On Friday, Assemblymember Anamarie Avila Farias (D-Martinez) introduced her first bill as an assemblymember which would establish the Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program.
To help fund the Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program, the state would repurpose funding from the closure of state prisons to provide innovative or evidence-based solutions to house people experiencing homelessness with histories of incarceration.
Under the Bill:
AB 722, as introduced, Ávila Farías. Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and makes the department responsible for administering various housing programs throughout the state, including, among others, the Multifamily Housing Program.
This bill would establish the Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2026, to take specified actions to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, provide grants to applicants, as defined, for innovative or evidence-based housing, housing-based services, and employment interventions to allow people with recent histories of incarceration to exit homelessness and remain stably housed. The bill would require the department to establish a process, in collaboration with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and with counties in which recipients are operating, for referral of participants, in accordance with certain guidelines and procedures.
The bill would require the department to score applicants to the program competitively according to specified criteria. The bill would require recipients of funds from the program to use those funds for, among other things, long-term rental assistance in permanent housing, incentives to landlords, and innovative or evidence-based services to assist participants in accessing permanent supportive housing. The bill would require the department to distribute funds allocated by executing contracts with awarded entities for a term of 5 years, subject to automatic renewal.
According to the data within the bill:
- People on parole are 7x more likley to recidivate when homeless than when houses.
- Data show evidence-based housing decreases recidivism rates by 60 percent, when compared to control groups, and reduces rearrests by 40 percent.
- About one-half of people experiencing homelessness report a history of incarceration.
- Formerly incarcerated people are 27 times more likely to be unstably housed or homeless than the general public. In fact, California data have estimated that one-third to one-half of all people on parole in the City and County of San Francisco and the City of Los Angeles are experiencing homelessness at any point in time.
- African Americans are almost seven times more likely to be homeless than the general population in California, driven by systemic racism that includes disproportionate incarceration and discharges from prisons and jails into homelessness.
The bill also says it is the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will calculate the annual costs avoided that result from the closure or warm shutdown of prisons and to redirect 80 percent of those costs avoided to the Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program within six months.
A similar bill, if not nearly identical, was introduced in the 2021-22 session under AB 1816 by Assemblyman Isaac G Bryan (D-Los Angeles).
According to his press release, AB-1816 will help prevent those just released from incarceration – often the most critical moment – from falling into this cycle after coming home. This bill will help ensure inmates returning to their communities have stable housing, help keep recidivism rates lower, and work to ensure housing insecurity is eased in underserved communities.
History of AB 1816:
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| 11/30/22 | Died on Senate inactive file. |
| 08/30/22 | Ordered to inactive file at the request of Senator Wiener. |
| 08/11/22 | Read second time. Ordered to third reading. |
| 08/11/22 | From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 11). |
| 06/20/22 | In committee: Referred to suspense file. |
| 06/14/22 | From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 13). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. |
| 06/08/22 | Referred to Com. on HOUSING. |
| 05/27/22 | In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. |
| 05/26/22 | Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 58. Noes 17.) |
| 05/19/22 | Read second time. Ordered to third reading. |
| 05/19/22 | From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 4.) (May 19). |
| 04/06/22 | In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to suspense file. |
| 03/24/22 | From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 2.) (March 23). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. |
| 03/24/22 | Coauthors revised. |
| 02/23/22 | Coauthors revised. |
| 02/18/22 | Referred to Com. on H. & C.D. |
| 02/08/22 | From printer. May be heard in committee March 10. |
| 02/07/22 | Read first time. To print. |
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