Youth shelters: funding.

The Youth Center and Youth Shelter Bond Act of 1988 makes funds from specified bond proceeds available for allocation to recipients of contracts with the Division of Juvenile Justice, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, for the purpose of acquiring, renovating, constructing, or purchasing equipment for a youth center or youth shelter. The act requires that the department treat funding for youth centers and youth shelters as separate programs and fund each separately. The act further requires the department to award at least 70% of the funding for youth shelters to shelters for runaway youths, and a maximum of 30% to shelters for abused and neglected children. Under the act, the state is entitled to recapture a portion of state funds from the recipient of a contract if the facility ceases to be used for youth center or youth shelter activities within a certain period of time. This bill would authorize a county to use any unexpended funds awarded to a shelter for abused and neglected children for the purpose of acquiring, renovating, constructing, or purchasing equipment for a shelter for runaway or homeless youth, and would direct the department to revise any contracts as necessary to implement this provision. The bill would also specify that, under these circumstances, a county would not be required to repay these funds. The bill would also authorize a county that is the recipient of a contract to use funds received under the contract to provide grant awards to private nonprofit entities for the acquisition, renovation, construction, or purchase of equipment for a youth shelter.