The Budget Act of 2018 appropriated $50,000,000 to the Board of State and Community Corrections for a grant program, known as the Adult Reentry Grant Program, for the purpose of awarding competitive grants to community based organizations to support offenders formerly incarcerated in state prison. The Budget Act of 2018 allocated a specified amount of those funds for, among other things, rental assistance, rehabilitation of existing property or buildings, and to support the warm hand-off and reentry of offenders transitioning from prison to communities. Subsequent budget acts have continued to fund the program.
This bill, instead, commencing July 1, 2026, and upon appropriation of funds, would transfer the administration of the grant program to the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would require the department, on or before December 1, 2026, to modify the grant program to provide 5-year renewable grants to up to 6 regional administrators responsible for funding permanent affordable housing and services for people who were formerly incarcerated in state prison and are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness. The bill would require the department to issue proposed guidelines or a draft notice, as specified, establishing the grant program and require the department to score applicants applying for grant funds competitively. The bill would require the department to work collaboratively with the State Department of Health Care Services and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish a process for referrals of people eligible to participate in the program, as specified.
This bill would require the department to distribute program funds by executing contracts with awarded regional administrators and would impose certain requirements on those regional administrators. The bill would prescribe eligibility requirements for a person scheduled for release from, or who has been be formerly incarcerated in, state prison, to participate in the program. The bill would require a certain percentage of the program funds to be used for specified purposes, including rental and operating subsidies, incentives to landlords, and voluntary multidisciplinary services, as specified. The bill would require the department, within one year of program implementation, to design an evaluation and hire an independent evaluator to assess outcomes from the program, and would require the evaluation to be submitted to specified committees of the Legislature.
This bill would require the board to continue to oversee and administer existing program grants that have not yet expired, using resources allocated to the board, including funds allocated by Budget Act of 2025.
This bill would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to establish a process to engage an individual scheduled for discharge, within at least 210 days of the scheduled release date, for the purpose of assessing the individual's risk of homelessness upon discharge, as specified.