Foster youth: housing.

(1) Existing law, subject to an annual appropriation in the annual Budget Act, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide funding to counties for allocation to child welfare services agencies to help young adults who are 18 to 24 years of age secure and maintain housing, with priority given to young adults formerly in the state's foster care or probation systems. Existing law suspends this program on December 31, 2021, unless the Department of Finance makes a specified finding. This bill would delete the provisions conditionally suspending that program and subjecting the requirements of the program to an annual appropriation in the Budget Act. The bill would appropriate $8,000,000 annually to fund that program and require the department to allocate and distribute the funds no later than October 1, 2022, and no later than October 1 of each year thereafter. The bill would require a child welfare agency that accepts a distribution of over $10,000 to ensure that data on the demographics and characteristics of those served by the program is entered into the relevant local homeless management information system, as defined. The bill would also require a child welfare agency that accepts any distribution of money to report specified information to the Department of Housing and Community Development on an annual basis. (2) Existing law, the Budget Act of 2019, appropriated $5,000,000 to the Department of Housing and Community Development to allocate to counties for the support of housing navigators to help young adults 18 to 21 years of age, inclusive, secure and maintain housing, with priority given to young adults in the foster care system. This bill would appropriate $5,000,000 annually to the department to allocate and distribute to counties to continue that housing navigator program and require the department to allocate and distribute the funds no later than October 1, 2022, and no later than October 1 of each year thereafter. The bill would require a child welfare agency that accepts a distribution of over $10,000 to ensure that data on the demographics and characteristics of those served by the program is entered into the relevant local homeless management information system, as defined. The bill would also require a child welfare agency that accepts any distribution of money to report specified information to the Department of Housing and Community Development on an annual basis. (3) Existing law establishes the Transitional Housing Placement-Plus program, which provides transitional housing for former foster youth who are at least 18 years of age and, except as specified, not more than 24 years of age. Existing law provides for the establishment of rates to be paid to providers of transitional housing. This bill would establish the THP-Plus Housing Supplement Program, subject to an appropriation in the Budget Act, to supplement the rates paid to Transitional Housing Placement-Plus providers in up to 11 counties. The bill would specify that a county is eligible to receive this supplemental funding if the fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in the county is one of the 11 most expensive in the state during the 2020–21 federal fiscal year. The bill would specify requirements for counties that elect to receive this funding, including, among others, that the county maintain the bed capacity for the Transitional Housing Program-Plus program that the county contracted for in the 2020–21 fiscal year. The bill would also prescribe the method of calculating the amount of supplemental funding a county receives pursuant to this program. (4) Existing law requires the State Department of Social Services to select and award a grant to a private nonprofit or public entity for the purpose of establishing a statewide multipurpose child welfare training program. Existing law requires the training to provide practice-relevant training to county child protective services social workers who screen referrals for child abuse or neglect and for all workers assigned to provide emergency response, family maintenance, family reunification, and permanent placement services. Existing law requires the training to include specified components, including, among others, use of community resources. This bill would also require the training to include, for social workers and probation officers that serve nonminor dependents, an overview of the housing resources available through the local coordinated entry system, homeless continuum of care, and county public agencies.