Governor Approved Several Legislative Bills Concerning Homelessness During the 2025 California Legislative Session: What’s in the Legislation?

The last day the Governor was able to approve legislation for the 2025 California Legislative Session was October 13.

Approved legislative bills concerning homelessness include:

AB-348 Full-service partnerships

AB-543 Medi-Cal: field medicine

AB-678 Interagency Council on Homelessness

AB-790 Homelessness: single women with children

SB-27 Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Program

SB-158 Land use

SB-634 Local government: homelessness

SB-748 Encampment Resolution Funding program: safe parking sites: reporting

AB-348 Full-service partnerships states that

This bill would establish criteria for an individual with a serious mental illness to be presumptively eligible for a full-service partnership, including, among other things, the person is transitioning to the community after 6 months or more in the state prison or county jail. 

The bill would prohibit deeming an individual with a serious mental illness ineligible for enrollment in a full-service partnership solely because their primary diagnosis is a substance use disorder. The bill would make these provisions operative on January 1, 2027. 

The bill also states that each county “shall establish and administer a full-service partnership program” that includes various services that incorporate   

• Mental health services, supportive services, and substance use disorder treatment services
• Assertive Community Treatment and Forensic Assertive Community Treatment fidelity
• Assertive field-based initiation for substance use disorder treatment services, including the provision of medications for addiction treatment
• Outpatient behavioral health services, either clinic or field based, necessary for the ongoing evaluation and stabilization of an enrolled individual

The read the entire bill including the list of other services, click here.

AB-543 Medi-Cal: field medicine states that

This bill would set forth provisions regarding field medicine, as defined, under the Medi-Cal program for persons experiencing homelessness, as defined. The bill would state the intent of the Legislature that the field medicine-related provisions coexist with, and not duplicate, other Medi-Cal provisions, including, but not limited to, those regarding community health worker services, enhanced care management, and community supports. 

The bill would authorize a Medi-Cal managed care plan to elect to offer Medi-Cal covered services through a field medicine provider, as defined. Under the bill, a managed care plan that elects to do so would be required to allow a Medi-Cal member who is experiencing homelessness to receive those services directly from an in-network, contracted field medicine provider, regardless of the member’s in-network assignment, as specified. The bill would also require the managed care plan to allow an in-network, contracted field medicine provider enrolled in Medi-Cal to directly refer a member who is experiencing homelessness for covered services within the appropriate network, as specified.

To read the entire bill click here.

AB-678 Interagency Council on Homelessness states that

Existing law requires the Governor to create an Interagency Council on Homelessness, consisting of specified members. 

This bill would require the council to coordinate with representatives from LGBTQ+ communities to identify recommended policies and best practices for providing inclusive and culturally competent services to LGBTQ+ people experiencing homelessness and develop recommendations to, among other things, expand data collection to understand the needs and experiences of LGBTQ+ people in state homelessness programs, as defined. The bill would require the council, on or before July 1, 2027, to submit a report to specific committees of the Legislature on these recommendations.

To read the entire bill click here.

AB-790 Homelessness: single women with children states that

Existing law requires the Interagency Council on Homelessness to set and measure progress on goals to prevent and end homelessness among domestic violence survivors and their children and among unaccompanied women in California. 

This bill would specifically include women with children in the populations described above. The bill would require the cities, counties, and continuums of care developing the analyses and goals described above to the Interagency Council on Homelessness. The bill would require the Interagency Council on Homelessness to post the analyses and goals on its website. By imposing new duties on cities and counties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

SECTION 1. states that Section 8264 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read as noted in 8264. (a):

Cities, counties, and continuums of care receiving state funding to address homelessness on or after January 1, 2024, shall include families, including women with children; people fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence; and unaccompanied women within the vulnerable populations for whom specific system supports are developed to maintain homeless services and housing delivery.

To read the entire bill click here.

SB-27 Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Program states that

This bill would allow the court to make a prima facie determination without conducting a hearing. The bill, in the first hearing to determine competence to stand trial, would authorize the court to consider the petitioner’s eligibility for both diversion and the CARE program. The bill would authorize the court to refer the petitioner to the CARE Act court if the defendant or counsel for the defendant agrees to the referral and the court has reason to believe the petitioner may be eligible for the CARE program. If the petitioner is not accepted into the CARE program or if the CARE Act court refers the petitioner back to criminal court, as specified, the bill would require the criminal court to conduct a hearing to determine whether the petitioner is eligible for a diversion program. The bill would authorize the county behavioral health agency and jail medical providers to share confidential medical records and other relevant information with the court for the purpose of determining likelihood of eligibility for behavioral health services and programs. 

The bill would authorize the court to call additional progress hearings after 60 days. The bill would also include persons suffering from bipolar I disorder with psychotic features, except for psychosis related to current intoxication, in the disorder class. 

The bill would additionally authorize a court to refer an individual from felony proceedings, as specified, to the CARE Act program. The bill would authorize a CARE Act court to consider a referral as a petition for participation in the CARE program if certain requirements are met. The bill would make additional technical and conforming changes. 

The bill would additionally include a nurse practitioner and physician assistant as a licensed behavioral health professional for purposes of individuals authorized to prepare an affidavit supporting a CARE process petition.

To read the entire bill click here.

SB-158 Land use (includes the following regarding Homeless Housing Assistance Program (HHAP) Round 7) and states that

(10) Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program for the purpose of providing jurisdictions with grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges, as specified. Existing law provides for the allocation of funding under the program among continuums of care, cities, counties, and tribes in 6 rounds, with rounds 1 to 5, inclusive, administered by the Interagency Council on Homelessness and round 6 administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, as provided. Existing law establishes a round 7 of the program and states the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation that specifies the parameters, as specified. Existing law, effective July 1, 2026, appropriates $500,000,000, as specified, provided that these funds be disbursed in accordance with specified requirements. Existing law authorizes the Department of Finance to augment Item 2240-001-001 of the Budget Act of 2025 by $8,000,000 to prepare to administer round 7 of the program. 

This bill would instead require the department, during fiscal year 2025–26, to prepare to administer round 7 of the program with the goal that initial round 7 disbursements will be available to grantees meeting the statutory provisions for disbursement beginning September 1, 2026, as specified.

To read more about HHAP Round 7 click here and see SEC. 5. (a) through (d).

Note: The custom and practice of the California Legislature is for budget-related bills to be in print in identical (or near identical) versions in both houses. Thus, SB 158 language is identical to AB 158.

SB-634 Local government: homelessness states that

This bill would prohibit a local jurisdiction from adopting a local ordinance, or enforcing an existing ordinance, that prohibits a person or organization from providing support services, as specified, to a person who is homeless or assisting a person who is homeless with any act related to basic survival. The bill would define various terms for these purposes.

and that

The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.

The Legislature included the following findings and declarations in SECTION 1. (a):

(7) Arresting, fining, and jailing people experiencing homelessness for the act of living outside and conducting life-sustaining activities does not contribute to ending their homelessness. 

(8) A growing body of research suggests that these responses to homelessness add additional barriers to ending someone’s homelessness, including causing people to lose touch with case managers, family, and friends seeking to assist them to find housing. 

(13) Criminalization also adds risks to the community-based service provider organizations and community members working with the population experiencing homelessness, hindering the responsiveness of both publicly funded and other community-based responses to end homelessness.

SEC 2 in SB-634 states that the following is to be added to the Government Code

53069.44.

 (a) Notwithstanding any other law, a local jurisdiction shall not adopt a local ordinance, or enforce an existing ordinance, that prohibits a person or organization from providing support services, including legal services or medical care, to a person who is homeless or assisting a person who is homeless with any act related to basic survival.

SEC 3 states that the Legislature

finds and declares that ensuring a compassionate, evidence-based approach to ending homelessness is a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, Section 2 of this act, adding Section 53069.44 to the Government Code, applies to all cities, including charter cities.

To read the entire bill click here.

SB-748 Encampment Resolution Funding program: safe parking sites: reporting states that

Existing law establishes the Encampment Resolution Funding program, administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, to, upon appropriation of the Legislature, increase collaboration between the department, local jurisdictions, and continuums of care for, among other things, providing encampment resolution grants to local jurisdictions and continuums of care to resolve critical encampment concerns and transition individuals into safe and stable housing. Existing law authorizes a continuum of care or a local jurisdiction to submit a specified application to the department for a program grant. Existing law, for additional rounds moneys, defined as moneys appropriated for the program in or after the 2021–22 fiscal year, requires that an applicant submit an application for a program grant that includes a description of how the applicant intends to use the funds to connect all individuals living in encampments to services and housing, among other things. 

This bill would, as part of this description, additionally require the applicant to include specified information about safe parking sites, when the application includes operating safe parking sites while locating interim or permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness living in vehicles or recreational vehicles.

To read the entire bill click here.

2026 Legislative Session

On Saturday, September 13, 2025, the California Legislature adjourned the first year of the 2025-2026 Legislative Session.

The Legislature will reconvene for the second half of the two-year session on January 5, 2026. Over the next few months, legislators will use their time to cultivate new legislative proposals for next year, meet with their constituents in their district, and participate in select committee hearings that deal with various topics, including homelessness. Members of the Legislature will then begin submitting language to legislative counsel and start introducing bills to engage next year’s legislative process.