83R9826 EES-D
By: Huffman S.B. No. 1804
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the establishment of community collaboratives by local
entities to provide services to and coordinate the care of persons
who are homeless, persons with mental illness, and persons with
substance abuse problems.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subtitle I, Title 4, Government Code, is amended
by adding Chapter 539 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 539. COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVES
Sec. 539.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Department" means the Department of State Health
Services.
(2) "Executive commissioner" means the executive
commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission.
Sec. 539.002. GRANTS FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMUNITY
COLLABORATIVES. (a) To the extent funds are appropriated to the
department for that purpose, the department shall make grants to
local entities, including local governmental entities, nonprofit
community organizations, and faith-based community organizations,
to establish community collaboratives that bring the public and
private sectors together to provide services to and coordinate the
care of persons who are homeless, persons with mental illness, and
persons with substance abuse problems.
(b) The amount of a grant made to a local entity by the
department under this section may not exceed $7.5 million and, up to
that amount, shall be equal to the amount of money provided to the
entity from private funding sources for the establishment of a
community collaborative.
Sec. 539.003. ACCEPTABLE USES OF GRANT MONEY. A local
entity shall use money received from a grant made by the department
and private funding sources for the establishment of a community
collaborative for the development of the infrastructure of the
collaborative and the start-up costs of the collaborative, provided
that a collaborative must be self-sustaining within seven years.
Other acceptable uses for the money include:
(1) the establishment, operation, or maintenance of
intake centers, detoxification units, sheltering centers for food,
workforce training centers, microbusinesses, and educational
centers in the community served by the collaborative;
(2) the provision of clothing, hygiene products, and
medical services to and the arrangement of transitional and
permanent residential housing for persons served by the
collaborative; and
(3) the establishment of triage procedures to protect
the public safety in the community served by the collaborative.
Sec. 539.004. ELEMENTS OF COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVES. If
appropriate, a local entity shall incorporate into the community
collaborative established by the entity the use of the
department-operated Texas Electronic Registrar, transportation
plans, and case managers. An entity shall also consider
incorporating into a collaborative mentoring and volunteering
opportunities, strategies to reintegrate persons recently released
from prison into the community, and services for veterans.
Sec. 539.005. OUTCOME MEASURES FOR COMMUNITY
COLLABORATIVES. Each local entity that receives a grant from the
department to establish a community collaborative shall select at
least three of the following outcome measures that the entity will
focus on meeting through the implementation of the collaborative:
(1) persons served by the collaborative will find
regular employment that results in those persons having incomes
that are at or above 125 percent of the federal poverty level;
(2) persons served by the collaborative will find
permanent housing;
(3) persons served by the collaborative will complete
alcohol or substance abuse programs;
(4) the collaborative will help start social
businesses in the community and those businesses will create jobs
and provide funding that will enable the collaborative to
eventually become self-sustaining;
(5) there will be a decrease in the local recidivism
rate and an increase in the availability of jail beds in the
community served by the collaborative; and
(6) there will be a decrease in the number of emergency
room visits by persons served by the collaborative.
Sec. 539.006. ANNUAL REVIEW OF OUTCOME MEASURES. The
department shall contract with an independent third party to verify
annually whether a community collaborative is meeting the outcome
measures under Section 539.005 selected by the local entity that
established the collaborative.
Sec. 539.007. RECOVERY OF FUNDS. The department shall
establish processes by which the department may recover funds from
a local entity if the community collaborative established by the
entity does not meet the outcome measures selected by the entity for
the collaborative under Section 539.005 or is not self-sustaining
after seven years.
Sec. 539.008. RULES. The executive commissioner shall
adopt any rules necessary to implement the community collaborative
grant program established under this chapter, including rules to
establish the requirements for a local entity to be eligible to
receive a grant, the required elements of a community collaborative
established by a local entity, and permissible and prohibited uses
of money received by a local entity from a grant made by the
department under this chapter.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.