Existing law states the intent of the Legislature to ensure that all pupils in foster care and those who are homeless, as defined, have a meaningful opportunity to meet the challenging state pupil academic achievement standards to which all pupils are held. Existing law requires educators, county placing agencies, care providers, advocates, and the juvenile courts to work together to maintain stable school placements and to ensure that each pupil is placed in the least restrictive educational programs and has access to the academic resources, services, and extracurricular and enrichment activities that are available to all pupils, as provided. This bill would require the State Department of Education to administer formula grants as part of a pilot program, to be known as the Unaccompanied Youth Support Grant Program, for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to provide supports necessary to improve school attendance, pupil engagement, pupil graduation rates, and pupil wellbeing for unaccompanied youth, as defined, who are 16 or 17 years of age, including connecting youth with resources to find stable housing. The bill would require, subject to an appropriation and subject to specified allocation metrics, 5-year grants that commence with the 2028–29 fiscal year, to be awarded by the Superintendent of Public Instruction to local educational agencies, or consortia of local educational agencies, to support unaccompanied youth, and would require grant funds to be used for, among other things, referrals to existing social services support systems, and providing basic needs and educational support services, as specified. The bill would require, to be eligible to apply for a grant under the program, a local educational agency to have identified at least one unaccompanied youth enrolled during the prior fiscal year, as specified. The bill would require local educational agencies applying for grant funds under the program to submit an application that includes, among other things, a description of how grant funds will be used to identify eligible pupils, the types of supports to be provided based on the eligible uses of grant funds, and the performance measures the local educational agency will use to measure progress towards program goals. The bill would require local educational agencies awarded grant funds under the program to submit annual reports to the department that include, among other things, a description of the expenditure of funds and the number and characteristics of unaccompanied youth served.
The Insurance Rate Reduction and Reform Act of 1988, an initiative measure enacted by Proposition 103, as approved by the voters at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, prohibits specified insurance rates from being approved or remaining in effect that are excessive, inadequate, unfairly discriminatory, or otherwise in violation of the act. Under the act, rates and premiums for automobile insurance are determined based on specified factors, including the insured's driving safety record. Existing law authorizes the provisions of Proposition 103 to be amended by a statute that furthers the purposes of the act and is enacted by the Legislature with a 23 vote. This bill, the Consumer Driving Data Protection Act of 2026, would authorize a consumer to opt to use telematics to establish their driving record, thus amending Proposition 103. The bill would prohibit the use of telematics data for a purpose other than rating private passenger automobile insurance. The bill would require a rate application under which telematics would be used to establish an insured's driving record to include specified materials related to the insurer's telematics program. This bill would prohibit an insurer that uses telematics from taking specified actions, including conditioning eligibility for a discount upon participation in a telematics program, unless the discount is approved by the commissioner. The bill would also set forth written consent and privacy requirements for the collection and use of telematics data. The bill would authorize the commissioner to impose specified penalties for violations of the bill's provisions, including civil penalties and suspension of an insurer's telematics program. This bill would require an insurance provider or third-party vendor to take specified actions with respect to the telematics data, including immediately deleting the data once a rating has been assigned to the consumer and obtaining an express written or electronic signature of a consumer on a notice meeting specified conditions. The bill would additionally prohibit an insurance provider or third-party vendor from keeping the telematics data for longer than 6 months and collecting audio or visual recordings of the occupants of the vehicle or persons outside the vehicle, among other specified prohibitions. The bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes of Proposition 103. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development in the California Housing and Homelessness Agency and makes the department responsible for administering various housing programs throughout the state, including, among others, the Multifamily Housing Program, the Housing for a Healthy California Program, and the California Emergency Solutions Grants Program. Existing law also establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, administered by the department, for the purpose of providing jurisdictions, as defined, with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address homelessness challenges, as specified. This bill would enact the California Housing Justice Act of 2026, which would require the department to create, by August 1, 2030, finance plans to solve homelessness and to solve the housing unaffordability crisis, and related statewide performance metrics. The bill would also require the department to seek public consult in developing those finance plans. This bill would require the agency, on or before October 1, 2030, to report to the Legislature on the finance plans and performance metrics described above, and to publish goals on its internet website and update any progress toward the goals. The bill would also make related findings and declarations. The bill would make its provisions operative upon appropriation by the Legislature.
Existing law requires the Governor to create the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, renamed the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to, among other things, identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California and to serve as a statewide facilitator, coordinator, and policy development resource on ending homelessness in California. Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program, administered by the Interagency Council on Homelessness, with respect to rounds 1 through 5, inclusive, of the program, and Department of Housing and Community Development (department) , with respect to round 6 of the program, for the purpose of providing jurisdictions, as defined, with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges, as specified. Existing law requires the department, upon appropriation, to distribute certain amounts, as specified, for purposes of round 6 of the program. Existing law requires an applicant to submit an application containing specified information in order to apply for a program allocation. Existing law requires an applicant to use at least 10% of specified funds allocated for services for homeless youth populations. This bill would require a continuum of care, upon appropriation and beginning with the 2026–27 fiscal year, to annually certify that they create or maintain a youth-specific process with their respective coordinated entry system, as specified, implement a youth-specific assessment tool, create a body or identify an existing body composed of youth with lived experience of homelessness that the continuum of care and other Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program grantees must consult with regularly, and identify an array of youth-specific housing inventory. The bill would require the continuum of care to document in their application how the housing assessment is youth-specific and their prioritization policy if the continuum of care states they already maintain a youth-specific coordinated entry system. The bill would also make findings and declarations related to youth-specific programs and the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law, subject to implementation of the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative, authorizes a Medi-Cal managed care plan to elect to cover community supports approved by the department as cost effective and medically appropriate in a comprehensive risk contract that are in lieu of applicable Medi-Cal state plan services. Under existing law, community supports that the department is authorized to approve include, among other things, housing transition navigation services, housing deposits, and housing tenancy sustaining services. Existing law, subject to an appropriation, requires the department to complete an independent analysis to determine whether network adequacy exists to obtain federal approval for a covered Medi-Cal benefit that provides housing support services. Existing law requires that the analysis take into consideration specified information, including the number of providers in relation to each region's or county's number of people experiencing homelessness. Existing law requires the department to report the outcomes of the analysis to the Legislature by January 1, 2024. This bill would delete the requirement for the department to complete that analysis, and instead would make housing support services for specified populations a covered Medi-Cal benefit when the Legislature has made an appropriation for purposes of the housing support services. The bill would require the department to seek federal approval for the housing support services benefit, as specified. Under the bill, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, a Medi-Cal beneficiary would be eligible for those services if they either experience homelessness or are at risk of homelessness. Under the bill, the services would include housing transition navigation services, housing deposits, and housing tenancy sustaining services, as defined. The bill would authorize the department to implement, interpret, or make specific this section, in whole or in part, by means of all-county letters, plan letters, provider bulletins, information notices, or similar instruction, and to enter into exclusive or nonexclusive contracts, or amend existing contracts for its purposes, as specified. The bill would authorize these provisions to be modified by the department to the extent necessary to meet the requirements of federal law or regulations, to obtain federal approval, or to enhance the probability that federal approval can be obtained, as specified.
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. The bill would require a recipient of the program to submit an annual report to the department. The bill would require the department to hire an independent evaluator to assess outcomes from the program and would require the department to submit that analysis to specified committees of the Legislature.
Existing law requires the Governor to create a California Interagency Council on Homelessness for specified purposes, including to create partnerships among various entities, like participants in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Continuum of Care Program, and to identify mainstream resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. Existing law requires the council to set and measure progress toward goals to prevent and end homelessness among domestic violence survivors and their children and among unaccompanied women in California, as specified. The bill would require initial goals to be established by January 1, 2025, and those goals to be evaluated at least every 2 years to determine whether updated goals are needed. This bill would instead require the council to evaluate the above-described goals at least every year.
(1) Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program, administered by the Interagency Council on Homelessness, with respect to rounds 1 to 5, inclusive, of the program, and the Department of Housing and Community Development, with respect to round 6 of the program, for the purpose of providing jurisdictions, as defined, with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges, as specified. This bill would establish round 7 of the program. The bill would authorize the Department of Finance to augment Item 2240-001-0001 of the Budget Act of 2025 by $8,000,000 from the General Fund to prepare to administer round 7 of the program, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Finance to provide notification of any augmentation within 10 days to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. The bill would, effective July 1, 2026, appropriate $500,000,000, as specified, provided that these funds be disbursed in accordance with specified requirements, including that funds from this appropriation be disbursed to a city, county, tribe, or continuum of care for round 7 of the program after a declaration by the director of the department, in consultation with the Director of Finance, that the department has substantially completed its initial disbursement of round 6 funds to the city, county, tribe, or continuum of care, and that the city, county, tribe, or continuum of care has obligated at least 50% of its total round 6 award. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation that specifies the parameters for round 7 of the program, as specified. (2) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA requires the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to prepare and develop proposed guidelines for the implementation of CEQA by public agencies and requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to certify and adopt those proposed guidelines. CEQA requires those adopted guidelines to include a list of classes of projects that have been determined not to have a significant effect on the environment and exempts those classes of projects from CEQA, commonly known as categorical exemptions. CEQA requires the guidelines to include criteria for public agencies to follow in determining whether or not a proposed project may have a significant effect on the environment, and requires the criteria to require a finding that a project may have a significant effect on the environment if one or more of specified conditions exist. This bill would exempt from CEQA, except as provided, a rezoning that implements the schedule of actions contained in an approved housing element, as specified. The bill would require the lead agency to be responsible for determining whether a project is exempt from CEQA. By requiring a lead agency to determine the applicability of the exemption and by increasing the duties of a lead agency, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would, for the approval of a proposed project that would otherwise be exempt from CEQA pursuant to a statutory exemption, or specified categorical exemptions adopted before January 1, 2026, but for a single condition, as specified, limit the application of CEQA to the effects upon the environment that are caused solely by that single condition. For these projects, the bill would only require the initial study or EIR to examine those effects that the lead agency determines, based upon substantial evidence in the record, are caused solely by the single condition that makes the proposed project ineligible for a statutory or categorical exemption. The bill would provide that these provisions do not apply to, among other things, a project that includes a distribution center, as defined, oil and gas infrastructure, as defined, or a project located on specified natural and protected lands, as defined. This bill would exempt from CEQA specified new agricultural employee housing projects and projects consisting exclusively of the repair or maintenance of an existing farmworker housing project. Existing law exempts from CEQA, until January 1, 2028, specified projects that, among other things, do not affect wetlands or sensitive habitats, undertaken by a public agency or private entity that primarily benefit a small disadvantaged community water system or a state small water system, as provided. Existing law defines various terms for these purposes. This bill would extend the applicability of that exemption until January 1, 2032, and would expand the definition of a project for purposes of the exemption to include a project to provide sewer service to a disadvantaged community served by one or more inadequate sewage treatment systems, as defined. This bill would, until January 1, 2030, exempt from CEQA specified projects for a community water system that receives funding from specified sources that does not otherwise include any construction activities if the project results in long-term net benefits to climate resiliency, biodiversity, and sensitive species recovery and includes procedures and ongoing management for the protection of the environment. This bill would exempt from CEQA wildfire risk reduction projects, including, among other things, projects for prescribed fire, defensible space clearance, and fuel breaks. Existing law exempts from CEQA specified projects that consist of linear broadband deployment in a right-of-way if the project meets specified conditions. This bill would expand that exemption to include a right-of-way of a local street or road. This bill would exempt from CEQA updates to the state's climate adaptation strategy, as provided. This bill would exempt from CEQA any activity or approval necessary for or incidental to planning, design, site acquisition, construction, operation, or maintenance of public park or nonmotorized recreational trail facilities funded by a specified source. This bill would exempt from CEQA, except when located on natural and protected lands, as defined, a project that consists exclusively of a day care center, as specified, a project that consists exclusively of a federally qualified health center or a rural health clinic, as specified, a project that consists exclusively of a nonprofit food bank or food pantry, as specified, and a project that consists exclusively of a facility for advanced manufacturing, as specified. This bill would exempt from CEQA a project that consists of the development, construction, or operation of a heavy maintenance facility or other maintenance facility for electrically powered high-speed rail, as defined, if specified conditions are met. The bill would exempt from CEQA a project that consists of the development, construction, or modification of a proposed passenger rail station, or design changes to a passenger rail station, for the purpose of serving electrically powered high-speed rail, if specified conditions are met. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of some of the above-described exemptions, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. This bill would require the office, on or before July 1, 2027, to map the eligible urban infill sites within every urbanized area or urban cluster in the state, as provided. The bill would require the office to develop a definition of and metrics for identifying an eligible urban infill site, as provided. The bill would require the office, at least 120 days before initial adoption of a map of eligible urban infill sites, to transmit a copy of the draft map or revision to the board of supervisors of each county and to the city council of each city in which any portion of the mapped area is located. The bill would authorize a city, county, or city and county to submit comments and proposed corrections and would require the office to consider those comments or proposed corrections and revise the draft map as appropriate. The bill would require the office to publish the draft map on its internet website for at least 45 days, conduct at least one public meeting to present the draft map, and receive public comments, as provided. The bill would authorize the office to amend any portion of the map, as provided. This bill would exempt the adoption or amendment of a map of eligible urban infill sites and the development of the definition of and metrics for identifying an eligible urban infill site from the Administrative Procedure Act. Existing law limits the application of CEQA to the approval of an infill project, as defined, to the effects on the environment that are specific to the project or to the project site and were not addressed as significant effects in the prior EIR or where substantial new information shows the effects will be more significant than described in the prior EIR, as provided. Existing law requires the office to prepare, develop, and transmit to the Natural Resources Agency for certification and adoption guidelines to implement this provision. This bill would, on or before January 1, 2026, and at least once every 2 years thereafter, require the guidelines to be updated to address any rigid requirements, lack of clarity in vague terminology, and the potential for excessive exposure to frivolous litigation over lead agency determinations, as specified. (4) CEQA requires an action or proceeding to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul certain acts or decisions of a public agency to be commenced according to specified processes, including that at the time that the action or proceeding is filed, the plaintiff or petitioner is required to file a request that the respondent public agency prepare the record of proceedings relating to the subject of the action or proceeding, and requires the record of proceedings to include specified items and materials, including, among other things, all internal agency communications, including staff notes and memoranda related to the project or to compliance with CEQA, but excluding communications that are of a logistical nature, as specified. This bill would, except for a project that includes a distribution center or oil and gas infrastructure, exclude staff notes and internal agency communications from the record of proceedings, as provided. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. (6) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provides for the involuntary detention and treatment of persons with specified mental health disorders. Under the act, when a person, as a result of a mental health disorder, is a danger to others, or to themselves, or gravely disabled, the person may, upon probable cause, be taken into custody and placed in a facility designated by the county and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services for up to 72 hours for evaluation and treatment. Existing law authorizes a county behavioral health director to develop procedures for the county's designation and training of professionals who will be designated to perform the above-described provisions. This bill would instead require a county behavioral health director to establish and implement procedures governing the county's designation and training of professionals who will be designated to perform the above-described provisions. By imposing additional duties on county behavioral health directors, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(1) Existing law, the Joint Exercise of Powers Act, authorizes 2 or more public agencies, by agreement, to form a joint powers authority to exercise any power common to the contracting parties, as specified. Existing law authorizes the agreement to set forth the manner by which the joint powers authority will be exercised. This bill, by January 1, 2028, would require the County of Sacramento, the City of Sacramento, the City of Elk Grove, the City of Rancho Cordova, the City of Citrus Heights, and the City of Folsom to participate in and work together to establish a joint powers authority, pursuant to the Joint Exercise of Powers Act, designed to make a meaningful difference for people experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness across the County of Sacramento. In this regard, the bill would require the above-specified local governments together to, among other things, bring the oversight and functions of the Sacramento City and County Continuum of Care under the jurisdiction of the joint powers authority, while maintaining the federally required composition and integrity of the continuum of care. The bill would require the joint powers authority to, among other things, provide direction to the continuum of care lead agency. The bill would specify that a local jurisdiction retains oversight and accountability over funding decisions, projects, and programs administered by the jurisdiction, including contracting for prevention, outreach, sheltering, and housing. The bill would declare that these provisions are severable. The bill would make findings and declarations relating to its provisions. By requiring the above-described local governments to establish the joint powers authority, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for County of Sacramento. The bill would make additional related findings and declarations. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
