California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that will establish courts for homeless people or those suffering from severe mental health and substance abuse disorders, calling it a “new path forward” for thousands of residents in his state lacking permanent shelter.
The law, the CARE bill, will allow first responders, clinicians, and families to petition a civil court to create a “CARE plan” for those experiencing mental illness such as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, as well as those living under homeless conditions.
“This problem is solvable. We know that. We don’t have to fall prey to the cynicism and all the negativity that it’s just too big and too hard,” Newsom said during a press conference. “It’s hard and it’s big, but we can meet this moment, and we can create many, many moments in the future to do justice to those who need us who are suffering and struggling.”
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Under the act, a court can order someone to comply with the program for up to two years and provides housing, medication, and behavioral healthcare, among other amenities.
However, the move has generated some controversy among advocacy groups that have taken issue with another measure of that act, which can allow those who don’t comply with treatment to be recommended for a conservatorship.
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch took aim at the consideration of the bill in June, writing a letter urging California lawmakers to reject the law for “a more holistic, rights-respecting approach to address the lack of resources for autonomy-affirming treatment options and affordable housing.”
“This process is entirely coercive, despite procedures that claim to be voluntary,” the group wrote in its June letter. “The CARE Court plan threatens to create a separate legal track for people perceived to have mental health conditions, without adequate process, negatively implicating basic rights.”
Other human rights groups have also cast speculation on the plan, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which described it as “one more non-solution.”
“There is absolutely no evidence that this plan will work. It’s just one more non-solution,” Eve Garrow, a policy analyst and advocate for ACLU of Southern California, told the Associated Press. “The research shows that adding a coercive element to either housing or mental health services does not increase compliance.”
As for the cost of the CARE bill, it directs $15.3 billion to combat homelessness, $11.6 billion for mental health services, and $1.4 billion for other health and human services workforce. Additionally, $63 million will be provided for counties to fund the establishment of CARE courts.
Seven counties, Glenn, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and San Francisco, will be the first phased into the program beginning Oct. 1, 2023, and all 58 of the state’s counties are required to be in compliance by Dec. 1, 2024, according to the legislation.
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Democratic Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg praised the homeless courts as a “dramatically different” approach to require government to help “people who are living in inhumane and unhealthy conditions on our streets.”
“The most important compelled action in CARE Court is the government’s obligation to provide the care, not the individual’s obligation to accept it,” Steinberg wrote in an op-ed for CalMatters, a nonprofit investigative news site.
