Supportive housing for parolees.

Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to obtain day treatment, and to contract for crisis care services, for parolees with mental health problems, and requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide a supportive housing program, known as the Integrated Services for Mentally Ill Parolees (ISMIP) program, that provides wraparound services to mentally ill parolees at risk of homelessness using funding appropriated for that purpose. Existing law provides that an inmate or parolee is eligible for participation if the inmate has a serious mental disorder, as defined, has been assigned a release date from state prison, and is likely to become homeless upon release or is currently a homeless parolee. Existing law requires providers to offer various services, including housing location services and rental subsidies. Existing law requires a service provider to comply with specified requirements, including, among others, that the service provider has prior experience working with county or regional mental health programs. This bill would repeal the ISMIP program and would instead enact the Supportive Housing Program for Persons on Parole (the program) to be administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The program would incorporate similar eligibility criteria for eligible participants and similar criteria for housing funded by the program. The bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to transfer funds appropriated from the General Fund for the ISMIP program to the department for the new program, as specified. The bill would also require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish a process for referring ISMIP participants from the ISMIP upon the repeal of that program to the program created by the bill. These provisions would become operative when the Director of Finance notifies the Joint Legislative Budget Committee that sufficient funding has been appropriated by the Legislature to the department for these purposes. The bill would also require the department to hire an independent evaluator of the program and to submit the evaluation to the Legislature, as specified.