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

SPONSOR Nunez

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/28/08

HB 384

SHORT TITLE Services for Homeless Children

SB

ANALYST Lucero

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$150.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates: SB159 “Services for Homeless Children", Relates to: SB236 “Socorro homeless

shelter", and SB302 “Homeless youth transitional living program".

Relates to Appropriation in the General Appropriation Act

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 384 appropriates one hundred fifty thousand ($150,000) from the general fund to

Children, Youth and Families Department for expenditure in 2009 to provide child care services

to homeless children in Dona Ana county.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of one hundred fifty thousand ($150,000) contained in this bill is a recurring

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

2009 shall revert to the general fund.

This bill is not part of CYFD’s request or the Executive recommendation.

House Bill 384 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Ninety thousand of the nation’s homeless include children. Of these 90,000 children, 80% are

under the age of three. On any given day in Dona Ana County, there are approximately 250

homeless individuals. An estimated 41% are families with children. Homeless and near-

homeless children and families have multiple needs that require intensive one-on-one and team-

based intervention strategies. Homeless families lack food, clothing, shelter, medical care, jobs,

education, and mental health services.

Research conducted by the National Coalition for the Homeless concludes that homeless children

are 35% more likely to have major and/or severe health issues than children living in poverty,

they are also more likely to become involved with the juvenile and/or adult justice system, and

fail in school by 7th grade. Early indicators show that intervention with these fragile children

and intense training for those who care for them is producing results with 65% performing at age

level. Homeless children get sick four times more often; have six times as many speech

problems; have four times higher rate of asthma; have four times higher rate of delayed

development; one in 10 misses at least 1 month of school each year; and most homeless families

are made up of a young, single mother with two young children. Homeless children are twice as

likely not to be enrolled in a preschool program. In addition, the waiting period for public

housing averages one to two years and programs helping to pay part of the families’ rent have

even longer wait lists.

PED supports homeless children and youth in achieving academic success through the

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which states that “children and youth have to be free

from segregation, isolation and stigmatization. Children and youth must have comparable access

to school meals, English language services, vocational and technical education, special education

(including gifted) and Title 1 services (McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act). According

to the 2006-07 Data Collection Report, to the federal government, PED served 5,001 homeless

children and youth (Public Education Department, 2007).

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

This program ties directly to the Governor’s Policy Initiative, Healthy New Mexico Task 2.6 –

“Improve Access and Quality of Child Care".

In order to ensure New Mexico’s homeless children and youth have access to education and

other services needed to meet the state’s academic standards, early interventions for homeless

children must be provided by qualified providers. This bill may positively impact homeless

children and youth in meeting the state’s academic standards and closing the achievement gap.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

This bill would be managed with existing resources. CYFD staff currently fund and monitor a

homeless childcare program in Bernalillo County.

CONFLICT, DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP

Relates to: SB236 “Socorro Homeless Shelter"

Relates to: General Appropriations Act

House Bill 384 – Page

3

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

Information from the committee on temporary shelter state:

(

http://www.cotsonline.org/homeless_kids.html

)

Every day, homeless children are confronted with stressful, often traumatic events. As these

painful experiences continue throughout their young lives, these children are indelibly shaped

and sometimes scarred. The stress has profound effects on the cognitive and emotional

development of homeless children, as indicated below.

•

More than one-fifth of homeless children between 3 and 6 years have serious

emotional problems requiring professional care.

•

Homeless children aged 6 to 17 years struggle with high rates of mental health

problems.

•

Less than one-third of homeless children are receiving mental health treatment

they need.

The causes of child abuse are complex, but there is substantial evidence that poverty is

associated with child maltreatment (Drake and Pandey). Exposure to violence injures

children and destroys their sense of self and family. Combining homelessness with violence

is even more detrimental, since homeless children have fewer tools to recover from the

trauma of such violence. Other troubling facts include the following…

•

More than half of homeless school-aged children (57%) were witness to or victims

of violence in their households or communities. (Stern & Nunez)

•

Domestic violence is alarmingly prevalent among homeless families--affecting

63% of homeless parents. (Stern & Nunez).

•

Just over 60% of homeless single mothers grew up in the foster care system.

DL/mt