Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.
Legislators got a look last week at California’s programs to address homelessness, including how much money has been spent and who is being served.
Billed as a collaborative effort between four Assembly committees and multiple representatives of state departments and agencies, including the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, legislators convened a lengthy hearing last week to discuss budgetary investments and what tangible results are seen thus far.
A report from CAL ICH, the interagency contingent, found California spent about $9.6 billion from 2018-2021 on nearly three dozen homelessness-focused programs, serving more than 571,000 people. That includes adding more than 17,000 emergency shelter beds in the state (albeit, the report says most of these are from Project Roomkey, which converted hotel and motel rooms during the pandemic when shelters needed to close or reduce capacity) and will result in more than 58,700 units of affordable housing “in the coming years.”
Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, an Irvine Democrat who chairs the Accountability and Administrative Review Committee, part of last week’s joint hearing, said California has “made historic and enormous investments to address” the homelessness crisis.
But still, she noted, “there is a growing sense of frustration from our constituents, up and down the state, (that) we’re spending all this money, we’re writing all these really big checks, but the problem doesn’t look like it’s getting any better.”
Her solution? Concrete statewide goals and metrics, for shelter beds and affordable housing and other services, that can be easily and often tracked.
And greater accountability — for how local and county governments are utilizing programs and finances as well as how state agencies are chipping in to help.
“Accountability is going to be a really big and much-needed, important theme for the next year ahead,” Petrie-Norris said.
Historic investments should have historic results. We’re looking into what’s working, what’s not, what we should do more of and what we need to do differently.
Tune in now to our oversight hearing on coordinating homelessness services: https://t.co/vh9paW0nb5 #CALeg #CABudget pic.twitter.com/kauqrVQwFU
— Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (@AsmCottie) February 15, 2023
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For Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, who chairs the Orange County Homelessness and Mental Health Services Select Committee, the collective hearing only “shows that we have a very long way to go.”
People of color are experiencing homelessness at higher rates than other population groups, some cities don’t have (or want to have) compliant housing plans and people are staying at shelters for far too long, meaning there are fewer beds available for other people who might also need care, the Fullerton Democrat noted, gleaning from the 276-page CAL ICH report.
And of the 571,000 people served during that three-year period, the report found an estimated 169,000 still required some form of housing program, shelter or services by the end of June 2021. Quirk-Silva believes that the estimate is too low.
“We have some real vulnerable groups out there,” she said. “It doesn’t make me hopeful.”
Both Petrie-Norris and Quirk-Silva are looking at the big picture as well as smaller, creative ways to tackle the crisis.
Quirk-Silva is seeking out ways to clarify or make small fixes to current laws: for example, how people could be allowed to utilize prefab homes as living spaces. And Petrie-Norris is exploring ways to ensure the state is leveraging federal resources, particularly housing vouchers already available, to make a dent in the crisis.
Republican Assemblymember Tri Ta of Westminster has another route: He filed legislation last week that would award attorney’s fees to successful plaintiffs who take the government to court in an effort to force the cleanup of homeless encampments.
“Californians are rightly fed up with the state’s homeless problem. Throwing billions of dollars at the issue, without any accountability, has only made the problem worse,” Ta said. “That’s why I introduced … a bill that gives every Californian a process to make local governments answerable to the people and force action to clean up our communities.”
A programming note: Friday, Feb. 17, was the final day to introduce bills this session.
In other news
• Fullerton Sen. Josh Newman, who chairs the Committee on Education, is behind a bill that would require all K-12 schools in the state to ensure there are gender-neutral restrooms for students to use while school is in session. Schools already must allow students to use the restroom consistent with their gender, but this bill would expand the responsibility to provide gender-neutral facilities, an effort to “ensure the well-being of our LGBTQ+ and non-binary students and ensure safer school communities for everyone,” Newman said.
• GOP Sen. Kelly Seyarto, whose district includes Yorba Linda, filed legislation to require periodic, “age-appropriate” instruction on financial literacy in K-12 schools. Ta, a Westminster assemblymember, is also championing legislation this year to ensure financial literacy and professional development are taught in California schools.
• Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat who represents part of southern Orange County, is behind legislation to include certain Fish and Wildlife and Parks and Recreation departments employees who develop skin cancer in California’s existing workers’ compensation system.
We need to protect the protectors! I introduced SB 391 which establishes a rebuttable presumption that skin cancer developed by California’s wildlife officers and park rangers is associated with excessive exposure of the sun during their employment. pic.twitter.com/LtavP5HnDE
— Catherine Blakespear (@Cblakespear) February 16, 2023
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• In some non-OC legislative news: Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, recently met with Kim Kardashian to discuss criminal justice reform. Kardashian, a television personality and businesswoman, has used her platform to champion criminal justice and prison reform measures in recent years.
Source: Orange County Register
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