Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California by creating partnerships between federal, state, local, and nonprofit entities. Existing law requires a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs, upon request of the council, to participate in council activities, as specified, and to provide to the council any relevant information regarding those state homelessness programs.

This bill would require, commencing September 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to report annually to the council cost and outcome data for each program the agency or department administers, and would require the council, in coordination with each agency or department required to report to the council, as specified, to develop data collection and reporting procedures for this purpose. The bill would require the council to compile the data reported by agencies and departments and, commencing April 1, 2026, annually make that data available to the public.

Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California by creating partnerships between federal, state, local, and nonprofit entities. Existing law requires a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs, upon request of the council, to participate in council activities, as specified, and to provide to the council any relevant information regarding those state homelessness programs.

This bill would require, commencing September 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to report annually to the council cost and outcome data for each program the agency or department administers, and would require the council council, in coordination with each agency or department required to report to the council, as specified, to develop uniform data collection and reporting procedures for this purpose. The bill would require the council to compile the data reported by agencies and departments and, commencing April 1, 2026, annually make that data available to the public.

Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California by creating partnerships between federal, state, local, and nonprofit entities. Existing law requires a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs, upon request of the council, to participate in council activities, as specified, and to provide to the council any relevant information regarding those state homelessness programs.

This bill would require, commencing June 1, September 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to report annually to the council cost and outcome data for each program the agency or department administers, and would require the council to develop uniform data collection and reporting procedures for this purpose. The bill would require the council to compile the data reported by agencies and departments and, commencing September 1, 2025, April 1, 2026, annually make that data available to the public.

Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California by creating partnerships between federal, state, local, and nonprofit entities. Existing law sets forth the composition of the council, which includes, among others, the Secretary of Business, Consumer Services, and Housing and the Secretary of California Health and Human Services, who serve as cochairs of the council. Existing law requires a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs, upon request of the council, to participate in council activities, as specified, and to provide to the council any relevant information regarding those state homelessness programs.

Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California by creating partnerships between federal, state, local, and nonprofit entities. Existing law requires the coordinating council to conduct, or contract with an entity to conduct, a statewide assessment to identify state programs that provide housing or services to persons experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, as defined, and collect and analyze data to provide a comprehensive view of the homeless response system. Existing law requires a state agency with a member on the council to provide requested data within 60 days, subject to certain exceptions. Existing law sets forth the composition of the council, which includes, among others, the Secretary of Business, Consumer Services, and Housing and the Secretary of California Health and Human Services, who serve as cochairs of the council.

Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California by creating partnerships between federal, state, local, and nonprofit entities. Existing law requires the coordinating council to conduct, or contract with an entity to conduct, a statewide assessment to identify state programs that provide housing or services to persons experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, as defined, and collect and analyze data to provide a comprehensive view of the homeless response system. Existing law requires a state agency with a member on the council to provide requested data within 60 days, subject to certain exceptions.

This bill would revise the time within which a state agency must provide requested data to 45 days.

GOVERNOR'S VETO

GV Bill Id:AB 2903

Author:(Hoover)

As Enrolled Ver:September 5, 2024

2/3 vote

SUMMARY

Requires, beginning September 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers. Requires Cal-ICH to compile the data reported by state agencies and make it available to the public by April 1, 2026.

Senate Amendments

1. Move the bill's provisions to a stand-alone section of law to avoid chaptering conflicts AB 799 (Luz Rivas, 2024).
2. Delete the requirement for Cal-ICH to develop "uniform" data collection and reporting procedures, and instead require Cal-ICH to develop data collection and reporting procedures in coordination with each agency or department required to report to Cal-ICH, and in alignment with existing reporting requirements.

Governor’s Veto Message

This bill would require state agencies and departments administering homelessness programs to report cost and outcome data annually to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) using standardized procedures, beginning September 1, 2025. It would also require Cal ICH to compile and publicly release this data each year starting April 1, 2026.

While I fully support efforts to increase accountability and the effectiveness of our state homelessness programs, similar measures are already in place. Legislation enacted as part of the 2024 Budget Act (Assembly Bill 166, Chapter 48) includes enhanced reporting requirements for two of the state's largest homelessness programs. Specifically, Assembly Bill 166 mandates monthly reporting of outcomes for all rounds of the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, and annual outcome reporting for the Encampment Resolution Grants Program. These reports will be made publicly available by Cal ICH. Additionally, I recently signed Assembly Bill 799, which addresses the same objectives as this bill in a more targeted and cost-effective manner.

COMMENTS

Homelessness in California. Based on the 2023 point in time count, California has the largest homeless population in the nation with 181,399 people experiencing homelessness on any given night, of which 113,660 are unsheltered, meaning they are living outdoors and not in temporary shelters. Nearly half of all unsheltered people in the country were in California during the 2023 count. The homelessness crisis is driven in large part by the lack of affordable rental housing for lower income people. In the current market, 2.2 million extremely low-income and very low-income renter households are competing for 664,000 affordable rental units. Of the six million renter households in the state, 1.7 million are paying more than 50% of their income toward rent. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the state needs an additional 1.5 million housing units affordable to very-low income Californians.

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, as it has been charged with administering two significant programs dedicated to addressing homelessness, the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) and HHAPP.

State Auditor's Reports. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested an audit of the state's homelessness funding, including an evaluation of the efforts undertaken by the State and two cities to monitor the cost-effectiveness of such spending. The auditor released both audits on April 9, 2024. In the audit of state programs, the auditor found that the "state lacks current information on the ongo­­ing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal-ICH has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State's efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Although Cal-ICH reported in 2023 financial information covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21 related to all state-funded homelessness programs, it has not continued to track and report this data since that time, despite the significant amount of additional funding the State awarded to these efforts in the past two years. … Another significant gap in the State's ability to assess programs' effectiveness is that it does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs."

Cal-ICH Updated Coordination. Last year, the Legislature moved administration of HHAPP and the Encampment Resolution program from Cal-ICH to the Department of Housing and community Development (HCD) in an effort to return Cal-ICH to its core mission of coordinating the state's overall response to homelessness. This bill could assist Cal-ICH in coordinating that overall strategy by requiring all relevant homelessness programs to send Cal-ICH annual cost and outcome data to determine how the state should invest resources and coordinate efforts in the response to homelessness. The current timing of these reporting changes, requiring that all programs are reported to Cal-ICH by September 1, 2025 and that Cal-ICH compiles and publicly publishes this information by April 1, 2026, provides limited time for the secure transfer and processing of this data.

According to the Author

"Last year I requested an audit of our homelessness spending to better target state dollars to the most effective homeless programs. The results of the homelessness audit are a critical first step toward improving our investments, protecting taxpayers, restoring our public spaces, and getting the homeless population the help they need. Now that we have identified the ineffectiveness and limitations of our current approach, it is now necessary for the Legislature to take action and improve accountability of the dollars we are spending. This bill adopts the State Auditor's recommendation on homelessness by proposing that state agencies report the costs and outcomes of state-funded homelessness programs."

Arguments in Support

Supporters believe this bill will help the state better respond to homelessness using data and outcomes.

Arguments in Opposition

None on file.

FISCAL COMMENTS

According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:

1. Cal ICH indicates that it would incur first-year costs of $743,000, and $711,000 annually thereafter, to implement the provisions of the bill. Specifically, Cal ICH would require 4.0 PY of staff to coordinate with state departments and agencies to identify the programs required to report data, develop data collection and reporting templates and procedures, collect fiscal data and outcomes, perform analysis and validation of fiscal data and outcomes, maintain data dashboards, and oversee the work of the contractor. (General Fund)
2. Cal ICH additionally estimates that it would incur a one-time General Fund cost of $3.5 million over three years for a contractor to support the development of data collection and reporting procedures, development of a data dashboard to make data publicly available, and support the Council in conducting technical assistance to departments and agencies.
3. The Department of Social Services estimates costs of approximately $400,000 annually for 2.0 PY of staff to coordinate and oversee the collection, compilation, analysis, and dissemination of financial and outcome data. (General Fund)
4. The Department of Housing and Community Development indicates that reporting cost and outcome data on the homelessness programs it administers would be absorbable. (General Fund)

VOTES

ASM HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: 9-0-0

YES: Ward, Joe Patterson, Grayson, Kalra, Lee, Quirk-Silva, Reyes, Sanchez, Wilson

ASM APPROPRIATIONS: 15-0-0

YES: Wicks, Sanchez, Arambula, Bryan, Calderon, Wendy Carrillo, Dixon, Mike Fong, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Jim Patterson, Pellerin, Ta, Villapudua

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 72-0-8

YES: Addis, Aguiar-Curry, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Juan Carrillo, Wendy Carrillo, Chen, Connolly, Davies, Dixon, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Gabriel, 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

ABS, ABST OR NV: Calderon, Cervantes, Megan Dahle, Essayli, Friedman, Holden, Mathis, Luz Rivas

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

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0-2

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

ABS, ABST OR NV: Calderon, Ortega

UPDATED

VERSION: September 5, 2024

CONSULTANT: Lisa Engel / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085 FN: 0005164

CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS

CSA1 Bill Id:AB 2903

Author:(Hoover)

As Amended Ver:August 15, 2024

Majority vote

SUMMARY

Requires, beginning September 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers. Requires Cal-ICH to compile the data reported by state agencies and make it available to the public by April 1, 2026.

Senate Amendments

1. Move the bill's provisions to a stand-alone section of law to avoid chaptering conflicts AB 799 (Luz Rivas, 2024).
2. Delete the requirement for Cal-ICH to develop "uniform" data collection and reporting procedures, and instead require Cal-ICH to develop data collection and reporting procedures in coordination with each agency or department required to report to Cal-ICH, and in alignment with existing reporting requirements.

COMMENTS

Homelessness in California. Based on the 2023 point in time count, California has the largest homeless population in the nation with 181,399 people experiencing homelessness on any given night, of which 113,660 are unsheltered, meaning they are living outdoors and not in temporary shelters. Nearly half of all unsheltered people in the country were in California during the 2023 count. The homelessness crisis is driven in large part by the lack of affordable rental housing for lower income people. In the current market, 2.2 million extremely low-income and very low-income renter households are competing for 664,000 affordable rental units. Of the six million renter households in the state, 1.7 million are paying more than 50% of their income toward rent. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the state needs an additional 1.5 million housing units affordable to very-low income Californians.

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, as it has been charged with administering two significant programs dedicated to addressing homelessness, the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) and HHAPP.

State Auditor's Reports. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested an audit of the state's homelessness funding, including an evaluation of the efforts undertaken by the State and two cities to monitor the cost-effectiveness of such spending. The auditor released both audits on April 9, 2024. In the audit of state programs, the auditor found that the "state lacks current information on the ongo­­ing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal-ICH has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State's efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Although Cal-ICH reported in 2023 financial information covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21 related to all state-funded homelessness programs, it has not continued to track and report this data since that time, despite the significant amount of additional funding the State awarded to these efforts in the past two years. … Another significant gap in the State's ability to assess programs' effectiveness is that it does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs."

Cal-ICH Updated Coordination. Last year, the Legislature moved administration of HHAPP and the Encampment Resolution program from Cal-ICH to the Department of Housing and community Development (HCD) in an effort to return Cal-ICH to its core mission of coordinating the state's overall response to homelessness. This bill could assist Cal-ICH in coordinating that overall strategy by requiring all relevant homelessness programs to send Cal-ICH annual cost and outcome data to determine how the state should invest resources and coordinate efforts in the response to homelessness. The current timing of these reporting changes, requiring that all programs are reported to Cal-ICH by September 1, 2025 and that Cal-ICH compiles and publicly publishes this information by April 1, 2026, provides limited time for the secure transfer and processing of this data.

According to the Author

"Last year I requested an audit of our homelessness spending to better target state dollars to the most effective homeless programs. The results of the homelessness audit are a critical first step toward improving our investments, protecting taxpayers, restoring our public spaces, and getting the homeless population the help they need. Now that we have identified the ineffectiveness and limitations of our current approach, it is now necessary for the Legislature to take action and improve accountability of the dollars we are spending. This bill adopts the State Auditor's recommendation on homelessness by proposing that state agencies report the costs and outcomes of state-funded homelessness programs."

Arguments in Support

Supporters believe this bill will help the state better respond to homelessness using data and outcomes.

Arguments in Opposition

None on file.

FISCAL COMMENTS

According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:

1. Cal ICH indicates that it would incur first-year costs of $743,000, and $711,000 annually thereafter, to implement the provisions of the bill. Specifically, Cal ICH would require 4.0 PY of staff to coordinate with state departments and agencies to identify the programs required to report data, develop data collection and reporting templates and procedures, collect fiscal data and outcomes, perform analysis and validation of fiscal data and outcomes, maintain data dashboards, and oversee the work of the contractor. (General Fund)
2. Cal ICH additionally estimates that it would incur a one-time General Fund cost of $3.5 million over three years for a contractor to support the development of data collection and reporting procedures, development of a data dashboard to make data publicly available, and support the Council in conducting technical assistance to departments and agencies.
3. The Department of Social Services estimates costs of approximately $400,000 annually for 2.0 PY of staff to coordinate and oversee the collection, compilation, analysis, and dissemination of financial and outcome data. (General Fund)
4. The Department of Housing and Community Development indicates that reporting cost and outcome data on the homelessness programs it administers would be absorbable. (General Fund)

VOTES:

ASM HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: 9-0-0

YES: Ward, Joe Patterson, Grayson, Kalra, Lee, Quirk-Silva, Reyes, Sanchez, Wilson

ASM APPROPRIATIONS: 15-0-0

YES: Wicks, Sanchez, Arambula, Bryan, Calderon, Wendy Carrillo, Dixon, Mike Fong, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Jim Patterson, Pellerin, Ta, Villapudua

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 72-0-8

YES: Addis, Aguiar-Curry, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Juan Carrillo, Wendy Carrillo, Chen, Connolly, Davies, Dixon, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Gabriel, 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

ABS, ABST OR NV: Calderon, Cervantes, Megan Dahle, Essayli, Friedman, Holden, Mathis, Luz Rivas

UPDATED

VERSION: August 15, 2024

CONSULTANT: Lisa Engel / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085 FN: 0004351

 THIRD READING  

Bill No: AB 2903

Author: Hoover (R), et al.

Amended: 8/15/24 in Senate

Vote: 21

SENATE HOUSING COMMITTEE: 10-0, 6/18/24

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

SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE: 5-0, 7/1/24

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

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

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

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 72-0, 5/22/24 - See last page for vote

SUBJECT: Homelessness

SOURCE: Author

DIGEST:

This bill requires, beginning September 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) and for Cal-ICH to make compiled data available to the public.

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. Establishes the Cal-ICH, chaired by the Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing (BCSH) Agency and the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency, made up of various state departments and agencies.
2. Includes the following among the goals for the Cal-ICH:
   1. To create partnerships among state and federal agencies and departments, local government agencies, and nonprofit entities working to end homelessness, homeless services providers, and the private sector, for the purpose of arriving at specific strategies to end homelessness;
   2. To broker agreements between state agencies and departments and between state agencies and departments and local jurisdictions to align and coordinate resources, reduce administrative burdens of accessing existing resources, and foster common applications for services, operating, and capital funding;
   3. To serve as a statewide facilitator, coordinator, and policy development resource on ending homelessness in California;
   4. To report to the Governor, federal Cabinet members, and the Legislature on homelessness and work to reduce homelessness; and
   5. To ensure accountability and results in meeting the strategies and goals of the council.
3. Requires an eligible city, county, or Continuum of Care (CoC) to submit a local homelessness action plan that includes all of the following to access Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program (HHAPP) funds:
   1. A local landscape analysis that assesses the current number of people experiencing homelessness and existing programs and funding which address homelessness within the jurisdiction, utilizing any relevant and available data from the Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS), the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) homeless point-in-time count, CoC housing inventory count, longitudinal systems analysis, and Stella tools, as well as any recently conducted local needs assessments;
   2. Identification of the number of individuals and families served, including demographic information and intervention types provided, and demographic subpopulations that are underserved relative to their proportion of individuals experiencing homelessness in the jurisdiction;
   3. Identification of all funds, including state, federal and local funds, currently being used, and budgeted to be used, to provide housing and homelessness-related services to persons experiencing homelessness or at imminent risk of homelessness, how this funding serves subpopulations, and what intervention types are funded through these resources;
   4. An outline of proposed uses of funds requested and an explanation of how the proposed use of funds will complement existing local, state, and federal funds and equitably close the gaps identified;
   5. Evidence of connection with the local homeless Coordinated Entry System;
   6. An agreement to participate in a statewide Homeless Data Information System (HDIS), and to enter individuals served by this funding into the local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), in accordance with local protocols;
   7. A demonstration of how the jurisdiction has coordinated, and will continue to coordinate, with other jurisdictions, including the specific role of each applicant in relation to other applicants in the region;
   8. A demonstration of the applicant’s partnership with, or plans to use funding to increase partnership with, local health, behavioral health, social services, and justice entities and with people with lived experiences of homelessness;
4. Requires HHAPP applicants to establish goals that prevent and reduce homelessness from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2024, informed by the findings from the local landscape analysis and the jurisdiction’s base system performance measure from the 2020 calendar year data in the HDIS. The outcome goals shall set definitive metrics, based on HUD’s system performance measures, for achieving the following:
   1. Reducing the number of persons experiencing homelessness;
   2. Reducing the number of persons who become homeless for the first time;
   3. Increasing the number of people exiting homelessness into permanent housing;
   4. Reducing the length of time people remain homeless;
   5. Reducing the number of persons who return to homelessness after exiting homelessness to permanent housing; and
   6. Increasing successful placements from street outreach.

This bill:

1. Requires, beginning September 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to Cal-ICH for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers.
2. Requires Cal-ICH to develop data collection and reporting.

1. Requires Cal-ICH to compile the data reported pursuant to paragraph 1) and beginning April 1, 2026, to annually make the compiled data available to the public.

Background

Homelessness in California. Based on the 2023 point in time count, California has the largest homeless population in the nation with 181,399 people experiencing homelessness on any given night, of which 113,660 are unsheltered, meaning they are living outdoors and not in temporary shelters. Nearly half of all unsheltered people in the country were in California during the 2023 count. The homelessness crisis is driven in large part by the lack of affordable rental housing for lower income people. In the current market, 2.2 million extremely low-income and very low-income renter households are competing for 664,000 affordable rental units. Of the six million renter households in the state, 1.7 million are paying more than 50% of their income toward rent. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the state needs an additional 1.5 million housing units affordable to very-low income Californians.

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, as it has been charged with administering two significant programs dedicated to addressing homelessness, the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) and HHAPP.

Comments

1. Author’s Statement. According to the author, “Last year I requested an audit of our homelessness spending to better target state dollars to the most effective homeless programs. The results of the homelessness audit are a critical first step toward improving our investments, protecting taxpayers, restoring our public spaces, and getting the homeless population the help they need. Now that we have identified the ineffectiveness and limitations of our current approach, it is now necessary for the Legislature to take action and improve accountability of the dollars we are spending. This bill adopts the State Auditor’s recommendation on homelessness by proposing that state agencies report the costs and outcomes of state-funded homelessness programs.”
2. State Auditor’s Reports. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested an audit of the state’s homelessness funding, including an evaluation of the efforts undertaken by the State and two cities to monitor the cost-effectiveness of such spending. The auditor released both audits on April 9, 2024. In the audit of state programs, the auditor found that the “state lacks current information on the ongo­­ing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal-ICH has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Although Cal-ICH reported in 2023 financial information covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21 related to all state-funded homelessness programs, it has not continued to track and report this data since that time, despite the significant amount of additional funding the State awarded to these efforts in the past two years. … Another significant gap in the State’s ability to assess programs’ effectiveness is that it does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs.” ^[1]

1. Cal-ICH Updated Coordination. Last year, the Legislature moved administration of HHAPP and the Encampment Resolution program from Cal-ICH to the Department of Housing and community Development (HCD) in an effort to return Cal-ICH to its core mission of coordinating the state’s overall response to homelessness. This bill could assist Cal-ICH in coordinating that overall strategy by requiring all relevant homelessness programs to send Cal-ICH annual cost and outcome data to determine how the state should invest resources and coordinate efforts in the response to homelessness. The current timing of these reporting changes, requiring that all programs are reported to Cal-ICH by September 1^st, 2025 and that Cal-ICH compiles and publicly publishes this information by April 1^st, 2026, provides limited time for the secure transfer and processing of this data.
2. Appropriations amendments. This bill was amended while in the Senate Appropriations Committee to move these requirements to a new code section, so it would not conflict with AB 799 (Luz Rivas, 2024).

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

According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:

• Cal ICH indicates that it would incur first-year costs of $743,000, and $711,000 annually thereafter, to implement the provisions of the bill. Specifically, Cal ICH would require 4.0 PY of staff to coordinate with state departments and agencies to identify the programs required to report data, develop data collection and reporting templates and procedures, collect fiscal data and outcomes, perform analysis and validation of fiscal data and outcomes, maintain data dashboards, and oversee the work of the contractor. (General Fund)
• Cal ICH additionally estimates that it would incur a one-time General Fund cost of $3.5 million over three years for a contractor to support the development of data collection and reporting procedures, development of a data dashboard to make data publicly available, and support the Council in conducting technical assistance to departments and agencies.
• The Department of Social Services estimates costs of approximately $400,000 annually for 2.0 PY of staff to coordinate and oversee the collection, compilation, analysis, and dissemination of financial and outcome data. (General Fund)
• The Department of Housing and Community Development indicates that reporting cost and outcome data on the homelessness programs it administers would be absorbable. (General Fund)

SUPPORT: (Verified 8/15/24)

League of Women Voters of California

OPPOSITION: (Verified 8/15/24)

None received

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 72-0, 5/22/24

AYES: Addis, Aguiar-Curry, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Juan Carrillo, Wendy Carrillo, Chen, Connolly, Davies, Dixon, Flora, Mike Fong, Vince Fong, Gabriel, 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: Calderon, Cervantes, Megan Dahle, Essayli, Friedman, Holden, Mathis, Luz Rivas

Prepared by: Max Ladow / HOUSING / (916) 651-4124

8/19/24 12:36:01

**** END ****

1. https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-102.1/index.html#chapter1 ↑

SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Senator Anna Caballero, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular Session

AB 2903 (Hoover) - Homelessness

Bill Summary:

AB 2903 would require any state agency administering a state homelessness program to report cost and outcome data for those programs to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH), and require Cal ICH to create uniform data collection and reporting procedures for departments to use, and to make the data available to the public, as specified.

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

The following information is revised to reflect amendments

adopted by the committee on August 15, 2024

Fiscal Impact:

• Cal ICH indicates that it would incur first-year costs of $743,000, and $711,000 annually thereafter, to implement the provisions of the bill. Specifically, Cal ICH would require 4.0 PY of staff to coordinate with state departments and agencies to identify the programs required to report data, develop data collection and reporting templates and procedures, collect fiscal data and outcomes, perform analysis and validation of fiscal data and outcomes, maintain data dashboards, and oversee the work of the contractor. (General Fund)
• Cal ICH additionally estimates that it would incur a one-time General Fund cost of $3.5 million over three years for a contractor to support the development of data collection and reporting procedures, development of a data dashboard to make data publicly available, and support the Council in conducting technical assistance to departments and agencies.
• The Department of Social Services estimates costs of approximately $400,000 annually for 2.0 PY of staff to coordinate and oversee the collection, compilation, analysis, and dissemination of financial and outcome data. (General Fund)
• The Department of Housing and Community Development indicates that reporting cost and outcome data on the homelessness programs it administers would be absorbable. (General Fund)

Author Amendments:

• Move the bill’s provisions to a stand-alone section of law to avoid chaptering conflicts.
• Delete the requirement for Cal-ICH to develop “uniform” data collection and reporting procedures, and instead require Cal-ICH to develop data collection and reporting procedures in coordination with each agency or department required to report to Cal-ICH, and in alignment with existing reporting requirements.

-- END --

SENATE COMMITTEE ON

Senator Anna Caballero, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular Session

AB 2903 (Hoover) - Homelessness

Bill Summary:

AB 2903 would require any state agency administering a state homelessness program to report cost and outcome data for those programs to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH), and require Cal ICH to create uniform data collection and reporting procedures for departments to use, and to make the data available to the public, as specified.

Fiscal Impact:

• Cal ICH indicates that it would incur first-year costs of $743,000, and $711,000 annually thereafter, to implement the provisions of the bill. Specifically, Cal ICH would require four positions to coordinate with state departments and agencies to identify the programs required to report data, develop data collection and reporting templates and procedures, collect fiscal data and outcomes, perform analysis and validation of fiscal data and outcomes, maintain data dashboards, and oversee the work of the contractor. (General Fund)
• Cal ICH additionally estimates that it would incur a one-time General Fund cost of $3.5 million over three years for a contractor to support the development of uniform data collection and reporting procedures, development of a data dashboard to make data publicly available, and support the Council in conducting technical assistance to departments and agencies.
• The Department of Social Services estimates costs of approximately $400,000 annually for 2.0 PY of staff to coordinate and oversee the collection, compilation, analysis, and dissemination of financial and outcome data. (General Fund)
• The Department of Housing and Community Development indicates that reporting cost and outcome data on the homelessness programs it administers would be absorbable, to the extent the data aligns with information collected for existing monitoring purposes. HCD could incur costs for additional staff positions to the extent that data requested by Cal ICH is not currently collected through existing monitoring requirements. (General Fund)

Background:

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is the primary source of homelessness data. Specifically, HUD annually directs local community Continuums of Care to conduct a Point in Time Count of people experiencing homelessness in January, and delineates (1) people experiencing homelessness who are “sheltered,” or living in temporary shelters, and (2) 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 Point in Time Count is required by HUD as a condition of receiving federal funding. According to the 2023 Point in Time count, 181,399 people experienced homelessness in California, representing 28 percent of the nation’s population. Additionally, California accounted for 49 percent of all people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the nation.

Cal ICH was created in 2021 by AB 1220 (Luz Rivas) as a successor to the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council to address the coordination and oversight of homelessness programs in the State. The bill also (1) made changes to the membership of Cal ICH, and (2) provided it with additional authority to access information from other departments. Specifically, to ensure that it has access to information about homelessness programs throughout state agencies, Cal ICH is allowed to require state departments that have homelessness programs to participate in its workgroups or other collaborative work. It can also require those departments or agencies to provide it data on those programs. Unlike its successor, 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, 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. As part of the improved coordination, Cal ICH is charged with providing guidance to and collecting information from Continuums of Care to ensure they are operating within an efficient statewide strategy.

Proposed Law:

AB 2903 would require Cal ICH to collect and report specified cost and outcome data on state-administered homelessness programs. Specifically, this bill would:

• Require Cal ICH to develop related uniform data collection and reporting procedures, as specified.
• Require a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data for each state-funded homelessness program to Cal ICH, beginning on September 1, 2025.
• Require Cal ICH to compile the data and make it available to the public by April 1, 2026 and annually thereafter.

Related Legislation:

AB 161 (Assembly Committee on Budget, Chapter 46, Statutes of 2024) permits Cal ICH staff to, upon request, share personally identifiable, individual-level data from the Homeless Data Integration System with an agency or department that is a member of the council for purposes of measuring housing instability and examining the effectiveness of, and need for, housing and homelessness programs and other antipoverty programs among Californian. It also states legislative intent for data-sharing permitted in this act for the Interagency Council on Homelessness to measure point-in-time data and trends of homelessness, housing instability, and utilization of housing services among individuals and families in programs administered by the CDSS, including, but not limited to, the CalWORKs program.

AB 799 (Luz Rivas), which is currently pending in this Committee, would make specified changes to Cal ICH, including adding the Governor’s Tribal Advisor to Cal ICH, and requiring Cal ICH to maintain a strategic funding guide, calendar of funding opportunities, and collect fiscal and outcome data.

AB 977 (Gabriel), Chap. 397/ 2021, required Cal ICH, through a statewide data system, the Homeless Data Integration System, to coordinate all state homelessness programs entering date as specified into their local Homeless Management Information System, beginning on July 1, 2021, and require the data to be provided to specified state agencies and departments.

Staff Comments:

The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested an audit of the state’s homelessness funding, including an evaluation of the efforts undertaken by the State and two cities to monitor the cost effectiveness of such spending. The auditor released both audits in April, 2024, and found that the State lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal ICH has not consistently tracked and evaluated its efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Cal ICH reported in 2023 financial information covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21 related to all state-funded homelessness programs; however, it has not continued to track and report this data since that time, despite the significant amount of additional funding the State awarded to these efforts in the past two years. Additionally, Cal ICH has not aligned its action plan to end homelessness with its statutory goals to collect financial information and ensure accountability and results. Consequently, it lacks assurance that the actions it takes will effectively enable it to achieve those goals. Another significant gap in the State’s ability to assess programs’ effectiveness is that it does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs. This bill would respond to the State Auditor’s findings.

-- END --

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES

Senator Alvarado-Gil, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Subject: Homelessness

SUMMARY

This bill requires any state agency administering a state homelessness program to report cost and outcome data for those programs to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH), starting September 1, 2025. It also requires Cal ICH to create uniform data collection and reporting procedures for departments to use. Cal ICH must compile and release data to the public annually beginning April 1, 2026.

ABSTRACT

Existing Law:

1. Establishes the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to coordinate a federal response to homelessness and create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to end homelessness. (42 USC 11311)
2. Establishes 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.)
3. 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; creating a Homeless Data Integration System; and collecting make available to the public financial data provided to the council from all state-funded homelessness programs as provided. (WIC 8257(b))
4. Defines “state programs” as any programs a California state agency or department funds, implements, or administers for the purpose of providing housing or housing-based services to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, with the exception of federally funded programs with requirements inconsistent. (WIC 8255 (e))
5. Requires any grantee or entity operating specified state homelessness programs, as a condition of receiving state funds, to enter the required data elements on the individuals and families it serves into its local Homeless Management Information System as required by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidance. (WIC 8256 (d)(1))
6. Requires Cal ICH to create a statewide data system or warehouse, which shall be known as the Homeless Data Integration System and collects local data through Homeless Management Information Systems, with the ultimate goal of matching data on homelessness to programs impacting homeless recipients of state programs. (WIC 8257 (b)(13))
7. Declares the intent of the Legislature to collect information to connect funding allocated to prevent and end homelessness with established sheltering and housing resources and to provide state agencies with accurate information for forecasting and requires Cal- ICH to:
   1. Identify all programs a state agency funds, implements, or administers for people who are homeless and at risk of homelessness and identify which are available statewide and which are regional; compile the amount of funding distributed to local jurisdictions; identify intended uses for funds by intervention type; identify conditions for funds if used to leverage non-state dollars; and explain why data is unavailable, if so.
   2. Identify the number of housing units, rental subsidies, emergency shelter, wraparound services made available through those programs.
   3. Collect demographic data for those served
   4. An analysis of all the services showing the number of people served by demographics and outcomes of services, as specified.
   5. Provide reasons for any lack of data. (WIC 8257.1 (a))
8. Requires a state agency that has a member on the coordinating council to respond to a request for data pertaining to that state agency, with the requested data within 60 days. Allows state agencies to request a 60 day extension. (WIC 8257.2 (a))

This Bill:

1. Starting September 1, 2025, requires a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to Cal ICH according to the data collection and reporting procedures, as specified.
2. Requires Cal ICH to develop uniform data collection and reporting procedures for the data collection and reporting described in the previous section.
3. Requires Cal ICH to compile the data and make that data available to the public starting April 1, 2026.

FISCAL IMPACT

According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:

1. “Cal ICH estimates annual General Fund costs of $743,000 in the first year and $711,000 ongoing for four staff positions to coordinate with state departments and agencies to identify the programs required to report data, develop data collection and reporting templates and procedures, collect fiscal data and outcomes, perform analysis and validation of fiscal data and outcomes, maintain data dashboards, and oversee the work of the contractor.

“Additionally, Cal ICH estimates a one-time General Fund cost of $3.5 million over three years for a contractor to support the development of uniform data collection and reporting procedures, development of a data dashboard, and support the Council in conducting technical assistance to departments and agencies.

1. “Ongoing costs (likely General Fund) of an unknown amount to state departments and agencies with more than one homelessness program to annually report cost and outcome data to Cal ICH. This will likely include the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Social Services, among others.”

BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION

Purpose of the Bill:

According to the author, “Last year I requested an audit of our homelessness spending to better target state dollars to the most effective homeless programs. The results of the homelessness audit is a critical first step toward improving our investments, protecting taxpayers, restoring our public spaces, and getting the homeless population the help they need. Now that we have identified the ineffectiveness and limitations of our current approach, it is now necessary for the Legislature to take action and improve accountability of the dollars we are spending. This bill adopts the State Auditor’s recommendation on homelessness by proposing that state agencies report the costs and outcomes of state-funded homelessness programs.”

Background

US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Point in Time Count

Most homelessness data stems from the HUD Point in Time Count. Annually, HUD directs local community Continuums of Care to conduct a Point in Time Count of people experiencing homelessness in January, and includes people experiencing homelessness who are “sheltered,” or 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 Point in Time Count is required by HUD as a condition of receiving federal funding. According to the 2023 Point in Time count, 181,399 people experienced homelessness in California, representing 28 percent of the nation’s homelessness population. Additionally, California accounted for 49 percent of all people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the nation.

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 to address the coordination and oversight of homelessness programs. The bill also made changes to the membership of the council 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 Cal ICH data on those programs. Unlike the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, 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. As part of the improved coordination, Cal ICH is charged with providing guidance to and collecting information from Continuums of Care to ensure they are operating within an efficient statewide strategy. Continuums of Care are groups of government entities and nonprofit service providers that receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fight homelessness in their region. In addition, Cal ICH is developing a Homeless Data Integration System which will allow the state to access and compile standardized data collected by Continuums of Care about the people they serve.

California State Audit

A February 2021 report by the California State Auditor titled Homelessness in California: The State’s Uncoordinated Approach to Addressing Homelessness Has Hampered the Effectiveness of Its Efforts describes the state as having a lack of understand about how much it spends on homelessness reduction efforts, what services are provided and who they are helping. According to the audit, the Cal ICH believes that data collection will improve when the Homeless Data Integration System comes online. Specifically that it “will be able to provide a number of benefits, including access to statewide and local homelessness data that [Continuums of Care] can be used to make data‑informed decisions.”^[1] It goes on to point out that Continuums of Care are not providing the comprehensive data needed to make HDIS effective. This is because Continuums of Care report data into a database called the Homeless Management Information System based only on what is required for federal funding, this does not always align with state reporting needs. The audit says “only eight of the 41 programs—representing 15 percent of the more than $13 billion the State provided to address homelessness during fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21—require recipients of state funds to report data into an [Homeless Management Information System].”^[2] Current law requires the Homeless Data Integration System to obtain data from Continuums of Care through the Homeless Management Information Systems.

On a state level, the council has had trouble gathering data from other state agencies, making it difficult to track the effectiveness of state programs. There is no requirement that state agencies report their fiscal or outcome data so that information has been inconsistently available. According to the audit, “state agencies report their program costs and outcomes using a variety of methods that cannot be readily compared, including online dashboards and written reports to the Legislature and advise the council to create a scorecard that state entities can use to report outcomes in a uniform way that can be easily reported.”^[3] This bill requires the council to create a uniform mechanism for reporting funding and outcome data, but is not prescriptive about the type of mechanism.

Related/Prior Legislation:

AB 161 (Assembly Committee on Budget, 2024) permits staff to the Cal ICH to, upon request, share personally identifiable, individual-level data from the Homeless Data Integration System with an agency or department that is a member of the council for purposes of measuring housing instability and examining the effectiveness of, and need for, housing and homelessness programs and other antipoverty programs among Californian. It also states legislative intent for data-sharing permitted in this act for the Interagency Council on Homelessness to measure point-in-time data and trends of homelessness, housing instability, and utilization of housing services among individuals and families in programs administered by the CDSS, including, but not limited to, the CalWORKs program. AB 161 is currently in Engrossing and Enrolling.

AB 799 (Luz Rivas, 2024) makes changes to the California Interagency Council on Homeless (Cal ICH), including adding the Governor’s Tribal Advisor to Cal ICH, and requiring Cal ICH to maintain a strategic funding guide, calendar of funding opportunities, and collect fiscal and outcome data. AB 799 is set to be heard in the Senate Human Services Committee on July 1, 2024.

AB 1220 (Luz Rivas, Chapter 398, Statutes of 2021) to coordinate the state’s response to homelessness. SB 1380 (Mitchell) set out a list of list of “goals” for Cal ICH to focus on but no clear authority to make changes to state policy or programs that address homelessness.

AB 977 (Gabriel, Chapter 397, Statutes of 2021) requires that grantees or entities operating specified state homelessness programs, as a condition of receiving state funds, to enter the collected data elements on the individuals and families it serves into its local Homeless Management Information System, unless provided otherwise. The bill requires the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council to specify the form and substance of the required data elements, as specified. This bill requires that the statewide data storage system described above be known as the Homeless Data Integration System and would grant staff of the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council specified powers regarding its operation.

SB 1380 (Mitchell, Chapter 847, Statutes of 2016) created the Homelessness Coordinating and Financing Council, which in 2021 was renamed the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.

COMMENTS

This bill implements recommendations by the state auditor to make funding and outcome data more readily available for the Legislature and the public. This would be an effective way to better understand the state’s efforts to alleviate homelessness, create realistic goals, and strategize more effectively with state funding.

PRIOR VOTES

POSITIONS

Support:

League of Women Voters of California

Oppose:

None

-- END --

1. https://information.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2023-102.1.pdf ↑

2. ibid ↑

3. ibid ↑

SENATE COMMITTEE ON HOUSING

Senator Nancy Skinner, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Bill No: AB 2903 Hearing Date: 6/18/2024

SUBJECT: Homelessness

DIGEST: This bill requires, beginning June 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) and for Cal-ICH to develop procedures for this data reporting and make compiled data available to the public.

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. Establishes the Cal-ICH, chaired by the Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing (BCSH) Agency and the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency, made up of various state departments and agencies.
2. Includes the following among the goals for the Cal-ICH:
   1. To create partnerships among state and federal agencies and departments, local government agencies, and nonprofit entities working to end homelessness, homeless services providers, and the private sector, for the purpose of arriving at specific strategies to end homelessness;
   2. To broker agreements between state agencies and departments and between state agencies and departments and local jurisdictions to align and coordinate resources, reduce administrative burdens of accessing existing resources, and foster common applications for services, operating, and capital funding;
   3. To serve as a statewide facilitator, coordinator, and policy development resource on ending homelessness in California;
   4. To report to the Governor, federal Cabinet members, and the Legislature on homelessness and work to reduce homelessness; and
   5. To ensure accountability and results in meeting the strategies and goals of the council.
3. Requires an eligible city, county, or Continuum of Care (CoC) to submit a local homelessness action plan that includes all of the following to access Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program (HHAPP) funds:
   1. A local landscape analysis that assesses the current number of people experiencing homelessness and existing programs and funding which address homelessness within the jurisdiction, utilizing any relevant and available data from the Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS), the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) homeless point-in-time count, CoC housing inventory count, longitudinal systems analysis, and Stella tools, as well as any recently conducted local needs assessments;
   2. Identification of the number of individuals and families served, including demographic information and intervention types provided, and demographic subpopulations that are underserved relative to their proportion of individuals experiencing homelessness in the jurisdiction;
   3. Identification of all funds, including state, federal and local funds, currently being used, and budgeted to be used, to provide housing and homelessness-related services to persons experiencing homelessness or at imminent risk of homelessness, how this funding serves subpopulations, and what intervention types are funded through these resources;
   4. An outline of proposed uses of funds requested and an explanation of how the proposed use of funds will complement existing local, state, and federal funds and equitably close the gaps identified;
   5. Evidence of connection with the local homeless Coordinated Entry System;
   6. An agreement to participate in a statewide Homeless Data Information System (HDIS), and to enter individuals served by this funding into the local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), in accordance with local protocols;
   7. A demonstration of how the jurisdiction has coordinated, and will continue to coordinate, with other jurisdictions, including the specific role of each applicant in relation to other applicants in the region;
   8. A demonstration of the applicant’s partnership with, or plans to use funding to increase partnership with, local health, behavioral health, social services, and justice entities and with people with lived experiences of homelessness;
4. Requires HHAPP applicants to establish goals that prevent and reduce homelessness from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2024, informed by the findings from the local landscape analysis and the jurisdiction’s base system performance measure from the 2020 calendar year data in the HDIS. The outcome goals shall set definitive metrics, based on HUD’s system performance measures, for achieving the following:
   1. Reducing the number of persons experiencing homelessness;
   2. Reducing the number of persons who become homeless for the first time;
   3. Increasing the number of people exiting homelessness into permanent housing;
   4. Reducing the length of time people remain homeless;
   5. Reducing the number of persons who return to homelessness after exiting homelessness to permanent housing; and
   6. Increasing successful placements from street outreach.

This bill:

1. Requires, beginning June 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to Cal-ICH for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers.
2. Requires Cal-ICH to develop uniform data collection and reporting procedures for the data collection and reporting.

1. Requires Cal-ICH to compile the data reported pursuant to paragraph 1) and beginning September 1, 2025, to annually make the compiled data available to the public.

COMMENTS:

1. Author’s Statement. “Last year I requested an audit of our homelessness spending to better target state dollars to the most effective homeless programs. The results of the homelessness audit are a critical first step toward improving our investments, protecting taxpayers, restoring our public spaces, and getting the homeless population the help they need. Now that we have identified the ineffectiveness and limitations of our current approach, it is now necessary for the Legislature to take action and improve accountability of the dollars we are spending. This bill adopts the State Auditor’s recommendation on homelessness by proposing that state agencies report the costs and outcomes of state-funded homelessness programs.”
2. Homelessness in California. Based on the 2023 point in time count, California has the largest homeless population in the nation with 181,399 people experiencing homelessness on any given night, of which 113,660 are unsheltered, meaning they are living outdoors and not in temporary shelters. Nearly half of all unsheltered people in the country were in California during the 2023 count. The homelessness crisis is driven in large part by the lack of affordable rental housing for lower income people. In the current market, 2.2 million extremely low-income and very low-income renter households are competing for 664,000 affordable rental units. Of the six million renter households in the state, 1.7 million are paying more than 50% of their income toward rent. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the state needs an additional 1.5 million housing units affordable to very-low income Californians.
3. 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, as it has been charged with administering two significant programs dedicated to addressing homelessness, the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) and HHAPP.
4. State Auditor’s Reports. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested an audit of the state’s homelessness funding, including an evaluation of the efforts undertaken by the State and two cities to monitor the cost-effectiveness of such spending. The auditor released both audits on April 9, 2024. In the audit of state programs, the auditor found that the “state lacks current information on the ongo­­ing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal-ICH has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Although Cal-ICH reported in 2023 financial information covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21 related to all state-funded homelessness programs, it has not continued to track and report this data since that time, despite the significant amount of additional funding the State awarded to these efforts in the past two years. … Another significant gap in the State’s ability to assess programs’ effectiveness is that it does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs.” ^[1]

1. Cal-ICH Updated Coordination. Last year, the Legislature moved administration of HHAPP and the Encampment Resolution program from Cal-ICH to the Department of Housing and community Development (HCD) in an effort to return Cal-ICH to its core mission of coordinating the state’s overall response to homelessness. This bill could assist Cal-ICH in coordinating that overall strategy by requiring all relevant homelessness programs to send Cal-ICH annual cost and outcome data to determine how the state should invest resources and coordinate efforts in the response to homelessness. The current timing of these reporting changes, requiring that all programs are reported to Cal-ICH by June 1^st and that Cal-ICH compiles and publicly publishes this information by September 1^st, provides limited time for the secure transfer and processing of this data.
2. Double referral. This bill has also been referred to the Human Services Committee.

Related Legislation:

AB 2338 (Jones-Sawyer, 2024) — requires the Governor to appoint a Statewide Homelessness Coordinator within the Governor’s Office to serve as the lead person for ending homelessness in the state. This bill is being voted on in this same hearing.

AB 977 (Gabriel, Chapter 397, Statutes of 2021) — required HCFC, now Cal-ICH, through a statewide data system, HDIS, to coordinate all state homelessness programs entering data as specified into their local HMIS starting by July 1, 2021 and this data then being provided to specified state agencies or departments.

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: Fiscal Com.: Local:

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

June 12, 2024.)

SUPPORT:

None received.

OPPOSITION:

None received.

-- END --

1. https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-102.1/index.html#chapter1 ↑

ASSEMBLY THIRD READING

ATR Bill Id:AB 2903

Author:(Hoover)

As Amended Ver:April 15, 2024

Majority vote

SUMMARY

Requires, beginning June 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers.

Major Provisions

1. Requires Cal-ICAH to develop uniform data collection and reporting procedures for the data collection and reporting.
2. Requires Cal-ICH to compile the data reported pursuant to paragraph 1) and beginning September 1, 2025, to annually make the compiled data available to the public.

COMMENTS

Homelessness in California: Based on the 2023 point in time count, California has the largest homeless population in the nation with 181,399 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. Many of those people (113,660) are unsheltered, meaning they are living outdoors and not in temporary shelters. Nearly half of all unsheltered people in the country were in California during the 2023 count. The homelessness crisis is driven in part by the lack of affordable rental housing for lower income people. In the current market, 2.2 million extremely low-income and very low-income renter households are competing for 664,000 affordable rental units. Of the six million renter households in the state, 1.7 million are paying more than 50% of their income toward rent. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the state needs an additional 1.5 million housing units affordable to very-low income Californians.

State Auditor's Reports: The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested an audit of the state's homelessness funding, including an evaluation of the efforts undertaken by the State and two cities to monitor the cost‑effectiveness of such spending. The auditor released both audits on April 9, 2024. In the audit of state programs, the auditor found that the "state lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal-ICH has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State's efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Although Cal ICH reported in 2023 financial information covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21 related to all state-funded homelessness programs, it has not continued to track and report this data since that time, despite the significant amount of additional funding the State awarded to these efforts in the past two years. Cal ICH has also not aligned its action plan to end homelessness with its statutory goals to collect financial information and ensure accountability and results. Thus, it lacks assurance that the actions it takes will effectively enable it to achieve those goals. Another significant gap in the State's ability to assess programs' effectiveness is that it does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs."^[1]

Cal-ICH: In 2016, SB 1380 (Mitchell), Chapter 847, created the Homelessness Coordinating and Financing Council, which in 2021 was renamed the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (CA-ICH) (AB 1220 (L. Rivas), Chapter 398) to coordinate the state's response to homelessness. SB 1380 (Mitchell) set out a list of list of "goals" for CA-ICH to focus on but no clear authority to make changes to state policy or programs that address homelessness. CA-ICH is also responsible for ensuring that all state housing and homeless programs are Housing First.

The governance structure of CA-ICH has also evolved since its creation. In addition to changing the name of council, AB 1220 (L. Rivas) appointed the Secretary of the California HHS Agency as co-chair of CA-ICH with the Secretary of the BCSH Agency. In addition, AB 1220 (L. Rivas) removed people with lived experience of homelessness from the council membership and placed them on an advisory board, and required staff of agencies and departments of the CA-ICH to participate in council work groups or task forces at the request of the council.

Last year, the Legislature moved administration of HHAP and the Encampment Resolution program from Cal-ICH to the Department of Housing and community Development (HCD) in an effort to return Cal-ICH to its core mission of coordinating the state's overall response to homelessness. This bill would assist Cal-ICH in coordinating that overall strategy by giving Cal-ICH better data to determine how the state should invest in the response to homelessness. This bill would require any state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers.

State Homelessness Data Integration System (HDIS): CA-ICH also launched a state HDIS system that captures the information collected and tracked in local HMIS databases. CoCs manage HMIS, local information technology systems used 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. Each CoC is responsible for selecting an HMIS software solution that complies with HUD's data collection, management, and reporting standards.

All 44 CoCs in the state have entered into contracts to provide their HMIS data to CA-ICH. HDIS is intended to give the state a more accurate picture of the local homelessness response system and inform the state's response to homelessness. Using data from HDIS, the state recently developed a Statewide Landscape Assessment. AB 140 (Committee on Budget), Chapter 111, Statutes of 2021, required BCSH to conduct or contract with an entity to develop this landscape assessment. The purpose of the landscape assessment was to evaluate the existing funding allocated within the various state departments to prevent and end homelessness and link the funds to the actual services and resources state agencies utilize them to provide. The assessment, the first of its kind done in California, allows for more accurate data collection for targeting future investments more effectively.

The next step for HDIS is to use the data to determine if people experiencing homelessness are receiving the state and federal benefits they are eligible for and that could help increase their income to reduce their housing insecurity. AB 977 (Gabriel), Chapter 397, Statutes of 2021, required all state agencies and departments administering programs that serve people that may be experiencing homelessness to enter their data into HDIS so that locals can determine if people in the local HMIS are eligible for, or enrolled in, all of the safety net programs for which they may be eligible. Although this requirement is in statute, there are no outcome requirements for the Legislature to determine if this coordination is occurring and its effectiveness in resolving individual homelessness, nor did the landscape assessment contain any specific outcome evaluations.

According to the Author

"California's homelessness crisis continues to be the state's most pressing problem. Many studies show that having an intellectual disability is a risk factor for homelessness. Unsheltered people with developmental disabilities are more likely to have dropped out of school and to experience other problems related to homelessness including substance use disorder and other mental health issues. Despite California creating the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, there is currently no required member from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. This bill adds a representative from this group to provide a much-needed perspective from an expert with knowledge about developmental disabilities."

Arguments in Support

None on file.

Arguments in Opposition

None on file.

FISCAL COMMENTS

According to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations:

1. Cal ICH estimates annual General Fund (GF) costs of $743,000 in the first year and $711,000 ongoing for four staff positions to coordinate with state departments and agencies to identify the programs required to report data, develop data collection and reporting templates and procedures, collect fiscal data and outcomes, perform analysis and validation of fiscal data and outcomes, maintain data dashboards, and oversee the work of the contractor.

Additionally, Cal ICH estimates a one-time GF cost of $3.5 million over three years for a contractor to support the development of uniform data collection and reporting procedures, development of a data dashboard, and support the Council in conducting technical assistance to departments and agencies.

1. Ongoing costs (likely GF) of an unknown amount to state departments and agencies with more than one homelessness program to annually report cost and outcome data to Cal ICH. This will likely include the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Social Services, among others.

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. 

VOTES

ASM HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: 9-0-0

YES: Ward, Joe Patterson, Grayson, Kalra, Lee, Quirk-Silva, Reyes, Sanchez, Wilson

ASM APPROPRIATIONS: 15-0-0

YES: Wicks, Sanchez, Arambula, Bryan, Calderon, Wendy Carrillo, Dixon, Mike Fong, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Jim Patterson, Pellerin, Ta, Villapudua

UPDATED

VERSION: April 15, 2024

CONSULTANT: Lisa Engel / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085 FN: 0003103

1. https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-102.1/index.html#chapter1 ↑

Date of Hearing: May 8, 2024

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Buffy Wicks, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 2903

Author:(Hoover) – As Amended Ver:April 15, 2024

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

SUMMARY:

This bill requires a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report program cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH).

Specifically, this bill:

1. Requires, beginning June 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to Cal ICH for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers.
2. Requires Cal ICH to develop uniform data collection and reporting procedures for the data collection and reporting.
3. Requires Cal ICH to compile the data reported pursuant these provisions and, beginning September 1, 2025, to annually make the compiled data available to the public.

FISCAL EFFECT:

1. Cal ICH estimates annual General Fund (GF) costs of $743,000 in the first year and $711,000 ongoing for four staff positions to coordinate with state departments and agencies to identify the programs required to report data, develop data collection and reporting templates and procedures, collect fiscal data and outcomes, perform analysis and validation of fiscal data and outcomes, maintain data dashboards, and oversee the work of the contractor.

Additionally, Cal ICH estimates a one-time GF cost of $3.5 million over three years for a contractor to support the development of uniform data collection and reporting procedures, development of a data dashboard, and support the Council in conducting technical assistance to departments and agencies.

1. Ongoing costs (likely GF) of an unknown amount to state departments and agencies with more than one homelessness program to annually report cost and outcome data to Cal ICH. This will likely include the Department of Housing and Community Development and the Department of Social Services, among others.

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. The author seeks to assist Cal ICH in coordinating the state’s overall response to homelessness by enabling Cal ICH to better collect data necessary to inform decision makers.
2. Background. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported California has the largest homeless population in the nation with 181,399 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. Many of those people (113,660) are unsheltered, meaning they are living outdoors and not in temporary shelters. Nearly half of all unsheltered people in the country were in California during the 2023 count.

In 2016, SB 1380 (Mitchell), Chapter 847, created the Homelessness Coordinating and Financing Council, which was renamed the California Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2021, to coordinate the state's response to homelessness. Cal ICH is chaired by the Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing (BCSH) Agency and the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency, and is made up of various state departments and agencies. Staff of member agencies are required to participate in council work groups or task forces at the request of the council.

The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested an audit of the state’s homelessness funding, including an evaluation of the efforts undertaken by the State and two cities to monitor the cost‑effectiveness of such spending. The auditor released both audits on April 9, 2024. The auditor found:

The state lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal-ICH has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Although Cal-ICH reported in 2023 financial information covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21 related to all state-funded homelessness programs, it has not continued to track and report this data since that time, despite the significant amount of additional funding the State awarded to these efforts in the past two years. Cal-ICH has also not aligned its action plan to end homelessness with its statutory goals to collect financial information and ensure accountability and results. Thus, it lacks assurance that the actions it takes will effectively enable it to achieve those goals. Another significant gap in the State’s ability to assess programs’ effectiveness is that it does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs.

This bill responds to the State Auditor findings by requiring Cal ICH to develop uniform data collection and reporting procedures and by requiring each state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to Cal-ICH for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers.

1. Related Legislation. AB 2338 (Jones-Sawyer), of this legislative session, requires the Governor to appoint a Statewide Homelessness Coordinator within the Governor’s Office to serve as the lead person for ending homelessness in the state. AB 2338 is pending in this committee.

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

Date of Hearing: April 24, 2024

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Christopher M. Ward, Chair

ABPCA Bill Id:AB 2903 (

Author:Hoover) – As Amended Ver:April 15, 2024

SUBJECT: Homelessness

SUMMARY: Requires, beginning June 1, 2025, a state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers. Specifically, this bill:

1. Requires Cal-ICAH to develop uniform data collection and reporting procedures for the data collection and reporting.
2. Requires Cal-ICH to compile the data reported pursuant to paragraph 1) and beginning September 1, 2025, to annually make the compiled data available to the public.

EXISTING LAW:

1. Establishes the CA-ICH, chaired by the Secretary of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing (BCSH) Agency and the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency, made up of various state departments and agencies. (Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) Section 8257)
2. Sets the following goals for the CA-ICH:
3. To identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California;
4. To create partnerships among state and federal agencies and departments, local government agencies, and nonprofit entities working to end homelessness, homeless services providers, and the private sector, for the purpose of arriving at specific strategies to end homelessness;
5. To promote systems integration to increase efficiency and effectiveness while focusing on designing systems to address the needs of people experiencing homelessness, including unaccompanied youth under 25 years of age;
6. To coordinate existing funding and applications for competitive funding, without restructuring or changing any existing allocations or allocation formulas;
7. To make policy and procedural recommendations to legislators and other governmental entities;
8. To identify and seek funding opportunities for state entities that have programs to end homelessness and to facilitate and coordinate those state entities’ efforts to obtain that funding;
9. To broker agreements between state agencies and departments and between state agencies and departments and local jurisdictions to align and coordinate resources, reduce administrative burdens of accessing existing resources, and foster common applications for services, operating, and capital funding;
10. To serve as a statewide facilitator, coordinator, and policy development resource on ending homelessness in California;
11. To report to the Governor, federal Cabinet members, and the Legislature on homelessness and work to reduce homelessness; and
12. To ensure accountability and results in meeting the strategies and goals of the council. (WIC 8257)
13. Requires, after July 1, 2017, agencies and departments that implement funds, or administer a program that provides housing or housing-based services to people experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness, with the exception of federally funded programs not consistent with Housing First or programs that fund emergency shelters, to work with the Cal-ICH to adopt guidelines and regulations to incorporate core components of Housing First. (WIC 8256)
14. Requires an eligible city, county, or Continuum of Care (CoC) to submit a local homelessness action plan that includes all of the following to access Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program (HHAP) funds:
15. A local landscape analysis that assesses the current number of people experiencing homelessness and existing programs and funding which address homelessness within the jurisdiction, utilizing any relevant and available data from the Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS), the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) homeless point-in-time count, CoC housing inventory count, longitudinal systems analysis, and Stella tools, as well as any recently conducted local needs assessments;
16. Identification of the number of individuals and families served, including demographic information and intervention types provided, and demographic subpopulations that are underserved relative to their proportion of individuals experiencing homelessness in the jurisdiction;
17. Identification of all funds, including state, federal and local funds, currently being used, and budgeted to be used, to provide housing and homelessness-related services to persons experiencing homelessness or at imminent risk of homelessness, how this funding serves subpopulations, and what intervention types are funded through these resources;
18. An outline of proposed uses of funds requested and an explanation of how the proposed use of funds will complement existing local, state, and federal funds and equitably close the gaps identified;
19. Evidence of connection with the local homeless Coordinated Entry System;
20. An agreement to participate in a statewide HDIS, and to enter individuals served by this funding into the local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), in accordance with local protocols;
21. A demonstration of how the jurisdiction has coordinated, and will continue to coordinate, with other jurisdictions, including the specific role of each applicant in relation to other applicants in the region;
22. A demonstration of the applicant’s partnership with, or plans to use funding to increase partnership with, local health, behavioral health, social services, and justice entities and with people with lived experiences of homelessness;
23. A description of specific actions the applicant will take to ensure racial and gender equity in service delivery, housing placements, and housing retention and changes to procurement or other means of affirming racial and ethnic groups that are overrepresented among residents experiencing homelessness have equitable access to housing and services; and
24. A description of how the applicant will make progress in preventing exits to homelessness from institutional settings, including plans to leverage funding from mainstream systems for evidence-based housing and housing-based solutions to homelessness. (Health and Safety Code (HSC) Section 502207.5)
25. Requires HHAP applicants to establish goals that prevent and reduce homelessness from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2024, informed by the findings from the local landscape analysis and the jurisdiction’s base system performance measure from the 2020 calendar year data in the HDIS. The outcome goals shall set definitive metrics, based on HUD’s system performance measures, for achieving the following
26. Reducing the number of persons experiencing homelessness;
27. Reducing the number of persons who become homeless for the first time;
28. Increasing the number of people exiting homelessness into permanent housing;
29. Reducing the length of time people remain homeless;
30. Reducing the number of persons who return to homelessness after exiting homelessness to permanent housing; and
31. Increasing successful placements from street outreach. (HSC 50220.7)
32. Requires each HHAP applicant to determine its outcome goals in consultation with Cal-ICH, and prohibits them from submitting final outcome goals before consulting with Cal-ICH. (HSC 50220.7)
33. Requires Cal-ICH to assess outcome goals in the application based on the information provided in the local homeless action plan and the applicant’s baseline data on the performance metrics and determine whether the outcome goals adequately further the objectives of reducing and preventing homelessness. (HSC 502207.5)

FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown

COMMENTS:

Author’s Statement: According to the author, “California’s homelessness crisis continues to be the state’s most pressing problem. Many studies show that having an intellectual disability is a risk factor for homelessness. Unsheltered people with developmental disabilities are more likely to have dropped out of school and to experience other problems related to homelessness including substance use disorder and other mental health issues. Despite California creating the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, there is currently no required member from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. This bill adds a representative from this group to provide a much-needed perspective from an expert with knowledge about developmental disabilities.”

Homelessness in California: Based on the 2023 point in time count, California has the largest homeless population in the nation with 181,399 people experiencing homelessness on any given night. Many of those people (113,660) are unsheltered, meaning they are living outdoors and not in temporary shelters. Nearly half of all unsheltered people in the country were in California during the 2023 count. The homelessness crisis is driven in part by the lack of affordable rental housing for lower income people. In the current market, 2.2 million extremely low-income and very low-income renter households are competing for 664,000 affordable rental units. Of the six million renter households in the state, 1.7 million are paying more than 50% of their income toward rent. The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the state needs an additional 1.5 million housing units affordable to very-low income Californians.

State Auditor’s Reports: The Joint Legislative Audit Committee requested an audit of the state’s homelessness funding, including an evaluation of the efforts undertaken by the State and two cities to monitor the cost‑effectiveness of such spending. The auditor released both audits on April 9, 2024. In the audit of state programs, the auditor found that the “state lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs, because Cal-ICH has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness. Although Cal ICH reported in 2023 financial information covering fiscal years 2018–19 through 2020–21 related to all state-funded homelessness programs, it has not continued to track and report this data since that time, despite the significant amount of additional funding the State awarded to these efforts in the past two years. Cal ICH has also not aligned its action plan to end homelessness with its statutory goals to collect financial information and ensure accountability and results. Thus, it lacks assurance that the actions it takes will effectively enable it to achieve those goals. Another significant gap in the State’s ability to assess programs’ effectiveness is that it does not have a consistent method for gathering information on the costs and outcomes for individual programs.”^[1]

Cal-ICH: In 2016, SB 1380 (Mitchell), Chapter 847, created the Homelessness Coordinating and Financing Council, which in 2021 was renamed the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (CA-ICH) (AB 1220 (L. Rivas), Chapter 398) to coordinate the state's response to homelessness. SB 1380 (Mitchell) set out a list of list of “goals” for CA-ICH to focus on but no clear authority to make changes to state policy or programs that address homelessness. CA-ICH is also responsible for ensuring that all state housing and homeless programs are Housing First.

As the state’s homelessness crisis has worsened, the role of the CA-ICH has significantly increased. The council became responsible for administering two large programs dedicated to addressing homelessness, HEAP and HHAP. Recent budgets have included multi-year funding for HHAP. To access this funding, eligible applicants (CoCs, counties, and eligible cities) are required to submit a Local Homelessness Action Plan that demonstrates how HHAP funds and all local dollars for homelessness can reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness. CA-ICH is tasked with working with eligible applicants to develop measurable outcome goals to reduce homelessness. Goals will measure the following and progress will be based on data collected through the local HMIS:

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

The governance structure of CA-ICH has also evolved since its creation. In addition to changing the name of council, AB 1220 (L. Rivas) appointed the Secretary of the California HHS Agency as co-chair of CA-ICH with the Secretary of the BCSH Agency. In addition, AB 1220 (L. Rivas) removed people with lived experience of homelessness from the council membership and placed them on an advisory board, and required staff of agencies and departments of the CA-ICH to participate in council work groups or task forces at the request of the council.

Last year, the Legislature moved administration of HHAP and the Encampment Resolution program from Cal-ICH to the Department of Housing and community Development (HCD) in an effort to return Cal-ICH to its core mission of coordinating the state’s overall response to homelessness. This bill would assist Cal-ICH in coordinating that overall strategy by giving Cal-ICH better data to determine how the state should invest in the response to homelessness. This bill would require any state agency or department that administers one or more state homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal-ICH) for each state-funded homelessness program the agency or department administers.

Arguments in Support: None on file.

Arguments in Opposition: None on file.

Related Legislation:

AB 23385 (Jones-Sawyer), of the current legislative session, to require the Governor to appoint a Statewide Homelessness Coordinator (Coordinator) within the Governor’s Office to serve as the lead person for ending homelessness in the state. This bill will be heard in Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 24, 2024.

REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:

Support

None on file.

Opposition

None on file.

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

1. https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-102.1/index.html#chapter1 ↑