89R1829 MCF-D
By: Lopez of Bexar H.B. No. 510
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the issuance of a certified birth record to a homeless
individual.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 191, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 191.00495 to read as follows:
Sec. 191.00495. BIRTH RECORD ISSUED TO HOMELESS INDIVIDUAL.
(a) In this section, "homeless individual":
(1) means an individual who:
(A) lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate
nighttime residence; or
(B) has a primary nighttime residence that is:
(i) a supervised publicly or privately
operated shelter designed to provide temporary living
accommodations, including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and
transitional housing for the mentally ill;
(ii) an institution that provides a
temporary residence for individuals intended to be
institutionalized; or
(iii) a public or private place not
designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping
accommodation for human beings; and
(2) does not include an individual who is imprisoned
or otherwise detained in a correctional facility.
(b) On request of a homeless individual, the state
registrar, a local registrar, or a county clerk shall issue,
without fee, a certified copy of the individual's birth record to
the individual.
(c) The executive commissioner by rule shall:
(1) adopt a process to verify a person's status as a
homeless individual; and
(2) prescribe the documentation necessary for
issuance of a certified copy of a birth record to a homeless
individual whose status is verified through the process adopted
under Subdivision (1).
(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of state law, the
department may not require a homeless individual to provide a
physical address of the individual's residence to satisfy any
requirement of this section.
SECTION 2. As soon as practicable after the effective date
of this Act, the executive commissioner of the Health and Human
Services Commission shall adopt the rules required by Section
191.00495, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 3. The changes in law made by this Act apply to an
application for a birth record submitted on or after the effective
date of this Act. An application for a birth record submitted before
the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on
the date the application was submitted, and the former law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.