Senate Bill 1446 Advances, as Legislature Urges Governor to Require Guaranteed Housing and Treatment for Care Courts

Sacramento, CA - On the final day of session, immediately following the passage of the
Governor’s Care Courts bill, the Legislature sent S enate B ill 1446 to the Governor’s desk,
offering a solution to the objections of disability rights and homelessness advocates that the Care
Courts proposal does not guarantee treatment or housing and will be offered to individuals with
severe behavioral health disorders.

Care Courts critics like Disability Rights California ( have urged state and local leaders to
guarantee treatment and housing for those with severe mental illness before subjecting them to
involuntary care. In a written statement to the Assembly Health and Judiciary Committee last
December DRC recommended that individuals utilizing the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act “have
the right to receive appropriate, individualized treatment that is tailored to meet the needs of their
immediate situation.”

SB 1446 would require the Governor’s chief architect of Care Courts Health and Human
Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, to consider including housing and treatment guarantees as
they attempt to wrangle billions in mental health services and housing funding into a more
coordinated strategy that prioritizes these high risk populations for what advocates call, “housing
that heals.”

Teresa Pasquini, author of Housing that Heals argues that “California will not solve the homeless
crisis… until we break common ground and build a complete continuum of continuous care.
California must put a moral stake in the ground for those who are dying on doorsteps an d in
solitary jail cells.”

Principal Coauthor and the Legislature’s lead voice for mental health reform, Senator Susan
Talamantes Eggman (D Stockton) stated, “It’s important that we hold true to our California
values, and Senator Stern has taken the lead on guiding California toward a right to behavioral
health treatment and housing that heals. This vision will be critical to meeting the needs of every
Californian lacking the services they need and deserve."