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."