AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 20, 2023
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 10, 2023
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 20, 2023
california legislature—2023–24 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 513
Introduced by Assembly Member Rodriguez Members Rodriguez and Robert Rivas
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Addis, Vince Fong, Pellerin, Soria, and Wood)
(Coauthors: Senators Caballero, Hurtado, and McGuire)
February 7, 2023
An act to add Article 4.5 (commencing with Section 8688) to Chapter
7.5 of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, relating to disaster assistance, and making an appropriation therefor. therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
legislative counsel’s digest
AB 513, as amended, Rodriguez. California Individual Assistance Act.
Existing la w, the California Disaster Assistance Act, requires the Director of Emergency Services to provide financial assistance to local agencies for their personnel costs, equipment costs, and the cost of supplies and materials used during disaster response activities, incurred as a result of a state of emergency proclaimed by the Governor, subject to specified criteria. The act continuously appropriates mone ys in the Disaster Assistance Fund and its subsidiary account, the Earthquak e Emergency Investigations Account, without re gard to fiscal year , for purposes of the act.
96 This bill w ould enact the California Indi vidual Assistance Act to establish a grant program to pro vide financial assistance to local agencies, community-based organizations, and individuals for specified costs related to a disaster , as prescribed. The bill w ould require the director to allocate from the fund, subject to specified conditions, funds to meet the cost of expenses for those purposes. By authorizing increased expenditure of mone ys from a continuously appropriated fund for a new purpose, the bill would make an appropriation.
This bill w ould authorize the director to adopt re gulations, as determined to be necessary, to govern the administration of the program.
The bill would require the director to enter into agreements with local agencies or community-based or ganizations to retroacti vely pro vide individual and family grants for specific disaster events.
This bill would declar e that it is to tak e effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2⁄3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the purpose line 2 of this act is to establish in California a program within the Office line 3 of Emergency Services to quickly provide assistance to California line 4 residents following the declaration of a local or state emer gency line 5 that may not warrant federal disaster assistance for individuals. line 6 SEC. 2. Article 4.5 (commencing with Section 8688) is added line 7 to Chapter 7.5 of Di vision 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, line 8 to read:
line 9
line 10 Article 4.5. California Individual Assistance Act line 11
line 12 8688. This article shall be kno wn and may be cited as the line 13 California Individual Assistance Act.
line 14 8688.1. It is the intent of the Le gislature to pro vide local line 15 agencies, community-based or ganizations, and indi viduals with line 16 the assistance they need to quickly recover following a disaster. line 17 8688.2. Unless the provision or context otherwise requires, the line 18 definitions in this section govern the construction of this article:
line 19 (a) “Community-based organization” means a public or private line 20 nonprofit organization of demonstrated effectiveness that represents 96 — 2 — AB 513
line 1 a community or significant segments of a community and provides line 2 support and services to individuals in the community. line 3 (b) “Disaster” means a fire, flood, storm, tidal wave or tsunami, line 4 earthquake, act of terrorism, epidemic, extreme heat or cold event, line 5 or other similar calamity that the Governor determines presents a line 6 threat to public safety.
line 7 (c) “Housing assistance” means assistance a vailable to line 8 homeowners and renters to repair disaster -related damages not line 9 covered by insurance or by other governmental financial assistance line 10 programs, including, but not limited to, costs that are reasonable line 11 and necessary to mak e the essential li ving areas of a primary line 12 residence safe, sanitary, and functional.
line 13 (d) “Individual” means a person residing in California. line 14 (e) “Individual and f amily grants” means housing assistance line 15 and other needs assistance provided pursuant to this article. line 16 (f) “Local emergency” means a condition of e xtreme peril to line 17 persons or property proclaimed as such by the governing body of line 18 the local agency affected, in accordance with Section 8630. line 19 (g) “Other needs assistance” means assistance to offset expenses line 20 and losses in income not covered by insurance or by other financial line 21 assistance resources, including, b ut not limited to, an y of the line 22 following:
line 23 (1) Income losses.
line 24 (2) Costs to clean, repair, or replace essential personal property line 25 items.
line 26 (3) Medical, dental, and funeral e xpenses resulting from the line 27 local emergency.
line 28 (4) Other potentially eligible expenses authorized by the director. line 29 (h) “Unusual circumstances” means una voidable delays that line 30 result from recurrence of a disaster , prolonged se vere weather line 31 within a one-year period, or other conditions be yond the control line 32 of the applicant.
line 33 8688.3. (a) From the Disaster Assistance Fund, and subject to line 34 the conditions specified in this article, the director shall allocate line 35 funds to meet the cost of e xpenses for the purposes described in line 36 subdivision (b).
line 37 (b) Moneys from the Disaster Assistance Fund may be used to line 38 provide financial assistance to local agencies, community-based line 39 organizations, and individuals for the following purposes:
96 AB 513 — 3 —
line 1 (1) To fund local agenc y and community-based or ganization line 2 personnel costs, equipment costs, translation services, and the cost line 3 of supplies and materials used during disaster response activities, line 4 incurred as a result of a state of emer gency proclaimed by the line 5 Governor, excluding the normal hourly wage costs of employees line 6 engaged in emergency work activities.
line 7 (2) To reimb urse local agencies or community-based line 8 organizations that provide individual and family grants. line 9 (3) To provide direct indi vidual and f amily grants, including line 10 housing assistance and other needs assistance, to individuals. line 11 (4) To fund indirect administrative costs and any other assistance line 12 deemed necessary by the director.
line 13 (5) To fund necessary and required site preparation costs for line 14 evacuation and local assistance centers as deemed necessary by line 15 the director.
line 16 8688.4. (a) When certified by the director , claims of line 17 community-based or ganizations and local agencies shall be line 18 presented to the Controller for payment out of funds made available line 19 for that purpose.
line 20 (b) The director shall adopt re gulations, as determined to be line 21 necessary, to govern the administration of the program authorized line 22 by this article in accordance with the Administrative Procedure line 23 Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of P art 1 of line 24 Division 3). These re gulations shall include specific eligibility line 25 requirements, a procedure for local agencies and community-based line 26 organizations to request the implementation of this article, and a line 27 method for evaluating these requests by the Office of Emergency line 28 Services.
line 29 8688.5. An allocation may be made to a local agenc y, line 30 community-based organization, or an individual, if, within 10 days line 31 after the actual occurrence of a disaster , the local agenc y has line 32 proclaimed a local emergency and that proclamation is acceptable line 33 to the director, or upon the order of the Governor when a state of line 34 emergency proclamation has been issued.
line 35 8688.6. A local agency, community-based organization, or an line 36 individual shall make application to the director for state financial line 37 assistance pursuant to this article within 60 days after the date of line 38 the proclamation of a local emer gency. The director may e xtend line 39 the time for this filing only under unusual circumstances. 96 — 4 — AB 513
line 1 8688.7. The director shall develop procedures for a local agency line 2 or community-based organization to receive an advance of funds line 3 to expedite the delivery of individual and family grants following line 4 a disaster.
line 5 8688.8. Notwithstanding an y other la w, including Section line 6 8688.6, the director shall enter into agreements with local agencies line 7 or community-based or ganizations to retroacti vely pro vide line 8 individual and family grants for the following events:
line 9 (a) The December 20, 2022, magnitude 6.4 earthquak e off the line 10 Northern California coastline near the City of Ferndale in line 11 Humboldt County.
line 12 (b) The severe winter storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides line 13 for areas designated in the Federal Emer gency Management line 14 Agency declaration DR-4683-CA for the period December 27, line 15 2022, to January 31, 2023, inclusive.
line 16 (c) The se vere winter storms, straight-line winds, flooding, line 17 landslides, and mudslides for areas designated in the Federal line 18 Emergency Management Agency declaration DR-4699-CA for line 19 the period February 21, 2023, to ____, inclusive. line 20 SEC. 3. This act is an ur gency statute necessary for the line 21 immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within line 22 the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall line 23 go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
line 24 In or der to mitigate the e xtent and se vere impact of r ecent line 25 disasters on individuals and families, the Le gislature finds and line 26 declares it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.
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