• Sign on to support AB 2817 (Reyes), a.k.a. House California Challenge which would authorize the Health and Human Services agency to provide rental assistance to people experiencing homelessness. Add your name to the growing list of supporters. 
• The following Assembly Bills will be heard in committees during the week of April 4. Please contact your legislator and voice your support. 
  • AB 1685 seeks to create a statewide parking fee and fines debt relief program for Californians experiencing homelessness.
  • AB 2325 seeks to build on recent efforts to enhance coordination among the agencies that fund homelessness programs by creating a funders workgroup within the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.
• Support AB 1961 (Gabriel), which is sponsored by Housing California and comes straight from the lived expertise of Residents United Network (RUN) members, by updating this sample letter of support with your organization’s information and submitting it as soon as you can through the California Legislature Position Letter Portal. This bill will be heard in committee in mid-April.
• Participate in next month’s Lobby Day on April 27. You can learn more and register for the event by reading the Lobby Day section below.
• You can also review our 2022 Policy Agenda, find brief descriptions of each bill, fact sheets, sample letters of support and send your own letter through the California Legislature Position Letter Portal.

Join us as we lift up proposals and engage in collaborative efforts that will help to end the cycle of homelessness for thousands of struggling Californians and provide much-needed funding to help build more affordable housing throughout the state. 

In solidarity, strength, and gratitude,
The Housing California Team

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Since we are completely sold out, we can no longer accept virtual or in-person registrations. If you didn’t register this time, we look forward to seeing you next year. Learn more about the plenaries here and view an updated version of the full conference agenda, including learning labs and workshops here.

Lobby Day 2022

Housing California and RUN will host a virtual Lobby Day on April 27. Register here so you can get all the information you need about how to participate. If you are a RUN member, you will need to attend trainings on either April 13 (English) or April 14 (Spanish) and then in both English and Spanish on April 20. If you work for a housing, homelessness, multi-sector organization or are a homeowner and would like to join us on Lobby Day itself, allies are required to attend training on April 19. You will receive links for the trainings after you register. 

We also invite you to sign up for RUN’s weekly newsletter here or check out RUN’s calendar. 

California’s Roadmap Home demonstrates how, using an evidence-based, equity-centered, and comprehensive approach, we can advance racial justice and economic inclusion, end homelessness, and create stable, affordable homes for Californians struggling the most.

At our annual conference, Roadmap Home will deliver a session that draws on the expertise of leading voices in homelessness, affordable housing, tenants’ rights, and racial justice, and explores what’s now and what’s next with the Roadmap Home campaign, including launching the Roadmap Home policy package for the 2022 legislative cycle. We hope you can join us!

Jessie, why is this bill important to you? 

When I lived in San Francisco, rent was so expensive that I was living in my car and in hotels, living off my savings. But then my car was totaled, and I ran out of options. I applied for affordable housing, but it was an exhausting process: I was always playing phone tag and hitting dead ends. There were all these hoops to jump through. 

As counterintuitive as it may seem, I had to hold off on applying for a job because I wouldn't have been able to stop by different offices whenever those people were available or make phone appointments with a work schedule, and I didn't want this search to impact my reliability at work. In my mind, it was always housing first, before I tried anything else. 

So a bill like this would have been exponentially helpful. 

Why is now the right time for this bill?

It's 2022 and technology gets better every month. There's no real reason why I shouldn’t be able to apply at one place and that application be disseminated to the relevant resources.

When so many people are struggling to find and secure affordable housing options, the state must make resources easily and readily accessible so everyone has a viable path to stability and recovery.

This month, RUN members strategized about revised bill language that Housing California presented to the author’s office, put together a virtual “wall of support” with photos and statements from across the state, prepared to speak to reporters about the bill, and spread the word. The next step for the bill will be a hearing at the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

RUN’s other bill for 2022, AB 1816, passed through the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on March 23. Twenty-two RUN members called in to testify from around the state in support of housing for people leaving prison.

At the State Level

Budget

Governor Newsom announced a new proposal for the creation of a CARE Court system to provide court ordered treatment for people with severe mental illness or substance use disorder challenges. CARE Court connects a person struggling with untreated mental illness – and often also substance use challenges – with a court-ordered Care Plan for up to 24 months. Each plan is managed by a care team in the community and can include clinically prescribed, individualized interventions with several supportive services, medication, and a housing plan. According to the Governor’s Office, participants who do not successfully complete Care Plans may, under current law, be hospitalized or referred to conservatorship - with a new presumption that no suitable alternatives to conservatorship are available. 

We will continue to monitor this program as it advances through the budgetary process and will continue to engage with the Administration through their stakeholder process to protect unhoused people and ensure client choice with adequate services are provided, in line with Housing First principles. Housing California has signed on to two letters to the administration on the proposal. The first letter here was organized by Mental Health America of California. Afterwards, a joint letter was signed and sent by state and national leaders in behavioral health, criminal justice, substance use disorder services, and homelessness policy and advocacy.

Housing California released a statement which can be found here. Policy Director Christopher Martin was quoted in a CNN article regarding this proposal here. 

Legislature

It is an exciting and busy year in the Legislature, with at least 100 bills introduced or remaining from 2021. Housing California will continue to monitor and review bills for positions as the session progresses. With many hearings occuring in the next few weeks, we encourage you to review Housing California’s 2022 policy agenda and submit support letters as soon as possible. Find sample letters here. 

Housing California was thrilled to see the introduction of ACA 14 by Assemblymember Wicks on March 25. ACA 14 would establish a ten-year funding commitment in the Constitution that

dedicates five percent from the state’s general fund, each year, to the state’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis. Investments would be based on a funding strategy with specific accountability metrics to measure outcomes and progress. Housing California looks forward to helping advance this critical Roadmap Home 2030 aligned policy. 

We are encouraged to report Assembly Bills 1816 (Bryan), which would create stable housing, support services, and workforce development programs for people who were formerly incarcerated, 2094 (R. Rivas), which would add a Extremely Low Income (ELI) category to the reporting matrix so cities and towns may better assess the housing supply that serves ELI and VLI populations, and 2334 (Wicks), which would increase the number of sites for affordable housing developments, passed through the Assembly Housing and Community Committee on March 23. Additionally, SB 948 (Becker), which would allow the California Housing and Community Development to create a pool of “transition reserves,” which would provide major cost-savings for affordable housing developments ranging from $200,000 to $3 million, passed through the Senate Housing Committee on March 24. These proposals would provide greater access to much-needed stable housing and pave the way for affordable housing production in the future. 

One late addition to our list of sponsored bills is a bill to create a new statewide rental housing program for unhoused people. This bill is accompanied by the $5B request included in Housing California’s budget letter and is authored by Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gomez Reyes. AB 2817 (Reyes) is currently in spot form but will be amended in the coming weeks with the bill language. 

Housing California and Public Advocates secured Assemblymember Kalra as the author for AB 2710, a statewide TOPA/COPA (Tenant/Community Opportunity to Purchase Act) bill, which aligns with Roadmap policy A7 and is a priority of the Stable Homes coalition alongside the CAPP budget proposal.

At the Federal Level