Existing law, the California Community Care Facilities Act, requires the State Department of Social Services to license and regulate transitional housing placement providers as a community care facility. A "transitional housing placement provider" is an organization licensed by the department to provide transitional housing to foster children at least 16 years of age and not more than 18 years of age, and nonminor dependents to promote their transition to adulthood. Existing law requires transitional housing units to include, among others, a host family certified by a transitional housing placement provider.
This bill would authorize a host family to be certified by the transitional housing placement provider, or to be an approved resource family, a licensed foster family home or certified foster home, an approved relative caregiver, or a nonrelative extended family member of a participant, without requiring additional certification by the transitional housing placement provider. The bill would require, if a nonminor dependent receiving transitional housing services lives with a host family, payment for those services to be split equally between the transitional housing placement provider, the host family, and the nonminor dependent, unless a different apportionment is agreed to by all parties.
Existing law requires county agencies that place children in foster care to conduct an evaluation of the county's placement resources and programs in relation to the needs of children placed in out-of-home care, and specifically requires county placement agencies to examine placements that are out of county and determine the reason the placement was necessary.
This bill would additionally require a county placement agency to examine its ability to meet the emergency housing needs of nonminor dependents. By imposing new duties on counties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law establishes the supervised independent living placement as an independent supervised setting that is specified in a nonminor dependent's transitional independent living case plan and in which the nonminor dependent is living independently.
This bill would authorize a county, under certain conditions, to certify that a supervised independent living placement meets health and safety standards once every 12 months. The bill would also authorize a county, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for this purpose, to request housing navigation funding from the department to provide housing navigation services to foster youth who will soon enter extended foster care and nonminor dependents to assist in securing an eligible placement and promoting stability in their housing arrangements. The bill would authorize a county that provides housing navigation services, subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for this purpose, to request funding to provide additional housing-related financial assistance to foster youth and nonminor dependents.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Statutes affected:
AB531: 1559.110 HSC, 11402.2 WIC, 11403.2 WIC, 16001 WIC, 16522.1 WIC
02/13/19 - Introduced: 1559.110 HSC, 11402.2 WIC, 11403.2 WIC, 16001 WIC, 16522.1 WIC
05/16/19 - Amended Assembly: 1559.110 HSC, 11402.2 WIC, 11403.2 WIC, 16001 WIC, 16522.1 WIC