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SB-636 Homeless youth: basic material needs assistance.(2015-2016)



Current Version: 01/04/16 - Amended Senate

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SB636:v96#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  January 04, 2016
Amended  IN  Senate  April 23, 2015
Amended  IN  Senate  April 07, 2015

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2015–2016 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 636

Introduced by Senator Liu
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Weber)
(Coauthors: Senators Hancock, Wieckowski, and Wolk)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bonilla, Bonta, Calderon, Campos, Chiu, Dodd, Frazier, McCarty, and Santiago)

February 27, 2015

An act to add Chapter 6.1 (commencing with Section 13710) to Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to public social services.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 636, as amended, Liu. Homeless youth: basic material needs assistance.
Existing law establishes various public social services programs to provide protection, care, and assistance to the people of the state in need of those services, by providing appropriate aid and services to the needy and distressed. Existing law establishes homeless youth emergency service pilot projects in the Counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Clara, and San Francisco.
This bill would create the Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program. This bill would require that require, from moneys appropriated by the Legislature Legislature, as specified, for the purposes of the program be allocated proportionally by program, the State Department of Social Services to each county program based on the number of homeless youth in the county. The bill would authorize a county to establish the program or request the department to administer the program, in which case the department would be required to retain the county’s proportional share of funds and directly administer a program in that county. The bill would authorize a county to join with one or more other counties for the purpose of pooling their respective allocations and establishing a program for those counties. establish and operate a Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program for homeless youth in California. The bill would require each program the department to solicit proposals from, and contract with, nonprofit organizations for the purpose of providing basic material needs assistance to homeless youth in the county or counties as directed by the entity administering the program. department. The bill would require contracted nonprofit organizations to, among other things, provide a minimum of 25% 100% matching funds, as specified. The bill would require each contracted nonprofit organization to prepare a report for the administering entity department including, among other information, the number of homeless youth assisted. The bill would require the department, require, after the program has been operating for 3 years, to issue each contracted nonprofit organization to issue and provide to the department, and the department to collect and issue, a report including, among other information, the number of homeless youth assisted each year, and a description of the assistance provided.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares
that it is the intent of the Legislature that funds appropriated by the Legislature for this program act not exceed an average allocation of twenty-five dollars and twenty cents ($25.20) per pupil, with the assumption of a participation rate of not more than 297,619 homeless youth, or the number from the most recent count of homeless youth, whichever is lesser. five million dollars ($5,000,000) each year.

SEC. 2.

 Chapter 6.1 (commencing with Section 13710) is added to Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:
CHAPTER  6.1. Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program

13710.
 This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program.

13712.
 For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply:

(a)“Additional material needs assistance” means clothes, blankets, and access to shelter.

(b)“Administering entity” means one of the following:

(1)A county that elects to establish a program and does not join with another county as described in subdivision (b) of Section 13714.

(2)A county designated as the lead county, if two or more counties elect to establish a program jointly under subdivision (b) of Section 13714.

(3)The department, if a county declines to establish a program or requests the department to administer the program.

(c)

(a) “Basic material needs assistance” means school supplies, dental supplies and other hygienic products, shoes, socks, and underwear. This shall not include any electronic items except a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface.

(d)

(b) “Department” means the State Department of Social Services.

(e)

(c) “Homeless youth” has the same meaning as that term is defined in Section 11434a of Title 42 of the United States Code.

(f)

(d) “Nonprofit organization” means a nonprofit corporation qualified to do business in California and qualified under Section 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue Code.

(g)

(e) “Program” means the Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program.

13714.
 (a) From moneys appropriated by the Legislature from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant for the purpose of this chapter, the department shall allocate a proportional amount to each county program pursuant to this chapter based on that county’s respective number of homeless youth. The moneys allocated to the county shall be used to establish and operate a Homeless Youth Basic Material Needs Assistance Program for homeless youth in that county. California.

(b)A county may join with one or more other counties for the purpose of pooling the allocations made to the counties under this section and establishing a program for those counties.

(c)If a county declines to establish a program or requests the department to administer the program, the department shall retain the county’s proportional share of funds and shall directly administer a program for homeless youth in that county, including contracting with a nonprofit and performing all duties set forth in this chapter.

(b) No more than five million dollars ($5,000,000) shall be appropriated in a single year to fund this program. TANF funds appropriated to counties for the purposes of administrating the CalWORKs program, food assistance, or housing shall not be reallocated for purposes of this program. The program shall not provide vouchers, cash aid, or other forms of currency to homeless youth.

13716.
 Each administering entity The department shall do all of the following:
(a) Solicit proposals from nonprofit organizations for the purpose of providing basic material needs assistance to homeless youth in the manner directed by the administering entity, department, subject to the requirements imposed by this chapter.
(b) Select and contract with one or more nonprofit organizations to participate in the program based on the proposals solicited under subdivision (a). Selection of a nonprofit organization shall be based on the following criteria:
(1) Demonstrated ability to form partnerships with local educational agencies (LEAs).
(2) Demonstrated ability to provide basic material needs assistance to homeless or low-income youth by working with LEAs.
(3) Ability to work with the homeless liaison of each LEA pursuant to Section 11432(g)(1)(J)(ii) of Title 42 of the United States Code, or his or her LEA-employed designee.
(4) Demonstrated ability to generate additional matching funds or in-kind resources for similar programs.
(c) Require each nonprofit organization contracted under subdivision (b) to do all of the following:
(1) Notify the homeless liaison of a county office of education of the organization’s intent to enter into new partnership agreements with the LEAs in that county.
(2) Form or maintain partnerships with LEAs for the purpose of providing basic material needs assistance to homeless youth.
(3) Notify the homeless liaison of a county office of education each time a basic material needs assistance program commences or is renewed.
(4) Provide basic material needs assistance to homeless youth, giving first priority to hygiene, dental, and school supply needs. A nonprofit organization may use other resources or demonstrated savings to provide additional material needs assistance.
(5) Provide at least a 25-percent 100-percent match for all moneys received from the administering entity department under this chapter. If the nonprofit organization provides in-kind materials toward the 25-percent 100-percent match, the value of the in-kind materials contributing to a 25-percent 100-percent match shall be verified by the donor of the materials and shall not exceed the market value of the materials if sold at retail. Any amounts provided by the nonprofit organization that exceed the 25-percent match constitute demonstrated savings that may be used in accordance with paragraph (4).
(6) Consult with the children and families commission of the county or counties each county served by the program to determine how to best provide basic material needs assistance to homeless youth from birth to five years of age, inclusive, if the administering entity department elects to include homeless youth of that age in its program.
(7) Following each distribution cycle, each contracted nonprofit shall prepare a report for the administering entity. department. The report shall include, but not be limited to, the following information:
(A) The number of homeless youth assisted.
(B) The locations of the distributions.
(C) The date or range of dates of distributions.
(D) Descriptions of the materials distributed.
(E) A letter from each LEA, shelter, or other partnering entity, verifying the information submitted pursuant to subparagraphs (A) through to (D), inclusive.
(F) Original Copies of original letters from all donors contributing any in-kind materials counting toward the required match.

13718.
 After three years of operation of the program, each contracted nonprofit shall issue and provide to the department, and the department shall issue collect and issue, a simplified report including the following information:
(a) The number of homeless youth assisted each year.
(b) A description of the assistance provided.
(c) The total match leveraged and the match leveraged by each county. leveraged, including the accounting of the match over the three-year period.
(d) A scanned or paper copy of the original letters from each LEA or other partner, as described in paragraph (7) of subdivision (c) of Section 13716.
(e) Any significant achievements in absenteeism reduction, improved academic outcomes, improved living or social outcomes, and any other significant improvements.