BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	C.S.H.B. 3466
88R28617 MPF-F	By: Campos; Garcia (Campbell)
	Health & Human Services
	5/18/2023
	Committee Report (Substituted)

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

In 2013 the legislature created the Community Collaboratives grant program in Chapter 539 of the Government Code. The program is operated by the Health and Human Services Commission. The program has provided grant funding since that time to local governmental entities, nonprofit community organizations, and faith-based community organizations, to establish or expand community collaboratives that bring the public and private sectors together to provide services to persons with a mental illness and/or substance use disorder experiencing homelessness and help the target population achieve recovery and re-integration within their communities. C.S.H.B. 3466 amends Chapter 539, Government Code, by establishing a reporting requirement, adding a new priority grant criterion, and adding state funded mental health facilities to the list of programs from which the collaboratives should divert individuals. The prioritization acknowledges entities providing most homelessness services in a specified area. There is no cost on the fiscal note, and no new program is created.

C.S.H.B. 3466 amends current law relating to the administration of a grant program for the establishment and expansion of community collaboratives.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Sections 539.002(a) and (b), Government Code, as follows:

(a) Requires the Department of State Health Services (DSHS), in awarding grants, to give special consideration to entities:

(1)-(2) makes nonsubstantive changes to these subdivisions; or

(3) providing services to an average of at least 50 percent of persons experiencing homelessness in a geographic area served by a Continuum of Care Program funded by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development according to the last three Point-in-Time surveys of homelessness conducted by that department.

(b) Requires DSHS, except as provided by Subsection (c) (relating to authorizing DSHS to award a grant to an entity for the purpose of establishing a community mental health program in a county with a population of less than 250,000), to require each entity awarded a grant under Section 539.002 (Grants for Establishment and Expansion of Community Collaboratives) to:

(1)-(2) makes no changes to these subdivisions; and

(3) provide evidence of a local law enforcement policy to divert appropriate persons from jails, other than detention facilities, or mental health facilities operated by or under contract with the Health and Human Services Commission to an entity affiliated with a community collaborative for the purpose of providing services to those persons.

SECTION 2. Amends Chapter 539, Government Code, by adding Section 539.010, as follows:

Sec. 539.010. BIENNIAL REPORT. (a) Requires DSHS to prepare a report that includes:

(1) the method by which DSHS chose entities to award grants to under this chapter;

(2) the amount of each grant awarded to an entity under this chapter;

(3) the number of individuals served by each community collaborative receiving grant funds under this chapter; and

(4) the results of the annual review of outcome measures required by Section 539.006 (Annual Review of Outcome Measures).

(b) Requires DSHS, not later than September 1 of each even-numbered year, to submit a report described by Subsection (a) to:

(1) the lieutenant governor;

(2) the speaker of the house of representatives;

(3) the standing committees of the legislature having primary jurisdiction over DSHS and state finance; and

(4) the Legislative Budget Board.

SECTION 3. Make the changes in law made by this Act to Section 539.002, Government Code, prospective.

SECTION 4. Effective date: September 1, 2023. �