18904.25)
4. Requires the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship to create a subcommittee to study and report on issues related to homeless youth and foster youth in apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. (Labor Code 3071.7)
5. Requires the Governor to create an Interagency Council on Homelessness (WIC 8257 et seq)
6. Makes findings and declarations establishing the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to improve prevention and early intervention services for youth at risk of experiencing homelessness and increase access to services for youth experiencing homelessness. (WIC 8259)
7. Defines “homeless youth” as unaccompanied youth between 12 and 24 years old who is experiencing homelessness as defined in the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. It also includes youth that are pregnant or parenting. (WIC 8260(d))
8. Requires the Cal ICH to set and measure progress towards the goals of the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California (WIC 8261 (a))

This Bill:

1. Requires the Cal ICH to create specific and measurable goals that decrease number of youth experiencing homelessness who struggle with food insecurity.
2. Require the Cal ICH to create specific and measurable goals that decrease unemployment by increasing access to employment opportunity and economic security.

FISCAL IMPACT

According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis:

1. “General Fund (GF) costs of approximately $194,000 in the first year and $186,000 annually thereafter for one staff position to manage the interagency data agreements with the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Employment Development Department (EDD), oversee the contractor in importing and merging datasets, oversee the analysis of sensitive datasets, and develop the format for reporting on these measures.
2. “Ongoing GF costs of $200,000 annually to request sensitive and confidential data sets from DSS and EDD, in order to conduct analysis of data, and develop measures informed by the data. These estimates are based on current department fees, and subject to change when data is requested from departments.
3. “One-time GF costs of up to $400,000 in the first year and up to $75,000 ongoing for a contractor to develop a pipeline to import the data, create structures to store the data, conduct data matches and quality checks, and develop data security processes, and ongoing maintenance of data. “

BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION

Purpose of the Bill:

According to the author, “[this bill] would update the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to establish a more extensive list of goals that includes not only shelter, but an emphasis on food security and economic stability as well. These additional goals reflect the struggles that homeless youth have experienced increasingly over time, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time for California to take a more comprehensive approach to the youth homelessness crisis by adding goals related to food security and employment opportunities to end youth homelessness once and for all.”

Background

Homeless Youth

There are many definitions of homeless youth found within federal code and program eligibility. For example, the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act defines “homeless youth” as individuals who are less than 21 years of age and for whom it is not possible to live in a safe environment with a relative and who have no other safe alternative living arrangement. This definition only includes those youth who are unaccompanied by families or caregivers. Through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the Federal Government defines “homeless children and youth” as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, including children who are sharing the housing of other people, living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camp grounds, emergency or transitional shelters, abandoned in hospitals or awaiting foster care placement, or who are living in a place not generally used for sleeping, cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, and migratory children living in the circumstances above. The McKinney-Vento Act defines “unaccompanied youth” to mean a youth experiencing homelessness, as defined above, and not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian. As such, the McKinney-Vento Act definition of homeless children and youth may include both those youth experiencing homelessness with their family or caregiver and those youth experiencing homelessness alone. This bill relies on the McKeinney- Vento Act definition for homelessness including children under the age of 18 and youth up to the age of 24 but narrowed to only unaccompanied youth. Unaccompanied youth are captured as an unique subset of data in the annual United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Point in Time Count (PIT).

Department of Housing and Urban Development Point in Time Count

Most homelessness data stems from HUD PIT. Annually, HUD directs local community Continuums of Care (CoCs) to conduct a PIT of people experiencing homelessness in January, and includes people experiencing homelessness who are “sheltered” – living in temporary shelters – and those who are “unsheltered,” or 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 is required by HUD as a condition of receiving federal funding. The PIT captures homeless children and youth data in two ways, through reporting numbers on homeless families with children and reporting numbers on unaccompanied homeless youth. According to HUD, counting unaccompanied youth is very challenging because this population are less likely to use residential services, they congregate away from adults experiencing homeless, and often hide from law enforcement because they are minors.

In the 2023 PIT, California was reported to have 10,173 unaccompanied homeless youth and of those 6,934 were unsheltered, which is an increase from 2022 when the PIT identified 9.590 unaccompanied homeless youth. The 2023 PIT found the total unaccompanied homeless youth in the United States was 34,703. This means California is home to one-third of the unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness in the country.

California Interagency Council on Homelessness

The California Interagency Cal ICH was created in 2021 by AB 1220 (Rivas, Chapter 398) as a successor to the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) to address the coordination and oversight of homelessness programs. The bill also made changes to the membership of the Cal ICH and provided the Cal ICH with additional authority to access information from other departments. To ensure the Cal ICH has access to information about homelessness programs throughout state agencies, the Cal ICH is allowed to require state departments that have homelessness programs to participate in Cal ICH workgroups or other collaborative work. They can also require those departments or agencies to provide the Cal ICH data on those programs. Unlike the HCFC, the Cal ICH also requires department directors, agency secretaries, and executive directors to participate on the council rather than their representatives.

In addition to improving coordination between agencies, the Cal ICH is also charged with coordinating existing and competitive funding for homelessness initiatives, find new funding initiatives, make policy recommendations, broker agreements between state agencies, increase accountability, create reports for the Governor and Legislature, and create a statewide database for local homelessness data. This bill continues to refine those responsibilities by bringing attention to the Homeless Youth Act and focusing on specific challenges this population faces.

Homeless Youth Act of 2018

The Homeless Youth Act of 2018 (Act) was created by AB 918 (Weiner, Chapter 841, Statutes 2018) within the HCFC before it became the Cal ICH. The Act placed additional responsibilities on the HCFC to focus on youth facing homelessness. The Act’s current goals reflect the overall goals of the Cal ICH to decrease homelessness and increase coordination. Specifically the Act required the Cal ICH to pursue the following goals:

1. Decrease the number of youth experiencing homelessness
   
2. Decreasing homelessness caused by separation from family or legal guardian
   
3. Decreasing the rate and length of youth experiencing homelessness
   
4. Decreasing barriers to service by increasing cross- systems partnerships government entities service this population.
   

This bill adds two additional goals related to food security and employment.

Related/Prior Legislation:

SB 918 (Weiner, Chapter 841, Statutes 2018) created Homeless Youth Act of 2018, which adds new responsibilities related to homeless youth to the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Cal ICH.

AB 1220 (Luz Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes 2021) created the California Interagency Council to coordinate state homelessness resources and programming.

COMMENTS

The current goals of the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 are broad and focus on decreasing homelessness and increasing coordination among government entities. This bill updates those goals by focusing on the specific challenges youth face when experiencing homelessness. By highlighting food insecurity and employment, the Cal ICH can focus its grant opportunities and strategy recommendations on supportive services that help youth find housing and remain housed. This bill is also referred to the Senate Housing Committee.

PRIOR VOTES

POSITIONS

Support:

California Coalition for Youth
Los Angeles County Office of Education

Oppose:

None

-- END --

Date of Hearing: April 24, 2024

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Buffy Wicks, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 1817

Author:(Alanis) – As Amended Ver:March 18, 2024

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

SUMMARY:

This bill requires the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) to additionally set and measure progress towards the goals of decreasing the number of young people experiencing homelessness in the state who struggle with food insecurity, and decreasing the unemployment rate among young people experiencing homelessness by increasing access to employment opportunities and economic stability.

FISCAL EFFECT:

Cal-ICH estimates the following:

1. General Fund (GF) costs of approximately $194,000 in the first year and $186,000 annually thereafter for one staff position to manage the interagency data agreements with the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Employment Development Department (EDD), oversee the contractor in importing and merging datasets, oversee the analysis of sensitive datasets, and develop the format for reporting on these measures.  
2. Ongoing GF costs of $200,000 annually to request sensitive and confidential data sets from DSS and EDD, in order to conduct analysis of data, and develop measures informed by the data. These estimates are based on current department fees, and subject to change when data is requested from departments. 
3. One-time GF costs of up to $400,000 in the first year and up to $75,000 ongoing for a contractor to develop a pipeline to import the data, create structures to store the data, conduct data matches and quality checks, and develop data security processes, and ongoing maintenance of data. 

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the General Fund faces a structural deficit in the tens of billions of dollars over the next several fiscal years. 

COMMENTS:

1. Purpose. According to the author:

[This bill] would update the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to establish a more extensive list of goals that includes not only shelter, but an emphasis on food security and economic stability as well. These additional goals reflect the struggles that homeless youth have experienced increasingly over time, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. It is time for California to take a more comprehensive approach to the youth homelessness crisis by adding goals related to food security and employment opportunities to end youth homelessness once and for all.

1. Background. The Point-in-Time Count conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported, on a single night in 2023, there were 10,173 unaccompanied youth under the age of 25 experiencing homelessness in California. This is the largest number of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness in any state, and accounts for more than a fourth of all such unaccompanied youth nationally. This number represents an increase in homeless youth of 583 from the prior year.

Cal-ICH, formerly known as the Homelessness Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC), was established in 2017 as a way to coordinate the state’s response to homelessness and to oversee the implementation of Housing First policies, guidelines, and regulations to reduce the prevalence and duration of homelessness in California. Additionally, Cal-ICH, through SB 918 (Wiener), Chapter 841, Statutes of 2018, established the Homeless Youth Act of 2018 to better serve the state’s homeless youth population and required HCFC to take on additional related responsibilities focused on addressing the needs of youth experiencing homelessness.

This bill adds to Cal-ICH’s current responsibilities regarding preventing and ending youth homelessness the requirement to also focus on food insecurity and employment opportunities.

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