Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance
committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports
if they are used for other purposes.
Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are a vailable on the NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us).
Adobe PDF versions include all attachments, whereas HTML versions may not. Previously issued FIRs and
attachments may be obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.
F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Ortiz y Pino
ORIGINAL DATE
LAST UPDATED
01/25/08
HB
SHORT TITLE Create Housing First Task Force
SM 2
ANALYST Escudero
APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)
Appropriation
Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY08
FY09
NFI
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
Relates to SB 159 and SB 236
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Public Education Department (PED)
Mortgage Finance Authority (MFA)
Children, Youth & Families Department (CYFD)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Memorial 2 creates the Housing First Task Force to:
•
Develop a comprehensive Housing First Plan for the State
•
Be charged and convened by Secretary of Children, Youth and Families (CYFD)
•
Address ways state agencies can better target and coordinate existing resources and
strategies
•
Collaborate on strategic plans to support Housing First approach for all persons in New
Mexico
SM 2 also targets the following populations:
•
All persons with disabilities and addictions
•
Persons discharged from prisons and other institutions
•
Youth
•
Low income working families
SM 2’s Task Force is directed to create a Housing First Plan that:
•
Identifies specific goals and an implementation time line
pg_0002
Senate Memorial 2 – Page
2
•
Identifies responsible agencies and agents for each implementation
•
Propose relevant action steps and performance measures to evaluate progress for each
goal
SM2 names the following Housing First Task Force members as, Representatives of the
Governor’s and Lieutenant Governor’s offices, CYFD, HSD, PED, ALTSD, and Corrections,
Mortgage Finance Authority, Purchasing Collaborative, Value Options, New Mexico Coalition
to End Homelessness, Supportive Housing Coalition, Drug Policy Alliance, Women’s Justice
Project, 3 service providers
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
According to HSD, even though there is no appropriation tied to this memorial, SM 2 is not part
of the Executive Budget Request.
Given the Collaborative’s efforts in the development and implementation of the Behavioral
Health Purchasing Collaborative Long Range Supportive Housing Plan
(Dec. 2007), SM 2 has
significant fiscal impact for HSD, requiring staff time, knowledge and expertise to complete the
Housing First Plan. No HSD IT Impact.
According to CYFD, there is no appropriation contained in this bill. There will be a fiscal
impact to CYFD related to the staffing of, participation on, and administration of the task force.
As stated by PED, it would take approximately 40 hours of time for an Education Administrator–
O to serve on the task force, report progress to the secretary, and assist in the development and
presentation of the comprehensive plan (40 hrs x 22.74 + 30% =$1.2).
SIGNIFICANT ISSUES
CYFD states, that Homelessness is a significant problem in New Mexico. A random Point in
Time sample survey conducted January 2007 in Albuquerque provided the following picture of
the homeless population: Families make up a significant portion of the homeless population, with
20% of that count being parents with young children, and up to 36% members of a household
with children. It is also very likely that these surveys actually undercount the number of parents
with children, since this population is often the “invisible homeless" and difficult to reach. These
findings strongly suggest that there is a significant need to design and fund solutions to
homelessness that are appropriate for families, such as affordable childcare for low-income,
working parents and affordable, multi bedroom rental units. There are very few emergency
shelter beds for families in Albuquerque, which makes this population hard to track or contact.
According to PED, the 2006-07 PED data report to the federal government included 5,001
reported homeless children and youths that where served by the McKinney-Vento Homeless
Education Program (Final Data Collection Report, 2007).
Ending homelessness must begin with the understanding that people who are or have been
homeless are our neighbors and members of our community (Faces of Homeless Speakers
Bureau, 2005).
•
Public perceptions and attitudes toward persons experiencing homelessness or in danger
of becoming homeless need to change in order for positive, long-term solutions to be
realized.
pg_0003
Senate Memorial 2 – Page
3
•
Most Americans rarely interact with people who are or who have been homeless.
•
The lack of interaction between different groups of our society, combined with
impersonal or inaccurate descriptions of homelessness posed by the media and public
officials, contributes to a distancing of those who have housing from those who do not.
•
As a result, homelessness is perceived as an abstract social problem.
•
Those who experience homelessness are seen as the sources of their own misfortunes,
and the socio-economic policies and practices that give rise to homelessness are then too
easily ignored.
•
This abstraction, in turn, lessens the degree of urgency and commitment needed to work
strategically and consistently toward solutions to end homelessness that are long-term,
outcome-based, and not simply responses to crises.
According to PED, most Americans underestimate how the problem of homelessness affects
families (FACT CHECKER: FAMILY HOMELESSNESS, 2007).
•
About 600,000 families and 1.35 million children experience homelessness in the United
States. Family homelessness is more widespread than many think, but it is not an
unsolvable problem. Across the country, hundreds of communities are planning to end
homelessness, and a handful of communities and many local programs are making
progress in ending family homelessness.
•
Chronic homelessness is long-term or repeated homelessness accompanied by a
disability. Many chronically homeless people have a serious mental illness like
schizophrenia and/or alcohol or drug addiction. Most chronically homeless individuals
have been in treatment programs, sometimes on dozens of occasions.
•
Research reveals that between 10 to 20 percent of homeless single adults are chronically
homeless. This translates into between 150,000 to 200,000 people who experience
chronic homelessness.
•
Homeless people suffer from high rates of mental and physical health problems
exacerbated by living on the streets and in shelters. The lack of residential stability makes
healthcare delivery more complicated. Health conditions that require ongoing
treatment—such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and
mental illness—are difficult to treat when people are living in shelter or on the streets.
Homeless people often lack access to preventative care, waiting until a trip to the
emergency room is a matter of life or death. These emergency room visits are costly.
Additionally, when homeless people become ill, they often do not receive timely
treatment.
In contrast to CYFD and PED, as stated by HSD, SM 2 this appears to duplicate the 2-year long
effort to establish supportive housing in New Mexico as reflected in the Behavioral Health
Purchasing Collaborative Long Range Supportive Housing Plan
(Dec. 2007) (herein called, the
Plan). That plan:
•
Specifies concrete and feasible strategies to increase the access of priority consumers
to permanent supportive housing that meets their needs and choices in the community
•
Serves as a guide for local and state officials and stakeholders as they build
supportive housing capacity for people with disabilities and other vulnerable
populations in New Mexico describing the essential “nuts and bolts" of acquiring or
producing permanent supportive housing in New Mexico.
pg_0004
Senate Memorial 2 – Page
4
•
Articulates how the Collaborative and its community partners can leverage their own
limited resources and maximize consumers’ access to all mainstream affordable
housing resources provided by federal, state and local government programs for very
low-income households and persons with disabilities.
•
Identifies the specific housing need among various populations and regions of New
Mexico; and
•
Serves as the basis to increase resources and to amend policies and practices.
Population to be served:
Although target populations are identified in SM 2, it is unclear whether
the Housing First model best supports all these populations. Several of the target populations
identified in SM 2 do not necessarily fit the research on the effectiveness of the Housing First
Model. For example, Supportive Housing models, “… indicate that independent, decent, safe and
affordable community-based housing linked to flexible community-based supports is desired by
[behavioral health] consumers as an essential ingredient to foster and support their own journeys
towards
recovery
and
resiliency."
http://www.bhc.state.nm.us/pdf/BH_Collaborative_Housing_Plan_December_2007.pdf
Service Capacity and Costs:
Research from other states shows that the Housing First Model
relies on a comprehensive array of support services beyond the rental subsidy in order for
persons to maintain tenancy. Housing First as a model is also reliant on other service capacities.
SM 2’s target populations are so broad that the potential service requirements to assist them to
maintain housing could well exceed the capacity of the current health and human services
systems, both public and private.
Rental Assistance Costs:
Housing First Models are successful in part because of rapid access to
state and local funding that must support rental subsidies, deposits, utility turn-ons, application
fees, household setups, etc. These costs can be significant: for example, New Mexico’s
Supportive Housing Plan estimates an average rental cost of $10,000 per person per year. This
figure does not include other housing related expenses or the supportive services as noted in the
section above.
Membership
SM 2 duplicates the current Collaborative’s Supportive Housing Leadership
Group’s membership, which has been charged with implementing supportive housing in New
Mexico. This cross agency Housing Leadership Team has already successfully negotiated the
first steps of implementing the Plan, as well as assuring the planning, management,
accountability and performance management of the supportive housing initiatives. CYFD and
other state agencies as well as housing authority leaders and representatives of the development
and nonprofit communities have all participated in the extensive public meetings held on the
Plan.
Clarification is needed about the meaning of “providers" in SM 2 and which providers would be
included in the membership of SM2 Task Force. “Providers" in New Mexico could include
community-based behavioral health systems, physician groups, housing developer organizations,
private enterprises, small business associations, etc.
DUPLICATION, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP
As stated by CYFD, this bill relates to SB 159, which appropriates one hundred fifty thousand
dollars ($150,000) from the general fund to the children, youth and families department for
pg_0005
Senate Memorial 2 – Page
5
expenditure in fiscal year 2009 to provide child care services to homeless children in Dona Ana
County. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2009
shall revert to the general fund.
Relates to SB 236 which appropriates forty-nine thousand dollars ($49,000) from the general
fund to the human services department for expenditure in fiscal year 2009 to support the
operation of a homeless shelter in Socorro by the income support division. Any unexpended or
unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2009 shall revert to the general fund.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
PED states, that most Americans underestimate how the problem of homelessness affects
families (FACT CHECKER: FAMILY HOMELESSNESS, 2007).
•
About 600,000 families and 1.35 million children experience homelessness in the United
States. Family homelessness is more widespread than many think, but it is not an
unsolvable problem. Across the country, hundreds of communities are planning to end
homelessness, and a handful of communities and many local programs are making
progress in ending family homelessness.
•
Chronic homelessness is long-term or repeated homelessness accompanied by a
disability. Many chronically homeless people have a serious mental illness like
schizophrenia and/or alcohol or drug addiction. Most chronically homeless individuals
have been in treatment programs, sometimes on dozens of occasions.
•
Research reveals that between 10 to 20 percent of homeless single adults are chronically
homeless. This translates into between 150,000 to 200,000 people who experience
chronic homelessness.
•
The federal government’s definition of chronic homelessness includes homeless
individuals with a disabling condition (substance use disorder, serious mental illness,
developmental disability, or chronic physical illness or disability) who have been
homeless either 1) continuously for one whole year, or 2) four or more times in the past
three years.
WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL
As stated by CYFD, The Behavioral Health Purchasing Collaborative will convene its permanent
supportive housing work group and implement the December 20, 2007 New Mexico Behavioral
Health Purchasing Collaborative Long Range Supportive Housing Plan.
As stated by PED, a task force may not be created and charged with the development of a
comprehensive housing first plan for the state of New Mexico.
PME/bb