BILL NUMBER: SB 1380INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senator Mitchell (Coauthors: Senators Allen, Hertzberg, Liu, and Wieckowski) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Campos and Thurmond) FEBRUARY 19, 2016 An act relating to homelessness. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 1380, as introduced, Mitchell. Homelessness: coordinating council. Existing law establishes various programs, including, among others, the Emergency Housing and Assistance Program, to provide assistance to homeless persons. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to establish a coordinating council on homelessness. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) California leads the nation in the number of homeless residents with 115,738 people experiencing homelessness at some point, which is 21 percent of the nation's total. California also leads the nation in the number and ratio of chronically homeless residents with 29,178 chronically homeless residents at any point in time, which is 31 percent of the nation's total. (b) Homelessness is expensive to the state and local governments. A homeless person receiving general assistance in Los Angeles County, for example, incurs $2,897 per month in crisis response services. (c) Following the example of other states, as well as jurisdictions within California, it is the intent of the Legislature to adopt a housing first model for all state programs funding housing for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. (d) Housing first is an evidence-based model of ending all types of homelessness and is the most effective approach to ending chronic homelessness. Housing first offers individuals and families experiencing homelessness access to permanent affordable or supportive housing with a low-threshold for entry, as it does not impose clinical prerequisites like completion of a course of treatment or evidence of sobriety. The federal government recognizes that housing first yields high-housing retention rates, low returns to homelessness, and significant reductions in crisis or institutional care. (e) Homelessness affects multiple systems in California. Though almost every state with significant homeless populations has established a council to coordinate a housing first oriented response to homelessness, California does not have an entity to manage the state's response. (f) California participated in a federally funded policy academy to reduce chronic homelessness. That policy academy succeeded in revising programs administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, and in attracting federal funding opportunities requiring collaboration between the Department of Housing and Community Development and the State Department of Health Care Services. To implement additional successes, it is essential that California has a coordinating council on homelessness. (g) It is therefore the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to establish a coordinating council on homelessness.