free birth certificates for homeless Texans, no address needed

The text as introduced · 437 words

90R2927 LRM-D

By: Garcia of Bexar
H.B. No. 656

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the issuance of a certified birth record to a homeless

individual.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 191, Health and Safety

Code, is amended by adding Section 191.00495 to read as follows:

Sec. 191.00495. BIRTH RECORD ISSUED TO HOMELESS INDIVIDUAL.

(a) In this section, "homeless individual":

(1) means an individual who:

(A) lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate

nighttime residence; or

(B) has a primary nighttime residence that is:

(i) a supervised publicly or privately

operated shelter designed to provide temporary living

accommodations, including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and

transitional housing for individuals with mental illness;

(ii) an institution that provides a

temporary residence for individuals intended to be

institutionalized; or

(iii) a public or private place not

designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping

accommodation for human beings; and

(2) does not include an individual who is imprisoned

or otherwise detained in a correctional facility, unless the

individual satisfies the conditions described by Subdivision (1) at

the time of the individual's arrest.

(b) On request of a homeless individual, the state

registrar, a local registrar, or a county clerk shall issue,

without fee, a certified copy of the individual's birth record to

the individual.

(c) The executive commissioner by rule shall:

(1) adopt a process to verify an individual's status as

a homeless individual; and

(2) prescribe the documentation necessary for

issuance of a certified copy of a birth record to a homeless

individual whose status is verified through the process adopted

under Subdivision (1).

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of state law, the

executive commissioner, the department, the state registrar, a

local registrar, or a county clerk may not require a homeless

individual to provide a physical address of the individual's

residence to satisfy any requirement of this section.

SECTION 2. As soon as practicable after the effective date

of this Act, the executive commissioner of the Health and Human

Services Commission shall adopt the rules required by Section

191.00495, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act.

SECTION 3. The changes in law made by this Act apply to an

application for a birth record submitted on or after the effective

date of this Act. An application for a birth record submitted before

the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on

the date the application was submitted, and the former law is

continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2027.