AB722 - Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program.

Amended IN Assembly April 21, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 722 Introduced by Assembly Member Ávila Farías February 14, 2025 An act to add Chapter 2.6 (commencing with Section 50480) to Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to housing. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 722, as amended, Ávila Farías. Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program. 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. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) People on parole are seven times more likely to recidivate when homeless than when housed. (b) Evidence shows that “supportive housing,” or housing that is affordable to people on parole living in extreme poverty that does not limit length of stay and offers tenants services promoting housing stability, or access to job training that provides pathways to livable wage employment, reduces recidivism. In fact, data show evidence-based housing decreases recidivism rates by 60 percent, when compared to control groups, and reduces rearrests by 40 percent. (c) About one-half of people experiencing homelessness report a history of incarceration. (d) Formerly incarcerated people are 27 times more likely to be unstably housed or homeless than the general public. In fact, California data have estimated that one-third to one-half of all people on parole in the City and County of San Francisco and the City of Los Angeles are experiencing homelessness at any point in time. (e) African Americans are almost seven times more likely to be homeless than the general population in California, driven by systemic racism that includes disproportionate incarceration and discharges from prisons and jails into homelessness. (f) Projected population decline in California’s state prisons in the next few years is expected to reduce future cost growth for Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), both through a reduction in inmates and staff, as well as the closure of two state facilities. In the short term, CDCR will avoid spending several hundreds of millions of dollars due to a decrease in prison population, which decreases per person costs for clothing, food, maintenance, and other costs of operating the prison. The closure of state correctional facilities would yield savings in utilities, staffing, and equipment, as well as a reduction in the inmate and ward population, freeing valuable resources that should be repurposed for sustainable criminal justice solutions. (g) It is the intent of the Legislature to repurpose funding from the closure of state prisons to provide innovative or evidence-based solutions to house people experiencing homelessness with histories of incarceration. (h) The Department of Housing and Community Development, with its expertise in overseeing grant programs for housing and services, counties and continuums of care, and community-based organizations, which often have experience providing housing and services to people exiting incarceration, is an appropriate entity to administer programs offering innovative or evidence-based housing and services interventions to people on parole experiencing homelessness. SEC. 2. Chapter 2.6 (commencing with Section 50480) is added to Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, to read: CHAPTER 2.6. Reentry Housing And Workforce Development Program 50480. For purposes of this article, the following definitions apply: (a) “Applicant” means a county, a community-based organization, or a continuum of care that has applied to receive funds under the program. (b) “Chronically homeless” has the same meaning as in Parts 91 and 578 of Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as those parts read on January 1, 2021, except that people who were chronically homeless before entering an institution would continue to be defined as chronically homeless upon discharge, regardless of length of institutional stay. (c) “County” shall include a city that is also a county or cities working with counties to apply for grant funds. (d) “Community-based organization” means a mission-driven nonprofit organization that qualifies for tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. (e) “Continuum of care” means a group organized to provide services under this chapter that is composed of representatives of organizations, including nonprofit homeless providers, victim service providers, faith-based organizations, governments, businesses, advocates, public housing agencies, school districts, social service providers, mental health agencies, hospitals, universities, affordable housing developers, law enforcement, organizations that serve homeless and formerly homeless veterans, and homeless and formerly homeless persons to the extent these groups are represented within the geographic area and are available to participate. (f) “Coordinated entry system” means a centralized or coordinated process developed pursuant to Section 576.400 or 578.7, as applicable, of Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as that section read on January 1, 2021, designed to coordinate program participant access, assessment, prioritization, and referrals. For purposes of this chapter, a centralized or coordinated assessment system shall cover the geographic area, be easily accessed by individuals and families seeking housing or services, be well advertised, and include a comprehensive and standardized assessment tool. However, the assessment tool may vary to assess the specific needs of an identified population. The centralized or coordinated assessment system shall also specify how it will address the needs of individuals or families who are fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. (g) “Department” means the Department of Housing and Community Development, unless otherwise identified. (h) “Fair market rent” means the rent, including the cost of utilities, as established by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, pursuant to Part 888 and Part 982 of Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as those parts read on January 1, 2021, for units by number of bedrooms, that must be paid in the market area to rent privately owned, existing, decent, safe, and sanitary rental housing of nonluxury nature with suitable amenities. (i) “Homeless” has the same meaning as in Section 91.5 of Subpart A of Part 91 of Subtitle A of Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations, except that people exiting prison who were homeless when incarcerated and who have no identified residence upon exit, will also be considered “homeless” or “likely to become homeless upon release.” (j) “Homeless service provider” means an organization that qualifies as an exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and that contracts as a community-based organization, or with a participating county, or a continuum of care, for the purpose of providing services to people experiencing homelessness. (k) “Housing First” has the same meaning as in Section 8255 of the Welfare and Institutions Code. (l) “Permanent housing” means a structure or set of structures with subsidized or unsubsidized rental housing units subject to applicable landlord-tenant law, with no limit on length of stay and no requirement to participate in supportive services as a condition of access to or continued occupancy in the housing. (m) “Housing navigation” means services that assist program participants with locating permanent housing with private market landlords or property managers who are willing to accept rental assistance or operating subsidies for the program participants to assist those program participants in obtaining local, state, or federal assistance or subsidies; completing housing applications for permanent housing or housing subsidies and, when applicable, move-in assistance; and obtaining documentation needed to access permanent housing and rental assistance or subsidies. (n) “Innovative reentry housing” means approaches to reentry based on the latest aggregated data to provide housing and workforce development services designed to reduce recidivism and enhance public safety, and provide a pathway for people exiting incarceration to access a livable wage and long-term housing stability. Core components of Housing First, as defined in Section 8255 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, shall apply to innovative models, with a goal of allowing people to access and maintain permanent housing and employment stability. (o) “Interim interventions” means low-barrier housing that does not qualify as permanent housing, as defined under subdivision (l), including, but not limited to, emergency shelters, motel vouchers, recovery-oriented interim interventions, Project Roomkey or Project Homekey, or reentry program sites used as interim housing, recuperative or respite care, or navigation centers as defined under other federal, state, or local programs. All programs providing interim housing funding pursuant to this chapter shall have partnerships or other linkages to homeless services to connect individuals or families to income, public benefits, health services, and permanent housing. “Low barrier” means the following: (1) The interim intervention is a Housing First, service-enriched intervention focused on moving people into permanent housing that provides temporary living facilities while case managers connect individuals experiencing homelessness to permanent housing, income, public benefits, and health services. Notwithstanding any other subdivision in this section, for purposes of interim interventions, “Housing First” shall not require a lease. (2) The interim intervention utilizes best practices to reduce barriers to entry, including, but not limited to, allowing partners and older minors, unless the interim intervention is a population-specific site; allowing pets, with the exception of population specific sites; allowing storage of possessions; allowing residents to engage in treatment for substance use disorders, including obtaining medications for substance use disorder treatment; offering services that connect participants to workforce development services; providing services that help connect persons to permanent housing; providing privacy; and providing linkage to a coordinated entry system. (3) The interim intervention offers a harm reduction approach, except where tenants request an abstinence-based model, or are enrolled in a population-specific reentry program. (4) The interim intervention has a system for entering information regarding client stays, demographics, income, and exit destination though a local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) or similar system. (p) “Likely to become homeless upon release” means the potential participant has a history of experiencing “homelessness” as that term is used in Section 11302(a) of Title 42 of the United States Code and who meets either of the following: (1) The person has not identified a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence for release. (2) The person has an identified residence that includes a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations, or a public or private place not designed for, or is not ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings. (q) “Operating subsidy” means a subsidy provided to housing projects offering affordable or supportive housing to participants, and that project received local, state, or federal subsidies, and that assist projects in paying for the costs of operating, staffing, and maintaining the project. (r) “Program” means the Reentry Housing and Workforce Program. (s) “Reasonable rent” means up to two times the fair market rent that is also consistent with market rent in the community in which the rental unit is located. (t) “Rental assistance” means a rental subsidy provided to a housing provider, including a developer leasing affordable or supportive housing, to assist a tenant to pay the difference between 30 percent of the tenant’s income and either fair market rent or reasonable rent as determined by the grant recipient and approved by the department. (u) “Subrecipient” means a unit of local government or a private nonprofit organization that the recipient determines is qualified to undertake the eligible activities for which the recipient seeks funds under the program, and that enters into a contract with the recipient to undertake those eligible activities in accordance with the requirements of the program. (v) “Supportive housing” means permanent housing with no limit on the length of stay that is linked to onsite or offsite services that assist the supportive housing residents in retaining the housing, improving their health status, and maximizing their ability to live and, when possible, work in the community. “Permanent supportive housing” includes associated fa [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]