BILL NUMBER: S472

SPONSOR: SEPULVEDA
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to directing the
department of social services to establish a centralized homelessness
crisis response data system

 
PURPOSE OR IDEA OF GENERAL BILL:

This bill intends to establish a centralized homelessness crisis
response data system through which state agencies, local governmental
entities, including law enforcement agencies, court systems, school
districts, and emergency service providers, and other relevant persons
are able to share and access information related to individuals which
experience chronic homelessness in order to connect or refer those indi-
viduals to critical state and local services.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 establishes a centralized homelessness crisis response data
              

system through which multiple state entities shall enter into a data
sharing agreement as necessary for the exchange of information related
to chronic homelessness system. This data system will collect, aggre-
gate, analyze and share information submitted for the purpose of
connecting and referring indididuvals to services including affordable
housing opportunities. Section 2 states the act shall take effect imme-
diately after the signing of this bill into law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Preventing and combating homelessness depends on a coordinated Continuum
of Care (CoC) on the ground locally, sharing information across dispa-
rate systems, and collaborating with the public, nonprofit, philanthrop-
ic, and private sector partners. The systems that collect this informa-
tion today (i.e., homelessness services, electronic health records,
education, and criminal justice information systems) were designed inde-
pendently to address particular applications and are managed by differ-
ent entities with separate IT systems and governance.

The disparate nature of these systems limits a community's ability to
identify trends or emerging needs, measure internal performance goals,
and make data driven decisions about the effective deployment of limited
resources. With the shift in recent years to whole person care, there is
increasing demand to connect these disparate systems to affect better
outcomes.

New York State is home to approximately seventeen percent of the
nation's homeless population with over 91,000 individuals experiencing
homelessness, whether sheltered or crbsheltered, on any given night. Of
those individuals experiencing homelessness, eighty-five percent of them
are living in New York City. New York's homeless population is managed
across twenty-six Continuums of Care, most all with their own population
data, information management systems and points-of-contact.

Connecting New York's homelessness data across disparate systems in a
coordinated and fluid manner is critical to achieving an effective
deployment of resources in an effort to affect better outcomes for New
York's substantial homeless population. A centralized homelessness
crisis response data system represents a dynamic and agile means to
addressing one of New York State's longstanding social issues.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

S.2109 of 2021-22, Referred to Social Services;

S.8222 of 2020, Referred to Social Services;

A.8252 of 2019, Referred to Social Services

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.