The Law

In the 2001 legislative session, the Legislature adopted the "Right to Shelter Law", signed by Governor Guinn the law went into effect on October 1, 2001. This permits individual counties to enact ordinances that would allow authorized youth shelters to provide necessary services to runaway or homeless youth. Necessary services is defined as food, access to overnight shelter, counseling to address emotional crisis or problems, outreach services to locate and assist youth, screening for basic health care needs, referrals to public and private health care agencies, and long term planning, placement and follow up services.

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