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

SPONSOR Trujillo

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/22/08

HB 242

SHORT TITLE Santa Fe Youth Transitional Living Services

SB

ANALYST Propst

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$50.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 242, Making an Appropriation for Youth Transitional Living Services in Santa Fe,

appropriates $50.0 thousand from the general fund to DFA for a transitional living program in

Santa Fe that provides apartments and life skills development for homeless youth ages 16 to 21.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $50.0 thousand contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general

fund. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY09 shall revert to the

general fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

CYFD notes that the bill would provide funding for a Transitional Living Program in Santa Fe

County that would serve homeless and runaway youth sixteen to twenty-one years of age. The

program would offer temporary shelter, board, living skills education, behavioral health and

social services to this population.

In 2002, the US Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

estimated that there are nearly 1.7 million homeless and runaway youth in the United States.

House Bill 242 – Page

2

Many homeless youth leave home after years of physical and/or sexual abuse, addiction of a

family member, and/or parental neglect; and many of these youth have been in child welfare

custody or foster care. Studies show that homeless youth benefit from programs that meet

immediate and basic needs first, including housing, and then help them to address other aspects

of their lives (National Coalition for the Homeless, Fact Sheet #13, August 2007). A Colorado

study suggests it costs less than $6 thousand to permanently move a homeless youth off the

streets, compared to the more than $53 thousand required to maintain a youth in the criminal

justice system for one year (

www.medicalnewstoday.com

, June 12, 2007).

CYFD funds and manages transitional living programs within the state for both youth aging out

of foster care, and youth paroling from the juvenile correctional facilities. The bill does not

appear to offer a provision for coordinating or collaborating with existing CYFD-funded

transitional living and service programs.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

CYFD notes that the term “temporary shelter" most frequently refers to programs for runaway

and homeless youth lasting under 30 days while the term “transitional living" most frequently

refers to programs lasting up to 18 months

.

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