AB 1899: Office of Youth Homelessness Prevention.

Existing law, the Governors Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 2025, beginning July 1, 2026, eliminates the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and instead establishes the Business and Consumer Services Agency and the California Housing and Homelessness Agency. The plan also, among other things, establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness as an independent entity within the California Housing and Homelessness Agency and renames the existing council as the California Interagency Executive Council on Homelessness, which it establishes within the California Interagency Council on Homelessness. Existing law requires the Interagency Council on Homelessness to set and measure progress toward goals to prevent and end homelessness among youth in California by setting specific, measurable goals aimed at preventing and ending homelessness among youth in the state, as provided.

This bill would establish within the California Housing and Homelessness Agency Interagency Council on Homelessness the Office of Youth Homelessness Prevention (office), with the mission of reducing youth homelessness in the state to functional zero, defined as the condition in which the number of youth experiencing homelessness does not exceed the capacity to provide youth with permanent housing. The bill would impose prescribed responsibilities on the office, including, by September 15, 2027, developing and overseeing the implementation of a comprehensive framework to reduce youth homelessness to functional zero containing specific and measurable goals, as provided. The bill would require the office, on or before December 15, 2027, to create and post on its internet website a publicly accessible dashboard tracking the offices progress toward these goals. The bill would require the office to consult with an advisory committee, as provided, and would require the Governor to appoint the members of the advisory committee by March 1, 2027. The bill would require the office to submit a report on its progress toward achieving its goals to the Legislature and the California Housing and Homelessness Agency Interagency Council on Homelessness on or before December 15, 2027, and annually thereafter, as provided.

This bill would make related findings and declarations.