CA Welf & Inst Code § 8257.1 (2021)
2021 California Code|Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC|DIVISION 8 - MISCELLANEOUS|CHAPTER 6.5 - Housing First and Coordinating Council|Section 8257.1.

8257.1.  (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to obtain trustworthy information to connect funding allocated to prevent and end homelessness with established sheltering and housing resources and to provide state agencies with accurate information to allow for more accurate forecasting to target future investments. To advance these goals, the coordinating council shall, upon appropriation by the Legislature, do all of the following:(1) Conduct, or contract with an entity to conduct, a statewide homelessness assessment that will do all of the following:(A) Identify all programs a state agency funds, implements, or administers for the purpose of providing unsheltered outreach services, emergency shelter, housing or housing-based services to persons experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness and do all of the following:(i) Identify homelessness interventions and service categories available statewide and in geographically diverse regions across the state.(ii) Compile the amount of funding distributed to local jurisdictions and its stated intent by the administering entity.(iii) Identify the intended uses for the funds identified pursuant to clause (ii) by type of intervention as stated by local jurisdictions requesting funding made available for housing- or homelessness-related services.(iv) Identify conditions or premise of the funds identified pursuant to clause (ii) as it relates to leveraging nonstate dollars.(v) If applicable, reasons for the unavailability of data.(B) Obtain the following information for each program identified in subparagraph (A) to the extent that data is available in local Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS), the Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS) or other readily available data sources:(i) The number of permanent housing units that the program made available.(ii) The amount of rental subsides, vouchers, or other forms of financial support intended to prevent homelessness or to rehouse individuals that the program made available.(iii) The number of emergency shelter beds, vouchers, or units that the program made available.(iv) The wrap around services that the program offered.(C) Collect data, to the extent data it is available, on the numbers and demographics of persons served through the identified services, including, but not limited to, a quantification of the disparities across age, race, ethnicity, and other demographics based on the following subpopulation categories to describe the homelessness population relative to the general population:(i) Young adults.(ii) Unaccompanied minors.(iii) Single adults experiencing either chronic or nonchronic patterns of homelessness, of first-time homelessness.(iv) Adults over 50 years of age.(v) Veterans.(vi) Families experiencing either chronic or nonchronic patterns of homelessness, or first-time homelessness.(D) For each program identified pursuant to subparagraph (A) that provides housing or homelessness-related services, collect and analyze the following data:(i) The number of persons served annually by service or intervention type by age, gender, and racial subgroupings.(ii) Typical service mix use to develop portrait of the “types” of system clients to better understand the holistic needs of people experiencing homelessness and to forecast future uses and policies of resources intended to address homelessness.(iii) The service, services, or service mixes that are associated with individuals exiting homelessness.(iv) The duration and frequency individuals accessed services, on average, and the length of time from program intake to the date the individual moves into permanent housing or resolves homelessness.(v) Each type of housing and each type of intervention provided disaggregated by age, racial, and gender characteristics of recipients.(vi) The number of individuals whose homelessness was prevented after accessing homelessness prevention services(vii) Information about the people who accessed the resources identified in subparagraph (B) and disaggregated by demographic characteristics described in subparagraph (C).(viii) Analyze the results of current permanent and interim housing programs by program type.(ix) Additional data necessary to provide a comprehensive view of the homelessness response system.(E) Provide the reasons for lack of data availability, if applicable.(2) (A) For purposes of collecting data to conduct the assessment pursuant to paragraph (1), evaluate available data, including, but not limited to, HDIS, data from state agencies administering homelessness funds, statewide and local homeless point-in-time counts and housing inventory counts, and available statewide information on the number or rate of persons exiting state-funded institutional settings, including, but not limited to, state prisons and, to the extent possible, local jails, into homelessness.(B) The coordinating council may work with a technical assistance provider from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to complete the assessment.(C) For purposes of collecting data pursuant to paragraph (1), a local government may collaborate with the coordinating council or the entity conducting the statewide assessment to, if available, share existing data from existing local analyses of system needs or gaps to complement other data requested.(D) The coordinating council shall submit an interim report by July 1, 2022, to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, the Assembly Committee on Budget, Senate Committee on Housing, and Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. The report submitted pursuant to this paragraph shall comply with Section 9795 of the Government Code.(E) The council shall report on the final assessment by December 31, 2022, to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, the Assembly Committee on Budget, Senate Committee on Housing, and Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. The report submitted pursuant to this paragraph shall comply with Section 9795 of the Government Code.(b) For purposes of this section, all of the following definitions apply:(1) “Chronic homelessness” has the same definition as that in Section 578.3 of Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as that section read on January 1, 2020.(2) “State-funded institutional settings” include, but are not limited to, justice, juvenile justice, child welfare, and health care settings.(3) “Young adult” means a person 18 to 24 years of age, inclusive.(4) “Persons at risk of homelessness” means a person or family in the circumstances described in Section 11302(a)(5) of Title 42 of the United States Code.(5) “Homeless” has the same meaning as defined in Section 578.3 of Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as that section read on January 10, 2019.(Added by Stats. 2021, Ch. 111, Sec. 27. (AB 140) Effective July 19, 2021.)