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SB 275, Hospital Dumping, passes out of the legislature

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Well, it’s the season of legislative accomplishments. I can’t possibly point out all of them as the sheer volume would be rather oppressive for a blog format. But I do want to point out a couple of bills here and there.  Specifically, SB 275 and SB 2, both from Senator Gil Cedillo.

SB 275 creates civil penalties for dumping the homeless against their will.  Initially, as drafted by Cedillo and LA City Atty Rocky Delgadillo, the bill was supposed to have a criminal charge associated. However, the criminal charges were stripped under pressure from the hospital lobby. However, the bill will prohibit a hospital from transporting a patient to a location other than their residence without written consent and make such offenses subject to civil penalties of $150,000 on second offense and $300,000 on a third offense. These penalties are large enough to attract attorneys to file on behalf of the dumping victims. I do not yet know if an attorney’s fees provision is included, but that would certainly also be helpful.

SB 2, the Fair Share Zoning bill would require cities and counties to include an inventory of sites suitable for emergency shelters, supportive housing, transitional housing and residential rental developments in the housing element of their general plan. SB 2 includes provisions allowing these facilities as permitted use rather than conditional use or other discretionary permits.

Los Angeles Area

“One-Bill” Gil Shows He Can Legislate with the best of ’em

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Yesterday I praised Sen. Gil Cedillo for pushing on the hospital dumping bill (SB 275). That is a vitally important bill. But there’s something else that Sen. Cedillo has been up to for a long time, that is attempting to ensure the safety of California’s streets be ensuring that all drivers of the state have passed the proper driving tests and have a valid license.  Sen. Cedillo was even successful for a while…until Arnold came in and repealed SB 60.  For his efforts, Sen. Cedillo has been labelled “One-Bill Gil”. It’s true you can google it. I did and I got this racist website and this racist website, oh and this racist website. Wonderful!

Anyway, Sen Cedillo has been working for quite a while on this bill, and much attention has been focused on it.  So, nobody knows much about his skill as a legislator. First, to get SB 60, the law that DLC Davis signed in 2002, was momentous.  However, he has been successful on other fronts as well.  Why, just today, he got a new zoning bill passed off the Senate floor.  SB 2 bill calls for cities and counties to address housing and services for the homeless in their general planning process.  Wow, what a novel idea. This is just one more cool idea from a Senator that’s chalk full of good ideas.

Wow, that was ebullient. Maybe I should try to cut him down for something so that people don’t think I’m going soft.  All right, here’s something: Gil Cedillo is not from San Francisco. And that, I must imagine, must be killing him every day. Check the flip for the SB 2 Press release.

SEN. GILBERT CEDILLO’S FAIR SHARE ZONING BILL (SB 2) PASSES SENATE FLOOR VOTE

Fair Share Zoning (SB 2) was heard on the Senate floor Thursday passing by a vote of 27 to 11. The bill will be referred to an Assembly policy committee sometime in June or July.

Cedillo has been working with agencies, municipalities and stakeholders from around the state building consensus on the bill which calls for cities and counties to address housing and services for the homeless in their general planning process. Supporters of SB 2 include the California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies, the California Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, the San Diego Housing Federation, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The Los Angeles City Council is moving a resolution in support of SB 2 through the council and the San Francisco City Council has passed a resolution which Mayor Gavin Newsom will sign. Also, the California Democratic Party adopted a resolution calling for “housing as a basic human right” as part of their policy agenda for the 2008 election cycle.

The Schwarzenegger administration has released its own ten-year plan to address homelessness in the state which shares many common principles, key among them strengthening the law to require that local jurisdictions incorporate chronically homeless-related needs and strategies. SB 2 is an ideal legislative vehicle for accomplishing these priorities and Cedillo’s office has been in discussions with the Department of Housing and Community Development on administration’s plan. The administration’s homelessness plan is being circulating for comment with an update expected to be released sometime this month.

Additionally, graduate students at the USC School of Social Work are conducting research into specific demographics of the homeless population statewide including veterans, emancipated youth, and recent parolees. Their research is intended to increase awareness of the pre- and potential homeless populations.

“Homelessness is an issue that impacts the entire community, and every community is affected in some way. While local officials may not feel homelessness is an issue in their communities, the interrelated issues that cause homelessness – mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, adequate housing and health care – are everywhere,” said Cedillo.