Existing law, the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act, establishes the California Department of Aging and sets forth its mission to provide leadership to the area agencies on aging in developing systems of home- and community-based services that maintain individuals in their own homes or least restrictive homelike environments. Existing law requires the department, in allocating specified state and federal funding to area agencies on aging, to ensure that priority consideration is given to criteria that reflect the state’s intent to target services to those in greatest economic or social need. Existing law defines “greatest social need” to mean the need caused by noneconomic factors, including physical and mental disabilities, that restrict an individual’s ability to perform normal daily tasks or that threaten the individual’s capacity to live independently.
This bill would revise this definition to include human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status as a specified noneconomic factor.