CSH 2018 California Policy Priorities
CSH is continuing to lead the way on efforts to improve State homelessness response and supportive housing policies in California. Our priorities for the 2018 State Legislature are based on our commitment to ensure new resources to address homelessness have the greatest impact. As such, we are strongly supporting and urging State lawmakers to adopt:
- AB 2162 (Chiu & Daly): Streamline development of supportive housing. Finding sites where supportive housing can be feasibly developed is challenging, particularly in jurisdictions that can deny or delay approval of projects based on Not-in-My-Backyard pushback or city councilmembers reticent to address the needs of homeless residents. Assembly Bill 2162 would create a by right, expedited process for approving building applications for supportive housing, reducing costs and time it takes to site supportive housing for our most vulnerable, and sometimes hardest-to-serve, populations.
Read our Fact Sheet on AB 2162
Download a sample support letter
- Budget Item for SB 2, Year 1 Funding: Foster sustainable investment in rental assistance and operating subsidies for chronically homeless Californians. In September 2017, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 2 (Atkins), which creates a document recording fee on all real-estate transactions, except sales, as a permanent source of funding for affordable housing in California. Under the legislation, proceeds from the fees collected in 2019 and beyond will largely go directly to cities and counties for a range of allowable uses. However, HCD will allocate half of all fees collected in 2018, estimated to total $125 million, to address homelessness. CSH is joining the co-sponsors of SB 2 to advocate for this one-time investment create a sustainable grant to jurisdictions agreeing to invest in these programs through ongoing local SB 2 allocations. Grant funding would spur or boost flexible housing pools, create more supportive housing projects, and move chronically homeless Californians into housing as quickly as possible. Placing this program within the recently-created Housing for a Healthy California Program would allow a rigorous evaluation that would track changes in Medi-Cal costs from moving chronically homeless people to housing stability.
Comments on the bill.
- SB 918 (Wiener): Fund programs to end youth homelessness. Homelessness among youth is increasing at alarming rates in California. Yet, more than half of our counties have any systems or programs in place to address the unique needs of this population. Senate Bill 918 would create a new grant to fund programs offering an array of interventions for homeless youth, using State General Funds and revenues from a new marijuana tax. It would also create a new Office of Homeless Youth, to align homeless youth programs with mainstream systems and housing programs the State already administers.
Read our fact sheet on SB 918
Download a sample letter of support
- SB 1010 (Beall): Create sustainable funding for community-based treatment and services, including housing, for vulnerable parolees. Homeless parolees are seven times more likely to recidivate than housed parolees. Decades of research shows supportive housing is far more effective than group, transitional, or sober living housing, yet our corrections systems relies on the latter models for all parolees. Using existing resources, SB 1010 (Beall) would create a pilot providing supportive housing to parolees to address the needs of homeless parolees and document reduced recidivism. The pilot would test outcomes and barriers from moving parolees from mental health treatment funded wholly by the State, to a community-based mental health treatment approach, where parolees would receive mental health treatment from the county in which they will be living beyond the term of parole. With savings realized from 50-90% federal reimbursement for mental health treatment, the State could fund housing with services for the term of parole, and partner with counties to ensure parolees are able to continue to recover, after parole ends, in stable housing.
Read our Fact Sheet.