Welfare and Institutions Code section 13700

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a)

There are homeless minors living on the streets of major urban centers in this state without adequate food, shelter, health care, or financial support.

(b)

Many of these homeless youth in these urban centers come from out-of-city or out-of-county locations.

(c)

The homeless child, in many instances, has a history of physical or sexual abuse at home, and of having been rejected or forced out of the parental home.

(d)

While living on the streets, these youth fall prey to drug abuse, prostitution, and other illegal activities.

(e)

Local public agencies are unable to provide these youth with an adequate level or range of remedial services.

(f)

These homeless minors are urgently in need of specialized services to locate them, to assist them with their immediate survival needs, and to address their long-term need to reunite with their parents or find a suitable home.

(g)

Two homeless youth emergency service pilot programs, one in the City of Los Angeles, and one in the City and County of San Francisco, have demonstrated the need for ongoing programs to meet the needs of homeless minors and the effectiveness of these programs in meeting these needs.

The purpose of this chapter is therefore to maintain one homeless youth emergency project in the County of Los Angeles and one in the City and County of San Francisco, where the problem is most acute, and to the extent funds are appropriated in the Budget Act of 1991, to establish additional homeless youth emergency service pilot projects pursuant to this chapter. It is the further purpose of this chapter to examine the condition of homeless youth in major urban areas of this state with populations of 500,000 or more, as well as other urban, suburban, and rural areas, and develop a profile of homeless youth in terms of background and available services, in order to locate these youth, to provide for their emergency survival needs, and to assist them in reunification with their parents or in finding a suitable home.