SB 1438

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to oversee the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations, and, among other things, identify resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. Existing law requires a state agency or department that funds, implements, or administers a state program that provides housing or housing-related services to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness to revise or adopt guidelines and regulations to include enumerated Housing First policies. Existing law specifies the core components of Housing First, including, among others, services that are informed by a harm reduction philosophy that recognizes drug and alcohol use and addiction as a part of tenants' lives, where tenants are engaged in nonjudgmental communication regarding drug and alcohol use, and where tenants are offered education regarding how to avoid risky behaviors and engage in safer practices, as specified, and prohibiting the use of alcohol or drugs, in and of itself, without other lease violations, from constituting a reason for eviction. This bill would provide an exception to the eviction prohibition described above to authorize a tenant's eviction based upon the use of drugs or alcohol, without other lease violations, when children are housed in the same location. The bill would also authorize a state department or agency to authorize programs to fund recovery housing or housing models that, in conjunction with nonclinical substance use-specific services, peer support, and physical design features that support individuals and families on a path to recovery from addiction, emphasize abstinence from substance use, if the program uses at least 75% of its funding in each county on housing or housing-based services that use a harm reduction model and meets other specified requirements. The bill would require the authorizing state department or agency to conduct periodic monitoring of the abstinence-focused recovery housing to ensure compliance with these requirements.