April 5, 2022
The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor, State of California
First Floor, State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
[email protected]
RE: SUPPORT for the CARE Court Program
Dear Governor Newsom:
The City of Manhattan Beach writes to express our collective support for the proposed framework for the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court program.
CARE Court would require counties to provide comprehensive treatment to the most severely impaired and untreated Californians and hold patients accountable to following their treatment plans. Additionally, the framework will provide an opportunity for a range of people, including family members, first responders, intervention teams, and mental health service providers, among others, to refer individuals suffering from a list of specific ailments, many of them unhoused, and get them into community-based services.
The CARE Court as proposed appears similar to “Homeless Court” initiatives in other cities that incentivize treatment and care. For over a year, the City of Manhattan Beach City Council has explored numerous ways to utilize such homeless court services to compel people suffering from severe mental illness and/or addiction into treatment and, for those who are unhoused, into housing.
If passed by the California State Legislature, the CARE Court Program would benefit and assist the City of Manhattan Beach in our multi-faceted approach to addressing homelessness that currently is comprised of ensuring public safety, providing mental health counseling, conducting street outreach and providing community education.
The City has showcased its commitment in addressing homelessness by committing large amounts of time and resources. Since January 2020, the City of Manhattan Beach, along with the cities of Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach, have conducted regular street outreach that resulted in 223 homeless individuals being assisted, 63 placed into interim housing and 40 placed into long-term stable housing.
Recently, the Manhattan Beach City Council approved and implemented two contracts to provide a second, dedicated street outreach navigator and a housing placement service that reserves beds for individuals experiencing homelessness in Manhattan Beach. These contracts are in addition to grants done with the County of Los Angeles to ensure regional coordination with the cities of El Segundo, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach.
The Honorable Gavin Newsom
April 5, 2022
Page Two
The City of Manhattan Beach has clearly committed to addressing homelessness and looks forward to utilizing the CARE Courts program as an additional resource for our regional homeless population.
For these reasons, the City of Manhattan Beach City Council expresses our support for the CARE Court program and respectfully requests that the Governor work as expeditiously as possible to execute the program.
Sincerely,
Hildy Stern
Mayor, City of Manhattan Beach
cc: City of Manhattan Beach City Council
Ronda Paschal, Deputy Legislative Secretary, Office of Governor Newsom Mark Ghaly, California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary The Honorable State Senator Ben Allen
The Honorable State Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi
The Honorable Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors
Jeff Kiernan, League of California Cities Public Affairs Manager League of California Cities