THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2302
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO YOUTH HOMELESSNESS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress found that homelessness increased by 6.6 per cent in Hawaii from 2015 to 2016. During that same period, homelessness declined by three per cent nationwide.

The legislature further finds that while the 2017 State of Hawaii homeless point-in-time count recorded an overall twelve per cent decrease statewide in the total number of unsheltered homeless, the 2017 homeless youth count is nearly identical to that of 2016. For unaccompanied youth, categorized as individuals twenty-four years and younger without any accompanying adults twenty-five years of age or older, three hundred nineteen were counted as homeless. Within that group of unaccompanied youth, forty-two were parents with a combined total of sixty-eight children. Of the unaccompanied youth, a staggering eighty-two per cent were unsheltered.

The legislature further finds that since 1981, the Hawaii Youth Services Network, a nonprofit statewide coalition of youth-serving organizations, has conducted a statewide runaway and homeless youth partnership program that provides street outreach, emergency shelter, and transitional living space to runaway and homeless youth.

The homeless youth partnership also operates a transitional living program to provide safe, stable housing for youth ages sixteen to twenty-one for up to eighteen months, during which time the homeless youth partnership assists the youth to meet educational and employment goals and learn skills for adult living. The transitional living program teaches managing budgets, nutrition, and health care. Partner organizations involved in the transitional living program include Hale Kipa in Honolulu, Maui Youth and Family Services on Maui, and the Salvation Army Family Intervention Services on Hawaii Island.

For the past twenty years, the Hawaii Youth Services Network has received federal grant funding to support services of the transitional living program through the federal Administration for Children and Families, a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The current federal grant ends on April 30, 2018, and future funding is uncertain. Specifically, in June 2017, Hawaii Youth Services Network and other grantees of the Administration for Children and Families were informed that they cannot apply to renew grant funding in the 2017 funding competition. There is also uncertainty whether there will be funding at all for 2018. Should there be 2018 funding, the new grant will not become available until September 30, 2018, which means that the Hawaii Youth Services Network and its partners face a minimum five-month lapse in funding for the transitional living program. This gap in critical funding will likely result in the temporary shutdown of the operations of the transitional living program.

The legislature further finds that the federal funding gap necessitates an appropriation of $100,000 in state grant funds to carry the program through the five-month lapse.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to the Hawaii Youth Services Network to provide short-term funding to address the anticipated loss of federal funds that support the runaway and homeless youth partnership's transitional living program.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $100,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2018-2019 as a grant pursuant to chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, for the Hawaii Youth Services Network's transitional living program.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of human services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2018.

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

Keiki Caucus; Youth Services; Homelessness; Hawaii Youth Services Network; Grant; Appropriation

Description:

Appropriates funds as a grant to the Hawaii Youth Services Network's transitional housing program, benefiting homeless youth, to bridge a temporary gap in federal funding.

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.