HR 104
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Date of Hearing: June 10, 2024
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES
Blanca Pacheco, Chair
HR 104 (Reyes) – As Introduced June 6, 2024
SUBJECT: Veterans.
SUMMARY: Declares the month of June as California Veterans Awareness Month.
Specifically, this resolution makes the following legislative findings:
1) Homelessness, suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, and food insecurity disproportionately
affect veterans in California and nationwide. California and veteran-serving organizations
are working to implement the Veterans Support to Self-Reliance Pilot Program, which will
provide much-needed support to vulnerable older veterans.
2) In California, our collective efforts are reducing the number of veterans living on our streets,
with a 9 percent decrease between 2020 and 2022, from 11,401 to 10,395.
3) While this feat is celebrated, there are still thousands of veterans in California who will not
have a place to sleep tonight and perhaps many more who are on the verge of
homelessness—7.5 percent of veterans in California live below the poverty line.
4) In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, County Veterans Service Officers assisted veterans with a
total of approximately 261,000 claims generating awards of approximately $458 million,
including $1.5 million through the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention
Grant Program, to coordinate suicide prevention services for veterans and their families.
5) The Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program has helped produce over 100
affordable housing developments with 6,389 affordable units since 2014.
6) The Department of Veterans Affairs, the Mental Health Services Oversight and
Accountability Commission, and other veteran service providers are also engaged in the
process and helping to ensure veterans are a priority in the reform of the behavioral health
system.
7) California must continue to educate providers and other valued constituencies about veteran
cultural competency and expand their local and statewide networks to join with the former
MHSA Coalition, state and local veteran organizations, and local public officials to ensure
veteran engagement in local Behavioral Health Services Act policy and funding decisions.
FISCAL EFFECT: This resolution is keyed non-fiscal by Legislative Counsel.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None on file
 HR 104
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Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by: Michael Erke / RLS. / (916) 319-2800