SB 105-13: Hubert H. Humphrey Helping Hand to the Homeless Act (Redraft Passed)

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Hubert H. Humphrey Helping Hand to the Homeless Act

An act in the CONGRESS of the REPUBLIC of ATLASIA

Section 1. Purpose and Background

a. WHEREAS, Runaway and homeless youth flee conflict, abuse, neglect, or, increasingly, poverty in their homes. They have become disconnected from educational systems and the workforce and do not have the skills and financial resources to live on their own. The factors impacting youth homelessness are complex and differ from those impacting other homeless populations;

b. WHEREAS, Runaway and homeless youth who live on the street are victims of physical abuse, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, and crime in untold numbers. An estimated 300,000 youth are either victims or at risk of becoming victims of commercial and sexual exploitation each year, of which 60 percent of these victimized children are homeless; and

c. WHEREAS, Homeless youth tend to have started using drugs at a younger age, often before 15 years of age. Early drug use and abuse are predictive of serious adult addiction problems and long-term homelessness;

d. WHEREAS, Youth who "age out" of the foster care system are at an increased risk of homelessness, and represent an estimated 20 percent of the 20,000 youth who leave foster care and are currently homeless; and

e. WHEREAS, These youth are on the street because they feel there are no other options open to them; and

f. WHEREAS, Providing safe, stable, and permanent housing for runaway and homeless youth is a family, community, state, and national priority, and homeless youth are considered one of the unique populations in the homeless community.

e. WHEREAS, The future well-being of our state depends on the value we place on our youth and, in particular, on our actions to provide the most vulnerable young people in the state with opportunities to acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to find and maintain stable housing and to develop into healthy and productive adults;

f. WHEREAS, The COVID-19 pandemic is being felt by youth through high unemployment rates and increased demand for youth-centered care and mental health services, technology, and access to hygiene, food, shelter, and safety;

g. WHEREAS, The number of effective programs providing services and support to runaway and homeless youth must be increased

Section 2. Program establishment

a. The Congress of the Republic of Atlasia hereby establishes grants to provide nonprofit centers across the three regions in assisting homeless citizens
b. The grant amount shall be no less than $10,000,000 to community centers dedicated to fighting poverty stricken communities

Sponsor: Spark

The gentleman from Florida is recognized.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Yankee said it best, really. The problem with these bills is the structure and lack of funding mechanisms. Zero perimeters as to who gets the money and how much. Will the regions adopt your plan? Will your region fund your plan? Should they be required to? Etc., etc., etc.

These are all things, in addition to what Yankee said, you need to keep in mind when establishing new government programs. For this bill, we need to define the poverty level. We need to know which departments are involved. We need some formula or some standards in order for a bill to become an effective law, rather than a list of vague platitudes. What about "nonprofit centers" that either embezzle or use 90% of their donations for marketing purposes? I understand we can't be expected to know every single law that's been passed (we ran into this problem just recently), but if it weren't for that $10,000,000, this would have been an empty resolution. It still needs beefing up. And it should be incumbent upon the sponsor, generally, to have some way to address these issues in legislation effectively. (In other words, don't make everyone do your work for you.)

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Senators have 24 hours to object to the amendment.

This is an improvement.

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I'm glad I gave the bill a final read before deciding how to act on it. Apparently the funding mechanism issue was never resolved, and there was also a silly grammar error. My redraft solves this problem.

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Just bumping this with the title updated so that we can get feedback. I understand it's the holidays.

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Please close the vote.