01/28/2008 01:30 PM Senate HEALTH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB231 | |
| SB233 | |
| Adjourn |
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SB 231 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | SB 233 | TELECONFERENCED | |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
January 28, 2008
1:34 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Bettye Davis, Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Vice Chair
Senator John Cowdery (via teleconference)
Senator Kim Elton
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Fred Dyson
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE BILL NO. 231
"An Act relating to the Alaska housing trust fund and to the
Alaska Council on the Homeless; and providing for an effective
date."
HEARD AND HELD
SENATE BILL NO. 233
"An Act relating to the teachers' and nurses' housing loan
program in the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation; and providing
for an effective date"
HEARD AND HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SB 231
SHORT TITLE: LOW-INCOME HOUSING; HOMELESSNESS
SPONSOR(s): RULES BY REQUEST OF THE GOVERNOR
01/18/08 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/18/08 (S) HES, FIN
01/28/08 (S) HES AT 1:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
BILL: SB 233
SHORT TITLE: TEACHERS/HEALTH CARE PROFESS HOUSING LOAN
SPONSOR(s): RULES BY REQUEST OF THE GOVERNOR
01/18/08 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/18/08 (S) HES, FIN
01/28/08 (S) HES AT 1:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
WITNESS REGISTER
MARK ROMICK, Director
Planning & Program Development
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 231
DAN FAUSKE, CEO
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC)
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 231 and SB 233
JEFF JESSE, CEO
Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented an overview of the Housing Trust
Fund.
STEPHANIE WHEELER
Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
Chair, Statewide Homelessness Ends in Alaska Advisory Team
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 231.
BILL HOGAN, Deputy Commissioner
Family and Community Integrated Services
Department of Health and Social Services
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 231
MARIE DARLIN, Coordinator
AARP Capitol City Task Force
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 231
BRIAN BUTCHER, Director
Governmental Relations and Public Affairs
Alaska Housing Finance Corporation
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 233
MELISSA STONE, Director
Behavioral Health
Department of Health & Social Services (DHSS)
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 233.
NANCY DAVIS, RN,Coordinator
Recruitment and Retention of Nurses Project
Division of Public Health
Department of Health & Social Services
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Supported SB 233
ACTION NARRATIVE
CHAIR BETTYE DAVIS called the Senate Health, Education and
Social Services Standing Committee meeting to order at 1:34:14
PM. Present at the call to order were Senators Thomas, Elton,
and Chair Davis. Senator Cowdery attended via teleconference.
SB 231-LOW-INCOME HOUSING; HOMELESSNESS
CHAIR DAVIS announced the consideration of SB 231.
1:35:13 PM
MARK ROMICK, Director, Planning and Program Development, Alaska
Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC), Anchorage, AK, said that in
2005, Governor Murkowski appointed the Governor's Council on
Homelessness and tasked it with a number of recommendations on
how to address the issue. The Housing Trust was one of its major
recommendations and this bill is a culmination of that effort by
the council and other advocacy groups.
1:37:02 PM
DAN FAUSKE, CEO, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC),
Anchorage AK, said the issue is getting worse with high fuel
costs. He said he supports SB 231.
1:37:55 PM
JEFF JESSE, CEO, Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, Anchorage
AK, said he was on the Homelessness Council. Although all our
low income housing dollars come from the federal government, the
majority of those funds are used to serve 70 percent of those
with area median income and above. But when you look at the
numbers of people in desperate need of housing to avoid
homelessness, most of those people are at 50 percent of area
median income and below. The reason is that every low income
housing project has to pencil and if you're a developer and
you're trying to put one of these projects together, they
usually have blended funding that gets convoluted. Somewhere in
the business plan you have to show some revenue source from
actual tenants. If you target higher income population you'll
have better luck demonstrating on your business plan a better
likelihood that this project will pencil.
In addition, he said, people at 50 percent of median income and
below are usually in that category for a reason: substance
abuse, mental health issues, domestic violence, all those things
that make it difficult to get a job in order to afford a decent
place to live. In order to be successful in housing even if they
get it, they need support services, treatment and employment
programs, et cetera, to be able to stay in their houses. The
issues are how to help these projects pencil for lower income
people and how to create a system that incorporates support
services into housing. They looked around the country to find
successful ways of dealing with these issues. Many evidence-
based studies show that first getting people into housing and
then providing support to be very effective. Denver, Boston, Los
Angeles, and New York have made significant inroads on their
homeless problems by looking at this housing-first model. The
idea is partner up social service providers that don't know how
to get affordable housing to pencil with the housing providers
that don't know how to provide support. They can accomplish this
by combining capital funds to buy down the cost, contributing
social service funds that have a 5 year commitment and working
with AHFC on project basing section 8 rental vouchers so they
can be included in the business plan. This legislation
implements that model by creating the Housing Trust Fund. This
bill is essential even to hold on to the housing programs
already in place.
1:46:26 PM
STEPHANIE WHEELER, Office of Faith-Based and Community
Initiatives, and Chair of the Statewide Homelessness Ends in
Alaska- Advisory Team, Anchorage, AK, said Homeless Ends is a
group of local policy makers to address this issue. Its two
goals are increasing affordable housing through the creation of
a housing trust fund and promoting locally delivered family
services. Families are the fastest-growing homeless. Because the
shelters are often full, families move from place to place,
which affect school attendance and learning ability. She quoted
a study stating that about 4,000 children went homeless during
school year 2004-2005, sleeping in shelters, campgrounds, tents,
and vehicles. To illustrate this impact, an average elementary
school in Anchorage contains about 435 children; 4,000 children
represent more than 9 elementary schools filled with children.
Research also shows that these children get sick twice as often,
have symptoms of anxiety, have more learning problems and are
twice as likely to repeat a grade because of frequent absences.
A housing trust would prevent families from entering into the
cycle of homelessness.
1:51:09 PM
BILL HOGAN, Deputy Commissioner, Family and Community Integrated
Services, Department of Health and Social Services, Anchorage
AK, said the department supports this bill. Housing is the
number one issue for all of these compromised groups that have
been mentioned by others testifying. Stable affordable housing
will reduce the incidence of a multitude of the social problems
mentioned.
1:53:14 PM
MARIE DARLIN, Coordinator, AARP Capitol City Task Force, Juneau,
AK, said that 11 percent of homeless Alaskans are over the age
of 65. She made note that there is no consumer member required
in the composition of the council in SB 231. She recommended a
change of wording in the bill regarding designated substitutes
for commissioners who are unable to attend. She also questioned
why membership is only for two-year terms instead of three. AARP
supports the bill.
1:56:41 PM
SENATOR THOMAS clarified Ms. Darlin's concern and agreed.
1:57:03 PM
SENATOR ELTON also expressed concern about the language
regarding substitute members and that there would always be more
state employees than public members. The bill only allows for a
substitute for a state member and he wanted to take a couple of
state employees off of the council and add a consumer member.
MR. ROMICK said that one of the four public members appointed by
the governor is a consumer of affordable housing (page 3, lines
15 and 16).
CHAIR DAVIS asked if there ought to be more than one consumer on
the board.
SENATOR ELTON said according to the bill, the governor can
choose someone with other kinds of expertise, but that doesn't
ensure that it will be a consumer.
CHAIR DAVIS said that will be addressed in a committee
substitute.
2:02:23 PM
MR. JESSE said his office is supportive of consumer input and
will work on the bill to reflect that.
SENATOR ELTON said that according to the bill, the fund will be
capitalized from four different entities. The history of the
Mental Health Trust is that it likes to get things going, but
doesn't continue to participate. He asked if the Mental Health
Trust will continue to contribute if state funding has a bigger
role.
2:05:08 PM
MR. JESSE said the trust has invested heavily in housing and
continues to, but it's unlikely that it could sustain this over
time. The trust has an annual allocation, and is not an
endowment model. AHFC has generated earnings in excess of what
it costs to run its programs, so it makes sense that the
revenues from housing would be used to deal with the homeless
problem. The Rasmussen Foundation and the trust both contributed
a million dollars each, but it's unlikely that they can continue
to do so.
SENATOR THOMAS said he'd like to see the Department of Labor
involved in helping to get people back on their feet.
2:12:04 PM
CHAIR DAVIS said she would draft a new CS and bring the bill up
again next Monday.
SB 233-TEACHERS/HEALTH CARE PROFESS HOUSING LOAN
CHAIR DAVIS announced SB 233 to be up for consideration.
2:13:29 PM
DAN FAUSKE, CEO, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC),
Anchorage AK, said the current bill is due to sunset in June.
There's new language in the current bill to include additional
people into a successful program that offers a zero down payment
or a hundred percent loan to create housing for licensed or
certified teachers and health care professionals. One of the
concerns expressed in the past is that it is available to too
many people and they also have that concern to some degree. His
office supports the bill.
SENATOR ELTON said the difficulty is the expanding program. It's
offering doctors a benefit he's not sure they need.
MR. FAUSKE said that is a concern that was raised. He doesn't
think there'll be a rush on the program from doctors. He said
there's a concurrent teacher health care/public safety grant
program that is geared toward rural applicants and said that
most applicants to this program are urban. A doctor could apply
but it's not anticipated that there will be many.
2:20:28 PM
SENATOR ELTON asked if there was some kind of requirement to
stay in Alaska for a year or two or a penalty. Getting people
here is important. Keeping them here is also.
MR. FAUSKE said that has been discussed as well and it's been
difficult to track.
CHAIR DAVIS asked if the committee needs more information and if
they would like to know who has been served for the past year
tenure of the program.
BRIAN BUTCHER, Director, Governmental Relations and Public
Affairs, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Anchorage, AK, said
there's a list in the committee member packets of all the
communities involved over the five-year period. If there's an
'E' on the list, those were teacher loans. An 'H' indicates
nurse loans.
The difficulty in recruitment and retention of these professions
is what got it going. Because of its zero down payment
provision, AHFC would have to provide 30 percent mortgage
insurance instead of 20 percent.
2:22:59 PM
MR. BUTCHER said it makes no financial sense for a doctor who
wants to buy a million-dollar house to use this program. But a
doctor just out of medical school who had a large debt might
want to take advantage of it.
2:24:17 PM
SENATOR THOMAS asked MR. FAUSKE about an income limit.
MR. FAUSKE replied that they would use tax exempt first-time
home buyer guidelines that are already supplied in federal law.
The limit would be 115 percent of median income.
2:26:31 PM
MELISSA STONE, Director of Behavioral Health, Department of
Health & Social Services, said the proposed legislation adds
health care professionals to the program and would specifically
benefit the behavioral health provider system. Work force
shortage is a problem. UAA conducted a study and found 29
percent vacancy in behavioral health, which was more than any
other occupational group. Behavioral health clinicians had an
11.8 percent vacancy rate. The vacancy rate was 9.3 percent in
urban areas and 22.9 percent in rural areas.
SENATOR ELTON said he's in sympathy, but sees one of the major
reasons for the vacancy rates is because people are not paid
what they're worth. He also asks why it is being done for this
profession when there's a difficulty recruiting fisheries
biologists, for example.
2:30:32 PM
MS. STONE said that in the behavioral health system, employees
aren't part of the state, but generally part of a non-profit
group.
2:31:24 PM
NANCY DAVIS, RN, Coordinator, Recruitment and Retention of
Nurses Project, Division of Public Health, Department of Health
and Social Services (DHSSAnchorage, AK, said that since the
inception of the AHFC teacher and nurse housing loan, her
organization has used it as an incentive in recruiting and
retaining nurses all over the state. The field is very
competitive and it makes Alaska more attractive.
CHAIR DAVIS asked members to contact her office about changes so
a CS could be created.
2:36:09 PM
SENATOR COWDERY said he would like to sign off on the bills
heard today.
CHAIR DAVIS said she understands that, but he can't do that
because he's not present. She announced that she would hold SB
233 in committee and seeing no further business, she adjourned
the meeting at 2:37:06 PM.
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