Assembly Standing Committee on Human Services

Good afternoon. I call this hearing of the Assembly Committee on Human Services to order today. Once we have established quorum, we have seven measures on the agenda, two of which are on consent. Please note that we limit testimony to two witnesses in support and two witnesses in opposition. Each witness has two minutes to testify.

All additional witnesses will be limited to saying their name, organization if they represent one, and their position on the Bill. I also want to note that we're accepting written testimony through the position letter portal on the Committee's website. Lastly, I would like to address disruptions during the hearing.

Conduct that disrupts or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of this hearing is prohibited. If disruptive behavior occurs today, you will be removed from the hearing room by the Assembly sergeants. Since we do not yet have quorum, we will begin as a Subcommitee.

And I know that Senator Richardson is here, so if she would like to come up, she may present file item 6, SB 748. While we wait for a quorum to be present, we will hear the bill. I thank Mr. Tangipa for being here so we can see started.

It's your birthday? It's your birthday. Oh, close enough, close enough. Alrighty. Good afternoon, Chair and Members of this very important Committee, Human Services. First, I'd like to start off by thanking the Chair and the Committee staff for working with me and my office as the California Department of Housing and Community Development on this very important measure.

SB 748, which would give local jurisdictions additional resources to assist them in providing temporary shelter and areas of safety to our unhoused constituents, while simultaneously reducing recreational vehicles encampments in or near residential neighborhoods and local businesses.

Second, I'd like to accept the Committee's amendments, which brings the bill in line with the with Governor Newsom's request for more clarity, information, and accountability regarding the applicants request and distribution of Encampment Resolution Funding, also known as ERF. A little bit of the background on why this bill was brought forward.

In January 2024, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that 187,084 people experiencing homelessness and that a significant portion of these individuals are living in RVs. Roughly 25% of those experiencing homelessness are unhoused here in California.

In a recent Supreme Court ruling, City of Grants Pass versus Johnson, the justices ruled that cities have the legal authority to more easily clear or ban homeless encampments. In California, RVs are intended for temporary recreational or emergency occupancy, not for long term living or habitation on private property outside of designated areas like RV parks, campgrounds, or mobile home parks. SB 48, as proposed to be amended, would do the following.

Number one, it expands the use of the ERF funds, Encampment Resolution Funding Program, to local jurisdictions for operating safe parking sites while locating interim or permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness living in cars or recreational vehicles.

Number two, this includes the acquisition of sites for safe parking, operation of the site, services to the safe parking site, and increasing safe parking site hours. Number three, SB 748 requires HCD to report on a quarterly basis to the Chairs of specified legislative Committees on the funding distributed for each of the stated purposes of the ERF program.

However, the report must include, at a minimum, a point in time accounting for the number of people transitioned from encampment or safe parking sites to permanent housing, the number of people transitioned from encampment or safe parking site to temporary shelters, and a description of the types of services offered and whether the individuals were connected to them.

So what we want to avoid is not just to move people to a safe parking site, we want to make sure that they're eventually utilizing the wraparound services and are no longer homeless. This bill requires the LAO to evaluate the data and outcomes reported by HCD to assess efficacy of the programs and identify scalable best practices for encampment resolution that can be replicated across the state.

Finally, the amendments provided move provisions specifying that the ERF program applies to safe parking sites from the Health and Safety Code section and specify that the applicant must include a description of how the applicant intends to acquire sites for the safe parking, operate the site, provide services at the safe parking site, and increase safe parking site hours.

You can see we have a little accountability here. In closing, I'd like to thank my co-author, the Assembly Member Tangipa, and Members of the Republican Caucus for also making this a bipartisan effort. With that, I respectfully ask for your aye vote. And I'd like to introduce two witnesses. First of all, Mr. Andrew Govenar on behalf of the Western Manufacturing Housing Communities Association and Carly Shelby on behalf of the City of Compton.

Are your witnesses present in the chamber? Oh, there's... Seems they're double booked right now.

Well, to summarize their comments, as we've been through several committees now, one on behalf of the Western Manufacturing. What they have shared is that by having RV encampments, sometimes these RVs come and park near the mobile home parks.

And so it makes it difficult because people there want to live in a quality home, you know, free of debris and trash and people taking their showers outside on the sidewalk and all of that. And people have an association of assuming the RVs are the mobile homes, which they're not. They're two totally separate vehicles.

It also is a misnomer and communication because then people think mobile homes, you can just place them anywhere, and you can't. There are very specific rules to that. Ms. Shelby, who would speak on behalf of the City of Compton, will share with you... And I'm showing you a picture here. This is an example of my district, where we have some streets where RVs are literally miles long. And so imagine when we took these pictures, we got a little closer and a dog came out and almost bit me.

You had people who are taking off their clothes, trying to cook and throw their items down in the trash, which is impacting our seawater. Just not attractive. Parents can't walk their kids to school. And then finally, I would say, imagine trying to sell your home, and someone's got to turn on this street before they turn on your street to buy their home. It's not going to happen. And so what we want to do is we want to help people who unfortunately only have the resource of a recreational vehicle to live in.

To get them into a safe environment where they don't have to worry about someone walking up in the middle of the night, attacking them, breaking into their RV, taking all of their possessions, getting them in a place where they can have hot water, where they can have proper electricity, and where they can become more contributing to society. So with that, I'll turn to you, and hopefully I wrote you're in a subcommittee mode, so you can't make a motion. So with that, I'll answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you, Senator. I appreciate it. Do we have additional members of the public who wish to testify in support of the bill? Please come into the microphone at this time if you're here to support the bill.

Good afternoon. Waleed Hojeij representing the League of California Cities in support. Thank you.

All right, thank you very much. Now, do we have any witnesses in opposition to the bill? Please come forward. Any members of the public who wish to testify in opposition to the bill, please come to microphone. Seeing none, I will bring it back to the Committee. If a Committee Member wants to comment or have any questions. Go for it, Mr. Tangipa.

Again, I just want to say thank you. I know there's a lot of that same image in a lot of different areas across California. I think this is a great bill and so honored you have me as a co-author, and again, just want to say thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Richardson, I just want to say thank you for working with my Committee staff and myself on this bill. I think it's critically important that this program, the ERF, was founded during in the budget process last cycle right before you were sworn in and faced a lot of scrutiny from many Members of legislature, including myself, how there wasn't a lot of reporting.

In contrast to other homeless dollars out there, this source was not so well accounted for and was often used for sweeping, evicting folks rather than providing them more opportunities. And I think what you're trying to do here, identifying the problem that too many people unfortunately have to live in their RVs, camper vans, or cars, need a safe place to sleep at night that's appropriate, that's safe for themselves and other people.

And I do applaud you for thinking creatively about that and wanting to make sure that folks who live in their vehicles have a appropriate place to do so. And you're using ERF to do that. And that's why it's great that you're working on this language also now report on the good things, right? How many people are better off because we're using these funds?

How many people are better off doing these things, rather than just a an eviction kind of fund that's being used. So I really appreciate again you working with us on these amendments. Since we don't have a quorum of the time, we will take up this motion. I'm sure Mr. Tangipa probably make the motion at the appropriate time. So I want to thank you for coming to present to us. All right, thanks, Senator Richardson. All right, now we'd like you to close too, if you like to close.

No problem. A smart person then says I ask for your aye vote. In closing, I would say I believe Santa Barbara was the first area that did a safe parking site. We now have one in LA County. So for any of you who would like to actually see one of the sites in operation and how we want to improve them and enhance them, I'd be happy to support that. With that, I ask for your aye vote and look forward to working with you to celebrate our success.

Great. Thank you so much, Senator. All right, we'll take that up at the appropriate time. Next. I think I see Senator Smallwood Cuevas here. So whenever she is ready, she could take up file item 2, SB 290.

Chair and good afternoon, Assembly Members. I am proud to present Senate Bill 290 which eliminates a punitive and outdated barrier in CalWORKS program that denies aid to families who are already struggling with poverty.

Whenever you're ready,

SB290 repeals the CalWORKS immunization penalty that reduces a family's grant if they cannot provide documentation showing their child has received a required immunization, even when the child may already be vaccinated.

Nearly most of our families that participate in CalWORKS are black and Latina mothers, communities that are disproportionately affected by many, many bureaucratic overlapping hurdles and also have to deal with income insecurity while they're working through these hurdles.

We know that these families often get vaccines at clinics or in pop out pop up sites that often do not issue standardized records, resulting in penalties not for failing to vaccinate, but for lacking acceptable documentation. A 2023 ABC10 investigation found that parents were sanctioned even after receiving immunizations simply because documentation didn't meet the county standard.

One mother shared that she got shots at a local event but wasn't given an official record and therefore her aid was cut. The Bill becomes even more urgent given the federal instability as it relates to subsidies for our most needy families.

On June 9th of 2025, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which sets the vaccine guidelines referenced in CalWORKS laws, were dismantled and repealed many of the new appointees. So there's a lot of instability in this space. That means it will be very hard for our families who rely on CalWORKS to get much needed documentation.

And we think that we can help families be able to care for their families and meet these bureaucratic administrative hurdles in a way that's fair. With me today to testify is Yesenia Hermenez with the In Child Poverty California and Luing Khan with the Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations.

Good afternoon, Chair and Members again, Yesenia Jimenez, Senior Policy Associate with End Child Poverty California, a coalition of 178 organizations committed to ensuring every child is healthy, housed and fed. As mentioned, SB2 90 seeks to repeal burdensome CalWORKS financial sanctions on CalWORKS families already experiencing poverty.

Of course, if they cannot provide proof of vaccination for their for their young children. As mentioned, CalWORKS families often access vaccines through community health clinics or other locations that may lack dig digitized records.

As a former CalWORKS recipient, I always remember I used to carry on my little yellow card and would always have to remind my mom where this little verification card would be.

According to the California Budget and Policy Center, California sanctions families by removing up to $235 from their cash assistance These sanctions can cost families up to one fifth of their total CalWORKS benefits. That's more than 3,000 adults here in the State of California who are annually having their assistance reduced just due to this immunization sanction.

That means that more than 86% of these adults reside in single parent families, often are being black and Latina moms who are the primary breadwinners for their households. What's more, the CalWORKS family fails to provide proof of their child's vaccination even if their child is vaccinated.

As mentioned, these families are still sanctioned because they fail to provide proof. And this is detrimental as CalWORKS sanctions are proving to destabilize families to the point of even family separation and removal into the child welfare system, creating far worse outcomes while making it more difficult for the parent to get the child vaccinated.

So rather than compounding these difficulties with financial sanctions, SB 290 provides a more compassionate and equitable approach to supporting California's most vulnerable families. And for these reasons, we urge your Aye vote.

Thank you. Thank you. All right, next one is, please.

Thank you for having me here today to testify on SB290. My name is Luanne Nguyen. I am the Deputy Director at the Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organization. It's a pleasure to be here and we're very grateful to the Senator for authoring this bill and being such a champion for this community.

I've been doing public benefits work for a very long time now. I started out as a direct service provider at the East Bay Community Law Center for 10 years. And so I solved this problem firsthand. In my experience, the folks that are on public benefits are economically struggling. They've always been economically struggling.

There wasn't a time that they weren't economically struggling and doing okay.

And as in the evolution of the CalWORKS program, we are pushing for a two generation approach to poverty, recognizing that we are looking towards the future and, and these children are the future and that we need to do things to focus on their well being and their health.

And the challenge with a policy like this is that you punish the children also by punishing the parents. And when, you know, at a certain time in our history we did this and we continue to do it a lot in a lot of programs. And the data shows that it does not work out well.

And in essence, what happens here is in the CalWORKS program, you have a family that at maximum, at the highest regional level, it's getting $1,171 a month. And with this sanction they're getting $927 a month.

And what we know about extreme poverty is that it just makes it harder for the family to be able to do all the positive things that they need to do for themselves and their children, including creating greater access. And what we've also learned from various studies is that the more income you provide to the family, the more.

The better impact it has on children's health, the better impact it has on families. Like, we're putting these families in a situation where they cannot even afford their rent, and it's leading to homelessness and it's leading to other devastating effect. And for those reasons, we shouldn't be doing this.

We should be creating a program that supports the children and provides them what they need. And this policy as it exists doesn't do that, which is why we support what the Senator is doing. And we're very appreciative and. And we ask that you consider these things as you make the decision and support the Bill. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Now, do we have Members of the public who should testify in support of the Bill? Please come up to the microphone.

Hi. On behalf of a colleague who's stuck in another Committee, I'm Darby Kernan testifying in support for Western center on Law and poverty. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Tiffany Whiten with SEIU California and strong support. Thank you.

Amanda Kirchner County Welfare Directors Association and support. All right, thank you. Now, do we have any witnesses in opposition to the Bill? Please come forward. Any witnesses, opposition, any Members of the public which testify in opposition to the Bill? I'm giving him the opportunity.

To the post yet.

That's why I was giving Mr. Le the opportunity. Hey, just in case. You never know. All right, I'm going to bring it back to the Committee now for questions, comments from the Committee Members. All right. Seeing none. Senator Small Cuevas, just to clarify, you're accepting the Committee's amendments, correct?

Yes, we are.

Okay, fantastic. Well, thank you for working with myself and the Committee staff on this Bill. I think it's just important and common sense that we allow me to burden some require burdensome barriers to making sure families are receiving the help that they need.

And that's why I'm going to be recommending an eyes amended on this Bill when we have the. When we have quorum to take of the Bill up. I like to invite you to close if you like.

Well, I just want to thank you, Mr. Chair, and your Committee. And thank you as always, for all the great work that you do for Our working families. And to the witnesses today and Members. Yeah. This is a time where families need every dime.

The cost of living is out of reach and increasingly the basic needs are not being met. Whatever we can do to remove those barriers and those hurdles to ensure that families are always made whole, I think we should take every effort to do so. And with that, I respectfully asked for your aye vote.

Thank you very much. We'll take up the Bill at the appropriate time. But thank you for presenting, Senator. Thank you. All right, we are now waiting for other authors. So if you're or your Boss is Senator Wahab, Becker or Ashby, you have the opportunity to present the Bill right now.

Madam Secretary, please call the roll to establish a quorum. Please.

[Roll Call]

There we go. Quorum established. Let's make the appropriate motions and votes on the file items that have already presented. Let's start with File item number two. SB290 by Smallwood-Cuevas. Madam Secretary, please. Or yes, we'll get a motion from Mr. Tagipa. Second from Senator Castillo. Madam Secretary, please call the roll on SB 290. File item 2 by Smallwood-Cuevas.

[Roll Call]

Five. Zero. That Bill is out, but we'll leave the roll open for absent Members, returning Members. Let's move on to final number six. SB748. Richardson, can I get a motion, a second move by similar Tongipa. Seconded by Assembly. Over. Celeste Rodriguez. Madam Secretary, please call the roll for SB748.

[Roll Call]

Five to zero. That Bill is out. We have a. We have a motion and a second for the consent calendar. Madam Secretary can get the Call the roll for the consent calendar or please read the consent calendar first and then call the roll.

[Roll Call]

Consent calendar is out. Five to zero. All right. We are still waiting for authors for Senators Wahab, Becker or Ashby this moment.

All right, Senator Becker, whenever you're ready, you may approach the desk, and you can present SB 606.

Thank you, Chair and members. I want to really thank the chair and your committee staff for working with our team and working over the weekend. I will be accepting the committee amendments. Everyone knows we have a serious issue with homelessness in this state.

But not everyone knows that unsheltered homelessness, people living on the street, is really a California problem, and we need a California solution. Upwards of 70% of our homeless population in California is unsheltered, whereas nationally that's 20%. This bill provides a definition of functional zero homelessness overall and a definition of functional zero unsheltered.

One thing the bill does now, and I want to thank the Chair for all of his work on this, is it makes it really clear that functional zero unsheltered is only a step towards solving the problem overall of homelessness.

SB 606 would require cities, counties, and continuum of care programs to proactively plant an unsheltered homelessness in their jurisdiction, while also requiring them to provide analysis detailing the number of housing units needed to achieve functional zero overall. We know that unsheltered is the most inhumane form of homelessness.

People dying on our streets, people being abused on our streets, people getting addicted to drugs on the streets so they can stay awake to make sure their stuff doesn't get stolen.

And every day, every night in the Capitol, when I walk back to the hotel where I stay, I pass people living in doorways so close, literally in the shadow of our capital. And it just doesn't have to be this way and shouldn't be this way.

The good news is we are seeing progress towards functional zero unsheltered in several parts of the state, Santa Barbara.

So, counties and cities doing the math and calculating how many units they need for functional zero: Santa Barbara, San Jose, San Mateo County, are proven as possible through detailed planning and decisive use of intramodular housing and other solutions to get there. In Santa Barbara, the county adopted a plan to achieve functional zero unsheltered after experiencing their success with interim housing; they created an 80-room community center that proved to be such a success. The county board of supervisors expanded their partnership to commit to build an additional 300 spaces across the county to help close the gap.

Currently, they're more than halfway to their goal of achieving functional zero in the northern part of the county after starting this in 2022. So, this bill requires a detailed plan for functional zero unsheltered to get dollars during the next funding cycle.

And what this means is really about holding the legislature accountable, sorry, holding cities accountable to tools that we gave them. Some of you were not here last year for 1395, a bill that I did that passed unanimously after a lot of work over two years, that gave cities different tools.

And so, this planning process that we've laid out really again holds these cities accountable, says, do you have a valid shelter crisis declaration? Have you adopted appendix B building codes? Have you done the streamlining of interim housing units and permanent housing units, in fact? So, it really holds the cities accountable to tools that we have given them.

We've seen that city planners often just have a reluctance. Even though we've said, you know, we've given you these tools, you're not liable if you use these tools that, still, the incentives are not always aligned where the city housing folks want to still say gold plate everything and you know, in delaying us towards our goals.

This also requires cities at a minimum to submit analysis, again, of the unit of housing types, housing of all types achieve functional zero. It also involves smaller cities. What we don't want to see is that I represent a lot of smaller cities.

We don't see the smaller cities just pushing a homeless population towards larger cities and saying it's your problem. So, this actually reinvolves smaller and medium sized cities into the process in the HAPP process. So, I believe we have an opportunity responsible to lead the nation in solving this crisis with empathy and data driven proven models.

And I have a witness here, Adrian Covert, who's the Senior Vice President of Public Policy at Bay Area Council.

Thank you, Senator.

Thank you very much. Two minutes please.

Yes, thank you. Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Adrian Covert with the Bay Area Council. It's my pleasure to speak with the Committee today on behalf of SB606 of the Functional Zero Act.

Excluding California, as the Senator said, of only about 20% of homeless Americans lack access to basic interim housing or shelter options. In California, it's 67%. This is the highest rate in the nation. And for most unsheltered homeless Californians, this is not a choice.

California ranks 49th in the amount of interim options and shelter options that it provides per homeless resident, with just about four beds for every ten residents, far below the national average of about seven and a half ten beds. And the proliferation of unsheltered homelessness has been disastrous for the health and safety of homeless California residents.

The future this failure costs lives, including roughly 7,000 homeless Californians who die on our streets each year; many for reasons no other than the elements that they were subjected to while they were outdoors. It also cost us resources, including billions of dollars spent on cleaning encampments and on effective shelter clearings.

Without relocating folks to someplace to go, that money could have gone more effectively to shelter or health care or housing or anything else. We must do better on this.

SB 606 would require local governments to plan to achieve and maintain functional zero homelessness and unsheltered homelessness as part of its regionally coordinated homeless action plan that they already do as part of the HAPP process and further encourage local governments to avail themselves of the powers granted to them by the legislature the past several years to more speedily and affordably set these interim housing projects up.

Just as the Senator mentioned a few moments ago, ending unsheltered homelessness won't solve every problem related to our homelessness crisis, but it is a critical first step towards getting us there and ultimately ending homelessness for good. And with that, I respectfully ask your aye vote.

Thank you very much. Now, do we have members of the public who wish to testify in support of bill. Please come to the microphone.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members. Steven Stensler with Brownstein on behalf of co-sponsors Dignity Moves in support and also the Housing Action Coalition in support. Thank you.

Chair and members, Nick Romo on behalf of the City of San Jose and Mayor Matt Mahan in support of the bill today. I want to quickly remind all of us that the ending unsheltered homelessness is a distinct goal, and we thank the Senator for his leadership.

Thank you. Any other members of the public? Okay. All right. Any witnesses in opposition to the bill, please come forward. Any witnesses in opposition, any members of the public who wish to fight in opposition to the bill, please come forward.

Good afternoon. My name is Divya Shiv with Housing California, also speaking on behalf of the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Corporation for Supportive Housing. We were originally opposed unless amended, but thanks to the Senator for taking the Committee amendments, we will be moving to neutral. And appreciate the Senator and the sponsors for working with us. Thank you.

Thank you. We got a motion for the bill; now bring it back to the committee members. Any questions? Comments for the Senator and witness? Any questions or comments? All right. I just want to thank the Senator for working with this committee and working with myself on this important issue as we had several conversations about.

I really do believe in achieving getting to functional zero unsheltered. It is a milestone; it is a steppingstone towards functional zero. It's hard to leapfrog your way all the way to functional zero without the aspect of no people living on the street.

So, I do think it's really important and I think that you're bringing more accountability to the HF process is also very important. So, reflecting many of those conversations, I'm happy we arrive at a point where we can acknowledge that the ultimate goal, of course, is that no one should be living in their car on the street anywhere.

But we have to provide them interim solutions in the medium term to get people where they need to be and provide their services. And I think the bill today reflects stronger of that consensus where we're at. And I think that's where we kind of were at even in Housing Committee when we talked the first time.

So, I'm glad the language today reflects that. So, we both still have - we still also have a functional zero and shelter definition in there that acknowledges that it is important steppingstone towards the overall goal of ending homelessness. So, I appreciate that. I am recommending an aye vote. I'll ask the author if he would like to close.

Yeah. Thank you again, thank for your leadership of this committee in all these areas and towards a larger goal. And respectfully as I vote.

All right. The bill has been moved by Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez. Seconded by Assemblymember Tangipa. Madam Secretary, please call the roll.

File item number five, SB 606; the motion is to pass as amended to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. [Roll Call].

That bill's out. We'll leave the roll open for Epson Members. Thank you. All right. We're waiting for Senators Ashby and Wahab if they are available. There are two final present Assembly. Calderon, do you want to add on to the bills? All right. Madam Secretary, if you could open up the roll for absent Members on the consent calendar.

[Roll Call]

Madam Secretary, please open the roll for absent Members.

[Roll Call]

It's just you on this Committee right now. I know, but like I'm gonna get. Some questions from everyone.

Senator, please go ahead and present your Bill.

Thank you. Chair, colleagues and Members of the public. First, I'd like to thank Committee staff for their engagement on this Bill.

I want to make it very clear we accept the amendments for this Bill and SB 433, establishes room and board rate protection for participants in the Assisted Living Waiver, and Cal AIM Assisted Living Facility Transitions Community Support Programs.

The ALW and Assisted Living Community Programs, both Medi-Cal funded, allow participants to live in residential care facilities for the elderly or CFEs as they are known as alternatives to nursing home placement.

Under current law, RCFEs may not charge Supplemental Security Income or SSI recipients more than a standardized monthly rate for Enrollment Board. State regulations require the standardized rate established by the Department of Social Services to leave those residents with a monthly personal needs allowance of $179 in 2025.

However, low income Medi-Cal recipients without SSI are not protected by an income based rate cap and are not entitled to keep a personal needs allowance. This population comprises of roughly 44% of the program's participants.

Recently, some facilities have taken advantage of this distinction in the law to compel non SSI residents and family Members to pay out of pocket or for rate increases or face eviction without room and board rate protections. Program participants, older adults, often with cognitive impairments and individuals with significant disabilities, are at risk for losing their home and care.

SB 433 creates an income based cap to RCFE room and board rates that allows all Medi-Cal Assisted Living program participants to keep personal needs allowance. I'd like to introduce my witness, Hagar Dickman, Director of Long Term Services and Support Advocacy, Injustice and Aging. And I do this every time.

Maura Gibney, Executive Director, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform Kanner. Thank you.

Good afternoon. I'm Hagar Dickman, Director of California LTSS Advocacy for Justice in Aging. Justice in Aging is a national legal advocacy organization committed to advancing the rights of low income older adults. Proud co-sponsor of SB 433.

This Bill creates a personal needs allowance for Medi-Cal Members in Assisted Living Waiver and Cal AIM Community support so participating residents can't be charged more than their income for room and board. Participants in these programs are very low income. To be Medi-Cal eligible, they must have less than $1,801 in income per month.

Participants also typically must have high care needs. Many participants are individuals with Alzheimer's or dementia and recently there's also been an increase in users with mental health conditions.

Federal law requires that participants in these Medi-Cal programs pay for room and board these facilities out of their own income and while they are responsible for the room and board, the facility also receives the majority of their payments directly from Medi-Cal for services provided at the RCFEs.

For the highest tier of services, this is around $10,000 monthly for Medi-Cal. SB 433 does not make any change to Medi-Cal rates. As the Senator already mentioned, Medi-Cal Members in assisted living who are also on SSI already have room and board protections.

But unfortunately thousands of other low income Medi-Cal Members in assisted living do not have the same protection and are at risk of eviction and homelessness if room and board rates are unreasonably increased. SB 433 protects California's low income older adults and people with disabilities from unreasonable room and board increases by medical assisted living providers.

It creates parity between SSI and non SSI medical beneficiaries by allowing all program participants to retain the same amount of modest resources to use for covering essential items such as cell phone service, clothing and toiletries.

Protecting residents from room and board increases means ensuring that our Medi-Cal Members can continue living in stable community settings of their choice where they can receive essential Medi-Cal covered services that keep them out of expensive hospitals, emergency rooms and nursing homes. Thank you. I urge you aye vote.

Good afternoon Committee Members. I'm Maura Gibney with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. We're a statewide nonprofit which has worked for over 40 years to improve the quality of California's long term care system. We're proud co-sponsors of SB 433.

Our staff support people navigating the maze of complicated medical benefits, offering an alternative to permanent institutionalization like the Assisted Living Waiver and ALF Transitions Community Support Program.

Over the last two years we've seen an increase in calls about facility operators charging exorbitant monthly fees to low income residents, and exploiting the lack of consumer protections as a strategy to get rid of those who they no longer want to care for.

Since failure to pay is one of the five legal reasons that people can be evicted from an assisted living facility, those facilities who increase rates beyond what residents can afford are in effect, forcing them to leave. One canter caller reported being charged $1480 by her ALW facility from her monthly income, $1500.

She cannot afford a new cell phone or new clothing on only $20 a month because she is not SSI eligible. The facility is allowed to charge her whatever they want and has the ability to raise her rate to even $2,000 a month, leaving her no guarantees that she can stay long term in the place she calls home.

This Bill creates a simple solution to protect Medi-Cal participants from being displaced and allows them to keep a small amount of money to preserve their Independence and dignity so that they can afford to buy clothing, toiletries, or pay for a cell phone.

Both of the programs impacted are only available to those who meet the criteria for free Medi-Cal. This means that they must have a limited amount of available income. As such, the facilities who choose to accept Medi-Cal payments from these programs should also be limited in how much they can charge participants for these reasons.

On behalf of Canner and thousands of older adults and people with disabilities who depend on these programs, I respectfully request your aye vote on SB 433. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any Members of the public here to testify in support.

Patrick Moran, representing the Retired Public Employees Association, in support. Thank you.

Regina Brink, on behalf of the California Council of the Blind, in strong support.

Rebecca Gonzales, Western center on Law and Poverty. And support.

Amanda Kirchner, County Welfare directors in support.

Andrew Mendoza, on behalf of the Alzheimer's Association, in support.

Thank you. Do we have any primary witnesses in opposition. Seeing none. Do we have any Members of the public. You're here to testify?

Yeah, Thank you. Selena Coppi Hornback with the California Assisted Living Association, representing residential care facilities for the elderly throughout the state, including those that are mentioned in this Bill who participate in Medi-Cal programs in like the Assisted Living Waiver and Calhoun Community Supports.

We would like to thank the author and sponsors and the Committee staff for working so closely with us on this Bill.

And while we would still like to see the Bill narrowed specifically to ALW and CalAIM because these are the programs that are currently in existence. We would like to appreciate what the author is doing in accepting the Committee amendments. And once they are in print, we will be removing our opposition from the Bill. Thank you.

Darby Kernan, for LeadingAge California, with the Committee amendments. We are neutral on the bill. Thank you.

Roxanne Gould, six beds. It's a residential care facility for the elderly association. We are removing our opposition.

Thank you. Are there any questions from Committee Members. I'll second. Would you like to close.

One again, I just want to thank the Committee for their Hard work. As you can see, there is relatively basically no opposition with amendments taken. This is a good Bill for people that really, truly need it. And I want to highlight that this safety net prevents homelessness.

In fact, our fastest growing demographic of the homeless population is our senior population. We do need to go above and beyond and do more. And this is one step in the right direction. So I respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Thank you for bringing this Bill forward. The chair recommends an aye vote with the amendments. We have a motion by Jackson, a second by myself, Rodriguez. Madam Secretary, could you please call the roll.

File Item four, SB 433. The motion is Do Pass as amended to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Lee. Castillo. Calderon. Elhawary. Jackson. Jackson, aye. Rodriguez. Rodriguez, aye. Tangipa. Tangipa, not voting.

That vote is on call.

File item 4, SB 433. The current vote is 2 to 0. Elhawary? Aye. Elhawary aye. Current vote, 3 to 0.

I tried to go present in Judith because it's like a zillion people and 75 billion.

I'm like 59 or something. Like four people showed up, like, as I was trying to, like, cut in line. I was like, that's not happening. Came back. Senate Judiciary. Yeah. In the wild. I haven't seen it, but it's that kind of. Because apparently they're taking very long.

Madam Secretary, can you please call the roll for the absent members.

File item four, SB 433. The current vote is 3 to 0. Castillo? Castillo not voting. Current vote, three to zero.

All right. Senator Ashby, whenever you are ready, you may come up.

Assembly Member Tangipa, I'm sorry. Did not mean to set you up. I apologize. All right.

Yeah. He was about to sub in almost when I was still gone too. So I wanted to make sure he.

Would be a great substitute for me. He has every ability to present this bill. I appreciate it. I'm here to present SB 761. This is the CalFresh for Students Act. This bill streamlines access to CalFresh benefits by allowing students to receive a notification that they are potentially eligible for CalFresh when they complete their Cal Grants.

So basically, when young people go to college like Mr. Tangipa and myself, and they are eligible for in my case, cause I'm old, food stamps in his case, cause he's young calfresh, they don't know it. They don't know about it. It's not a resource that they necessarily know they're eligible for. We.

We want to make it easy for them young people. We don't want them to have to go to the Cal Grant office, the student office, figure out where their county health and Human services is, and then also go down there and apply to try to figure out what all they're eligible for.

So all this bill does is create a relationship where when they apply for Cal Grant, they get a notification that they are potentially eligible for CalFresh with some direction about how to then go apply for it. They. A significant number of our young people are really hungry in college and they're having to try to study.

And many of them work, as I know many of you did. I did. I was a young single mom when I was in college, and I was raising my son on my own. I went to UC Davis and McGeorge Law School, but if I didn't have food stamps, we would have been hungry. And while.

And Mr. Tangipa has shared his story being a college athlete. I was not a college athlete, obviously, but I was raising a little boy who also would become a noes tackle. And those guys need a lot of food. So I never could have done it on my own. I was very grateful to have the help and assistance.

I want to make sure it's there for the students in the years to come. That is what this Bill is about, and that is why we have moved it forward. It has enjoyed bipartisan support with no opposition.

And with me today are these two witnesses who I will allow to introduce themselves themselves, tell you why they support the bill, why they're here.

Great. Thank you. Two minutes each witness, please.

Good afternoon, Chair Lee and Members of the Committee. My name is Kevin Bibiano and I'm currently serving as the policy and advocacy aide for the UC Student Association, the official voice of over 230,000 students across the UC system. SB 761 aims to ensure college affordability through a critical yet often overlooked component, food security.

According to the 2024 UC Undergraduate Experience Survey, 48% of UC students experienced some level of food insecurity last year, meaning they skipped meals, cut down their meal portions, and struggle to afford balanced diets. Research has shown that food insecurity results in difficulty concentrating and lower academic performance.

This results in declining college attainment and completion, holding back our state's economy and workforce development. Our very own student leaders on the board and across the UC have detailed experiences in which they struggle to afford rent, groceries and textbooks without knowing they qualify for food assistance through CalFresh.

Others attempted to apply only to fall through the cracks due to the complex nature of enrollment and lack of connected support. While the UC works to combat food insecurity with basic need centers and food pantries on every campus, a much larger issue is at play. Many students who are eligible for CalFresh don't receive its benefits.

The California Policy Lab found that only 22% of eligible UC students are enrolled in CalFresh and that the main reason students students don't apply is a lack of awareness about the program. UC students know this firsthand. Hundreds of those who know about CalFresh often don't know whether or not they qualify.

We strongly support SB 761 because it will combat the unfamiliarity with CalFresh by informing students about their eligibility while they apply for financial aid.

In doing so, not only will it remove knowledge barriers to nutrition assistance, but it will also reach out to those who are most likely to require CalFresh benefits, making this a promising measure to combat food insecurity. Being connected to food benefits helps remove barriers for many students who are just trying to pursue academic success.

Thus, SB 761 will promote better health, attendance and academic performance for thousands of UC students and college students across California. I urge aye vote in support of food security and college affordability for all. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon, Chair and Members. I'm Carol Gonzalez and I have the privilege of representing the Southern California College Attainment Network, also known as SoCalCan, comprised of almost 130 college access organizations in the greater Los Angeles region. The network collectively serves over 350,000 students and families.

Its mission is to increase the rate of which underrepresented students access and complete post secondary education. Unfortunately, though, food insecurity remains as a pervasive obstacle to accomplish this mission, especially for historically marginalized students. As a network working with student advocates, it is central to our system's change strategy.

And every time we consult with students to better understand these challenges they face when pursuing higher education by addressing student by addressing the basic needs, that's always one of their biggest concerns.

Students report that affording a basic standard of living is a major issue for them due to the insufficient financial aid they receive, juggling multiple responsibilities making it a lot harder for them to generate work and income.

We know that coupling financial aid with other social safety net benefits can help them close the gaps that financial aid package packages leave in a student's full cost of attendance, including non tuition costs. The Public Policy Institute recently published a report that highlights this.

CalFresh can reduce financial burden after taking financial aid packages into account for UC and TSU students almost by half. It also reduces the financial burden for community college students by 24%.

This is a big reason why many of our network Members go far beyond helping students to apply for college and emphasize how long time how emphasized for a long time now to connect students for their social benefits beyond the traditional financial aid. Which is why we believe SB 761 addresses these challenges.

The bill will clarify that students are eligible simply by being enrolled in one of the thousands of approved post secondary programs offered through the public institutions. It will also connect students via coordinated outreach efforts with critical information needed to apply and make the process less cumbersome for them.

We know that there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of students out there who are eligible but not enrolled in CalFresh. SB 761 makes some important changes that will allow them to get the support that they need and get help with this kind of assistance.

For those reasons, we thank the Senator and appreciate her leadership and respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Right. Thank you very much. Before we do, the witnesses in the room or the Members of the public, Just to be clear, Senator, you're accepting all the amendments?

That's my understanding. Yep.

Okay, great. Thank you. Now, Members of the public who wish to sign support of the bill, please come to the microphone.

Sure. Darby Kernan in support of the bill. For California Association of Food Banks. Thank you.

Rebecca Gonzalez with the Western center on Law and Poverty in support.

Crystal Padilla on behalf of the Community College League of California in support.

Jessica Duong, the University of California in support.

Martha Guerrero representing the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in support.

Oscar Sandoval with the Center for Healthy Communities in strong support.

Amanda Kirchner, County Welfare Directors Association in support.

Libby Sanchez, No kid Hungry in support.

Annabelle Urbina with the CSU Chancellor's Office in support.

Mayra Baena with the Mesa Verde Group on behalf of Alliance for a Better Community. And on behalf of Carol Gonzalez with the Cal State Student Association. HISPAN has organized for political equality and support.

Great. Thank you. Now, do we have any witnesses in opposition to the bill? Any members of the public which testify in opposition to the bill? Please come up to the microphone. See none. I will bring back the Committee. Any questions or comments. The bill has a. Yes, the bill has a motion already. All right. Seeing none.

I'll invite the author to close.

Respectfully ask for an aye vote.

All right.

And thank my co-author.

Well then thank you, Senator Ashby, for working on making sure that more folks who are eligible for CalFresh are receiving the information to make sure they get it. You know, it is a bipartisan effort. What?

We work together to make sure that our programs are reaching people in need while unfortunately, the Federal Government is taking away those opportunities. So we're going to do that. All right. I have a do pass as amended motion. It has been probably moved by Assembly Mayor Tangipa, seconded by Castillo.

Madam Secretary, please call the roll on SB 6761.

[Roll Call]

40. That Bill is out. We'll leave the roll open for EPSA Members. We will leave the roll open for a moment while I run to estm. Can you take over for a second?

[Roll Call]

All right. Madam Secretary, please open the roll for add ons.

[Roll Call]

And only one Bill. All right. This hearing of the Assembly Human Human Services Committee is officially adjourned.