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.