Older adults: emergency shelters.

Assembly Member Bains, joined by Senator Rubio, advances a disaster-planning reform designed to ensure continuity of services for older adults and people with disabilities by creating a formal access pathway to evacuation shelters through aging and disability networks. The measure would require a representative of the county welfare director, in coordination with the lead local agency responsible for sheltering duties under the State Emergency Plan, to initiate a memorandum of understanding with an Area Agency on Aging, an Independent Living Center, or an Aging and Disability Resource Connection program to allow access by those programs to an emergency shelter established for evacuation purposes during an active event.

Definitions establish the framework for implementation: an “emergency shelter” is a facility established to provide temporary refuge and essential services to individuals displaced by emergencies or disasters, and the “State Emergency Plan” is referenced per Government Code provisions that define sheltering roles and functions. The core mechanism obligates the MOU to permit access by AAA, ILC, or ADRC programs to such shelters, with the aim of ensuring that older adults and persons with disabilities receive continuous services and necessary support during evacuations. The bill does not specify the particular services, staffing models, data-sharing protocols, or privacy safeguards to be included in the MOUs.

Relationship to existing law is maintained by adding a new cross-cutting duty within the welfare and institutions framework and by tying it to the State Emergency Plan’s sheltering structure. It does not repeal or modify other statutes, but it creates a new local obligation to negotiate and maintain MOUs with aging and disability service networks for shelter access during active events. The fiscal provisions indicate no explicit statewide appropriation within the act, while noting that if the Commission on State Mandates determines a state-mandated local cost, reimbursement would follow the standard GovCode mandate framework. Local agencies would face potential administrative workload and coordination costs, and AAA/ILC/ADRC organizations could incur expenses related to presence and service delivery in shelters.

Broader context and policy implications center on formal interagency collaboration within disaster planning. By linking social services and aging/disability networks to shelter operations, the measure expands the set of partners involved in evacuation environments without detailing service models or operational standards. Key implementation considerations include privacy and data-sharing implications, liability and accountability, and the need for clarity on MOUs’ content and shelter integration. The proposal’s outcome depends on how MOUs are structured, how shelter operations adapt to additional service partners, and how costs, if any, are reimbursed through the state-local mandate framework.