Local government: homelessness.

Senator Pérez, with Assembly Members Kalra and Lee as principal coauthors and Haney as a coauthor, advances a measure that would bar local jurisdictions from adopting or enforcing ordinances that restrict the provision of support services or basic-survival assistance to people experiencing homelessness. The core change creates a new Government Code provision intended to protect outreach and nonhousing services by precluding local rules that prohibit or penalize such help.

The measure adds a prohibition on local ordinances or enforcement actions that would prevent a person or organization from delivering support services to someone who is homeless or from assisting with any act related to basic survival. Key definitions accompany the provision: an “act related to basic survival” includes items and activities supporting eating and drinking, sleeping, protection from the elements, and immediate personal health and hygiene, with a specific exclusion for distribution of plywood or other heavy construction materials; “homeless” relies on the federal definition in 24 C.F.R. 578.3 as read on January 10, 2019; “local jurisdiction” covers cities, counties, city and counties, or special districts; and “support services” encompass nonhousing services described in Health and Safety Code 50243(e)(4). Section 3 states that homelessness policy is a statewide concern, applying the new prohibition to all cities, including charter cities.

Implementation and enforcement details are not specified in the text: there is no explicit enforcement mechanism, penalty, or appropriation attached to the provision, and the measure does not alter other penalties or local ordinance structures beyond the prohibition on prohibiting support services. The bill relies on a statewide-concern rationale to apply the prohibition broadly to local governments, which could raise constitutional questions if challenged, though the findings frame the issue as a statewide priority.

The bill’s findings present a context of substantial homelessness and housing affordability challenges in California, citing large numbers of people experiencing homelessness, extensive annual use of services, and gaps between housing needs and available affordable units and shelter capacity. Authors describe criminalizing life-sustaining activities as creating barriers to solutions and emphasize that reducing such penalties could affect outreach and service delivery. Stakeholders include local governments, service providers, law enforcement, and people experiencing homelessness; the measure would alter the legal landscape for outreach activities while leaving other local regulatory tools unchanged.