BILL NUMBER: AB 558AMENDED BILL TEXT AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2009 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Portantino FEBRUARY 25, 2009 An act to add and repeal Section 65584.9 of the Government Code, relating to land use. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 558, as amended, Portantino. Land use planning: housing element: foster youth placement. The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county general plan to include specified mandatory elements, including a housing element that identifies and analyzes existing and projected housing needs and includes a statement of goals, policies, quantified objectives, financial resources, and scheduled programs for the preservation, improvement, and development of housing. The Planning and Zoning Law requires each local government to revise its housing element in accordance with a specified schedule. The Department of Housing and Community Development, in consultation with each council of governments, is required to determine each region's existing and projected housing need at least 2 years prior to a scheduled revision. The appropriate council of governments, or for cities and counties without a council of governments, the department, is required to adopt a final regional housing need plan that allocates a share of the regional housing need to each city, county, or city and county at least one year prior to a scheduled revision. This bill would authorize a city, until January 1,20162017 , to meet not more than 10% of its existing share of the regional housing need by adoption of a program that meets certain, listed requirements, including that the program actively promote and assist in the placement of foster youth in existing family-based households, as specified, and be approved by the council of governments that assigns the city's share of regional housing needs or, in the county absence of a council, by the department. For the 2nd and any subsequent planning period after the specified program has been adopted, the department or the council of governments, as applicable, would be prohibited from approving the program for these purposes if the program was not responsible for meeting 2.5% or more of the city's share of the regional housing need for the previous planning period. The bill would require the department or the council of governments, as applicable, to limit program approvals to the first 5 programs per region that apply and qualify for approval. The bill would require each city that has adopted a program to submit to the department or the council of governments, as applicable, 2 progress reports per planning period, on dates established by the department or the council of governments. The bill would require the reports to include the number of foster youth placements with a duration of one year or more that occurred during the reporting period, as verified by the county's program that manages foster youth placements. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and hereby declares all of the following: (a) The number of people across the state willing to become foster parents declined by more than 30 percent since 2001, with some counties experiencing even greater declines. (b) If this decline continues, more abused and neglected children will be placed into group homes and homes operated by foster family agencies at a substantially higher cost to the state and counties. (c) Under the current system, the outcomes for youth who turn 18 years of age in foster care are often grim. Many leave the system without family support, leaving them at high risk of becoming victims of crime and becoming involved with the judicial system, homelessness, and unemployment. Many fail to complete high school and do not pursue higher education or vocational training. (d) Foster youth who exit the system with permanent links to caring adults or families have a better chance for successful outcomes. When youth grow up in a family, that family is the major vehicle preparing them for the adult world. The values, skills, challenges, and opportunities that shape and define adulthood are woven into the fabric of their everyday lives. Through these lifelong connections, they discover what it means to learn, love, and live. (e) To attain the goal of permanency, the state must be engaged in creating incentives that identify responsible adults and families willing to take on this task. New communities need to be tapped to improve outcomes for foster youth exiting the system. All government entities should have an opportunity to participate in this goal through state incentives. (f) Cities are not directly involved in finding quality, family-based households for foster youth, but the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) process creates many challenges in meeting the state's requirement to plan for future population growth. Especially difficult to plan are very low and low-income housing. Most cities are not actually required to zone for affordable housing. Instead, most zone at certain densities and presume these densities will allow affordable housing to be built. Because the housing element does not address the final outcome, setting the density does not guarantee affordability. In fact, property owners may ultimately decide to build luxury condominiums too expensive for low-income people. (g) While most cities plan and meet their RHNA requirement to zone for affordable housing, the market decides when they are built. When they are built, critics wonder whether they truly accommodate low-income Californians and whether having an approved housing element actually made the difference. (h) Since the RHNA process does not plan for the fluctuating population of foster youth in need of immediate and future housing, flexibility is needed to both plan and fulfill the state's responsibility to find quality foster parents. Zoning for future housing that may never be built pales in comparison to the immediate and ongoing needs of foster care youth seeking quality family-based environments and permanency. (i) In enacting this act, it is not the intent of the Legislature that cities avoid zoning for future populations. The purpose of this act is to give cities experiencing difficulty another tool to meet their RHNA requirement and involve them in the task of identifying family-based environments for foster youth. SEC. 2. Section 65584.9 is added to the Government Code, to read: 65584.9. (a) A city may meet up to 10 percent of its existing share of the regional housing need pursuant to Section 65584 by adoption of a program that meets all of the following criteria : (1) Actively promotes placement of foster youth in existing family-based households through advertisement and city-based incentives. (2) Provides a process for coordinating city and county assistance to help interested persons by providing information and documents necessary to meet the responsibility of caring for foster youth. (3) Serves as a resource to assist interested persons in accessing existing services that support the placement of foster youth in existing family-based households. (4) Provides a plan to measure the success of the program, in coordination with the county's current system of data outcomes. (5) Is approved by the council of governments that assigns the city's share of regional housing need or by the Department of Housing and Community Development if there is no council of governments. (b) For the second and any subsequent planning period after the program described in subdivision (a) has been adopted, the Department of Housing and Community Development or the council of governments, as applicable, shall not approve the program for the purposes of paragraph (5) of subdivision (a) if the program was not responsible for meeting 2.5 percent or more of the city's share of the regional housing need pursuant to Section 65584 for the previous planning period. (c) The Department of Housing and Community Development or the council of governments, as applicable, shall limit approvals under paragraph (5) of subdivision (a) to the first five programs per region that apply and qualify for approval. (d) Each city that has adopted a program under this section shall submit to the Department of Housing and Community Development or the council of governments, as applicable, two progress reports per planning period, on dates established by the department or the council of governments, as the case may be. The reports shall include, but are not limited to, the number of foster youth placements with a duration of one year or more that occurred during the reporting period as verified by the county's program that manages foster youth placements. (e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,20162017 , and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1,20162017 , deletes or extends that date.