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SB-1438 Housing First: sober housing.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 04/01/2024 02:00 PM
SB1438:v98#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  April 01, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 1438


Introduced by Senator Niello
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Hoover and Joe Patterson)

February 16, 2024


An act to amend Section 8255 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to homelessness.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 1438, as amended, Niello. Housing First: sober housing.
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 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 that prohibition, authorizing 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.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 8255 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:

8255.
 For purposes of this chapter:
(a) “Council” means the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, formerly known as the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council established pursuant to Section 8257.
(b) “Core components of Housing First” means all of the following:
(1) Tenant screening and selection practices that promote accepting applicants regardless of their sobriety or use of substances, completion of treatment, or participation in services.
(2) Applicants are not rejected on the basis of poor credit or financial history, poor or lack of rental history, criminal convictions unrelated to tenancy, or behaviors that indicate a lack of “housing readiness.”
(3) Acceptance of referrals directly from shelters, street outreach, drop-in centers, and other parts of crisis response systems frequented by vulnerable people experiencing homelessness.
(4) Supportive services that emphasize engagement and problem solving over therapeutic goals and service plans that are highly tenant-driven without predetermined goals.
(5) Participation in services or program compliance is not a condition of permanent housing tenancy.
(6) Tenants have a lease and all the rights and responsibilities of tenancy, as outlined in California’s Civil, Health and Safety, and Government codes.
(7) The use of alcohol or drugs in and of itself, without other lease violations, is not a reason for eviction, unless children are housed in the same location.
(8) In communities with coordinated assessment and entry systems, incentives for funding promote tenant selection plans for supportive housing that prioritize eligible tenants based on criteria other than “first-come-first-serve,” including, but not limited to, the duration or chronicity of homelessness, vulnerability to early mortality, or high utilization of crisis services. Prioritization may include triage tools, developed through local data, to identify high-cost, high-need homeless residents.
(9) Case managers and service coordinators who are trained in and actively employ evidence-based practices for client engagement, including, but not limited to, motivational interviewing and client-centered counseling.
(10) Services are informed by a harm-reduction 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 well as connected to evidence-based treatment if the tenant so chooses.
(11) (A) A state department or agency may 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 at least 75 percent of the program’s funding in each county is used for housing or housing-based services that use a harm reduction model and the program complies with all of the following requirements:
(i) The individual is given the option to choose between recovery housing and housing that is based on a harm reduction model.
(ii) The program otherwise complies with all other components of Housing First described in this section, including a low barrier to entry.
(iii) Participation in recovery housing is self-initiated by the individual.
(iv) Core outcomes emphasize long-term housing stability and minimizing returns to homelessness.
(v) The policies and operations of the recovery housing ensure an individual’s right to privacy, dignity and respect, and freedom from coercion and restraint, as well as continuous, uninterrupted access to the housing.
(vi) The recovery housing provides holistic services and peer-based recovery supports are available to all program participants along with services that align with the individual’s choice and prioritization of personal goals of sustained recovery and abstinence from substance use.
(vii) Compliance with all local and state landlord-tenant laws governing eviction.
(viii) The recovery housing does not treat relapse as an immediate cause for eviction from housing and instead offers relapse support.
(ix) The recovery housing only pursues eviction when an individual’s behavior substantially disrupts or impacts the welfare of the recovery community in which the individual resides and provides the individual with an opportunity to reenter the program if they express a renewed commitment to living in housing that emphasizes abstinence from substance use.
(x) The program provides assistance with securing permanent housing based on a harm reduction model if an individual is no longer interested in living in recovery housing or if they are at risk of eviction.
(xi) The program complies with periodic monitoring by the authorizing department or agency to ensure that all of the requirements of this subparagraph are met.
(B) A state department or agency that authorizes a program to fund recovery housing pursuant to this paragraph shall conduct periodic monitoring of select recovery housing to ensure compliance with all of the requirements described in clauses (i) to (xi), inclusive, of subparagraph (A).

(11)

(12) The project and specific apartment may include special physical features that accommodate disabilities, reduce harm, and promote health and community and independence among tenants.
(c) “Homeless” has the same definition as that term is defined in Section 91.5 of Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(d) (1) “Housing First” means the evidence-based model that uses housing as a tool, rather than a reward, for recovery and that centers on providing or connecting homeless people to permanent housing as quickly as possible. Housing First providers offer services as needed and requested on a voluntary basis and that do not make housing contingent on participation in services.
(2) (A) “Housing First” includes time-limited rental or services assistance, so long as the housing and service provider assists the recipient in accessing permanent housing and in securing longer term rental assistance, income assistance, or employment. employment, and the housing otherwise meets the requirements of the core components identified in this section.
(B) For time-limited, supportive services programs serving homeless youth, programs should use a positive youth development model and be culturally competent to serve unaccompanied youth under 25 years of age. Providers should work with the youth to engage in family reunification efforts, where appropriate and when in the best interest of the youth. In the event of an eviction, programs shall make every effort, which shall be documented, to link tenants to other stable, safe, decent housing options. Exit to homelessness should be extremely rare, and only after a tenant refuses assistance with housing search, location, and move-in assistance.
(e) “State programs” means any programs a California state agency or department funds, implements, or administers for the purpose of providing housing or housing-based services to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness, with the exception of federally funded programs with requirements inconsistent with this chapter.