california legislature—2025–26 regular session
ASSEMBLY BILL No. 820
Introduced by Assembly Member Pellerin
February 19, 2025
An act to add Section 50206 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to homelessness.
legislative counsel’s digest
AB 820, as introduced, Pellerin. Homelessness: transport.
Existing law establishes various programs to assist homeless individuals, including the Homeless Emergency Aid Program, the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, and the Regionally Coordinated Homelessness Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program.
This bill would prohibit an employee of a local government or law enforcement agency, when acting in their official capacity, from transporting and dropping off, or arranging for or funding the transport and drop off, of a homeless individual within a jurisdiction unless the employee first coordinates shelter or long-term housing for the homeless individual, as defined and specified. This bill would make a local government or law enforcement agency liable for a civil penalty of $10,000 for each violation of these provisions.
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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
99 Attachment 2
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. Section 50206 is added to the Health and Safety line 2 Code, to read:
line 3 50206. (a) For purposes of this section:
line 4 (1) “Emergency shelter” means housing with minimal supportive line 5 services for homeless individuals that is limited to occupancy of line 6 six months or less by a homeless individual.
line 7 (2) “Homeless individual” means any of the following:
line 8 (A) An individual who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate line 9 nighttime residence.
line 10 (B) An individual with a primary nighttime residence that is a line 11 public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a line 12 regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including, but line 13 not limited to, a car, park, abandoned building, bus station, train line 14 station, airport, or camping ground.
line 15 (C) An individual living in a supervised publicly or privately line 16 operated shelter designated to provide temporary living line 17 arrangements, including hotels or motels paid for by federal, state, line 18 or local government programs for low-income individuals or by line 19 charitable organizations, congregate shelters, or transitional line 20 housing.
line 21 (3) “Law enforcement agency” means a police department, line 22 sheriff’s department, district attorney, or county probation line 23 department.
line 24 (4) “Local government” means any city, county, city and county, line 25 special district, or other subdivision of the state. line 26 (5) “Permanent supportive housing” means housing for homeless line 27 individuals, with no limit on length of stay, and that is linked to line 28 onsite or offsite services that assist the supportive housing resident line 29 in retaining the housing, improving the person’s health status, and line 30 maximizing the person’s ability to live and, when possible, work line 31 in the community.
line 32 (6) “Shelter” means an emergency shelter, transitional housing, line 33 or permanent supportive housing.
line 34 (7) “Transitional housing” means housing with supportive line 35 services for up to 24 months that is exclusively designated and line 36 targeted for recently homeless individuals.
line 37 (b) An employee of a local government or law enforcement line 38 agency, when acting in their official capacity, shall not transport 99 AB 820 — 2 —
line 1 and drop off a homeless individual on public property, or private line 2 property that is accessible to the public, within a different line 3 jurisdiction for the purpose of relocating the homeless individual line 4 on a permanent or temporary basis, unless the employee first line 5 coordinates shelter or long-term housing for the homeless line 6 individual with the individual or entity that will provide that shelter line 7 or long-term housing.
line 8 (c) An employee of a local government or law enforcement line 9 agency, when acting in their official capacity, shall not arrange line 10 for or fund the transport and drop off a homeless individual on line 11 public property, or private property that is accessible to the public, line 12 within a different jurisdiction for the purpose of relocating the line 13 homeless individual on a permanent or temporary basis, unless the line 14 first coordinates shelter or long-term housing for the homeless line 15 individual with the individual or entity that will provide that shelter line 16 or long-term housing.
line 17 (d) A local government or law enforcement agency shall be line 18 liable for a civil penalty in the amount of $10,000 for each violation line 19 of this section.
line 20 (e) The Legislature finds and declares that this section addresses line 21 a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that line 22 term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California line 23 Constitution. Therefore, this section applies to all cities, including line 24 charter cities.
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99 — 3 — AB 820