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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Gonzales

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/17/07

HB 940

SHORT TITLE Taos Homeless and Abused Youth Programs

SB

ANALYST Lucero

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$19.5

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Related to HB172, HB63, HB419.

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Human Services Department (HSD)

Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 940 appropriates nineteen thousand five hundred $19,500 from the general fund to

Children, Youth and Families Department for expenditure in 2008 for community-based

organizations to provide services for homeless, abused and neglected youth in Taos county.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of nineteen thousand five hundred $19,500 contained in this bill is a recurring

expense to the general fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of

fiscal year 2008 shall revert to the general fund.

The appropriation is not part of Children Youth and Families Department’s request and is not

included in the Executive recommendation of Children Youth and Families Department.

House Bill 940 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

At the beginning of FY07, contracts for NM shelter care services, along with most other

behavioral health funds previously managed by CYFD, were merged into the New Mexico

Behavioral Health Purchasing Collaborative and transferred to ValueOptions New Mexico for

administration. Community-based service components, such as Crisis Intervention, Crisis

Shelter Care, and Client Support Services have been successful in helping New Mexican youth

and families to address situations that result in runaway and homelessness, and to assist targeted

youth to develop plans and alternatives to resolve these problems.

This bill does not specify how CYFD will establish the method of the funding distribution or if

any of the funding must be directed to providing shelter or meals for this population.

By law, HSD is the New Mexico agency authorized to receive yearly state Homeless Funding for

shelters and meals. Each year, HSD’s proposed budget includes a request for a recurring sum of

$750,000 in its base budget for the state-funded Homeless Shelter Program and $200,000 for the

state-funded Homeless Meal Program. In addition, the New Mexico Mortgage Finance (MFA) is

authorized per Executive Order 97-01 to administer all Homeless shelter programs’ funding in

New Mexico. HSD complies each year by transferring the funds via a Joint Powers Agreement

(JPA) with MFA to provide the State Homeless Shelter services statewide. The Homeless Meals

Programs are also contracted each year to designated Meals Programs statewide.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

Expanding funding for homelessness programs statewide may have an indirect link in addressing

student health, wellness and academic achievement for homeless children and youth. This may

assist homeless youth in meeting the state’s academic standards and potentially close the

achievement gap.

The bill could potentially improve the rate of repeat maltreatment in Taos County as well as

placement stability and timely reunification. County-level improvement, in turn, could

positively impact these statewide CYFD strategic plan and General Accountability Act

performance measures.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

If passed, the bill will have a slight administrative impact on children, youth and families

department that the bill does not address.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

HB 172, SB 586

TECHNICAL ISSUES

The term “youth" is not defined. The term “community based organizations" is not defined.

House Bill 940 – Page

3

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

PED states that last year in New Mexico 18,000 reports of abuse and neglect of children were

investigated, resulting in over 4,000 child victims, approximately 40% of them under the age of

five. These small victims suddenly found themselves without a home, among strangers. The

problem is so serious that in 2005 Governor Richardson proclaimed April as New Mexico Child

Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month (CASA: Court Appointed Special Advocates,

www.newmexicocasa.com

).

The National Alliance to End Homelessness recently released its first national estimate of the

homeless population in a decade. It states that 744,313 people were homeless in January 2005.

Of these, 41 percent were living in families.

Children and youths have to be free from segregation, isolation and stigmatization (Title VII-B

of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 USC 11431 et seq.)).

Children and youths have to have comparable access to school meals, English language services,

vocational and technical education, special education (including gifted) and Title 1 services

(Title VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 USC 11431 et seq.)).

•

The 2005-06 PED data collection report to the federal government included 4,966

reported homeless children and youths that where served by the McKinney-Vento

Homeless Education Program.

•

Barriers to the education of New Mexico’s homeless children and youths include school

selection, transportation, school records, immunization/medical records and lack of

affordable housing.

•

Homeless children get sick four times as often as children in middle class families (Kids’

Corner: Facts about homelessness,

http://www.nationalhomeless.org

).

•

Homeless children go hungry twice as often as other children (Kids’ Corner: Facts about

homelessness,

http://www.nationalhomeless.org

).

•

Homeless children have more mental health problems than other children, but less than

one-third receives treatment (Kids’ Corner: Facts about homelessness,

http://www.nationalhomeless.org

).

•

Most homeless families are made up of a young, single mother and two young children.

A worker earning minimum wage would have to work 97 hours a week to pay the rent of

an average two-bedroom apartment (Kids’ Corner: Facts about homelessness,

http://www.nationalhomeless.org

).

The waiting period for public housing averages one to two years. For programs that help to pay

for part of the families’ rent, the wait is even longer (Kids’ Corner: Facts about homelessness,

http://www.nationalhomeless.org

).

ALTERNATIVES

The sponsor may want to clarify with CYFD and HSD which is the best recipient of the

appropriation. The sponsor may also want to clarify with CYFD (if it is the recipient of the

appropriation) whether the funds will flow through the Behavioral Health Collaborative

(ValueOptions) and whether there is an administrative cost paid to VO.

House Bill 940 – Page

4

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

Status quo

DL/csd