BILL ANALYSIS SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE ANALYSIS Senator Elaine K. Alquist, Chair BILL NO: SB 273 S AUTHOR: Corbett B AMENDED: March 31, 2009 HEARING DATE: April 29, 2009 2 CONSULTANT: 7 Tadeo/ 3 SUBJECT Domestic violence SUMMARY Changes the definition of domestic violence in the comprehensive shelter-based service program administered by the Maternal and Child Branch in the Department of Public Health (DPH) to extend services to males and makes the program subject to specified anti-discrimination provisions. Changes the definition of domestic violence in the statewide domestic violence program administered by the Office of Emergency Services (OES) to extend services to males. CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW Existing law: Requires the Maternal and Child Health Branch of the State Department of DPH to administer a comprehensive shelter-based services grant program to battered women's shelters for emergency shelter, transitional housing programs, legal and other types of advocacy and representation, and other support services for battered women and their children. Requires the OES to administer a comprehensive statewide domestic violence program to provide local assistance to Continued--- STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 2 existing service providers, to maintain and expand services based on a demonstrated need, and to establish a targeted or directed program for the development and establishment of domestic violence services in currently unserved and underserved areas. Defines domestic violence as the infliction or threat of physical harm against past or present adult or adolescent female intimate partners, which includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse against the woman, and is a part of a pattern of assaultive, coercive, and controlling behaviors directed at achieving compliance from, or control over, that woman. Defines shelter-based services as an established system of services where battered women and their children may be provided safe or confidential emergency housing on a 24-hour basis, including, but not limited to, hotel or motel arrangements, haven, and safe houses. Defines emergency shelter as a confidential or safe location that provides emergency housing on a 24-hour basis for battered women and their children. This bill: For the purposes of the comprehensive shelter-based services grant program and the statewide domestic violence program, defines domestic violence as the infliction or threat of physical harm against past or present adult or adolescent intimate partners, which includes physical, sexual, and psychological abuse against the partner, and is a part of a pattern of assaultive, coercive, and controlling behaviors directed at achieving compliance from, or control over, that partner. Defines shelter-based as an established system of services where victims of domestic violence and their children may be provided safe or confidential emergency housing on a 24-hour basis, including, but not limited to, hotel or motel arrangements, haven, and safe houses. Defines emergency shelter as a confidential or safe location that provides emergency housing on a 24-hour basis for victims of domestic violence and their children. STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 3 Requires the DPH's comprehensive shelter-based services grant program for battered women's shelters to comport with specified anti-discrimination requirements. These requirements include, but are not limited to the requirement that no person in the State of California shall, on the basis of race, national origin, ethnic group identification, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, color, or disability be unlawfully denied full and equal access to the benefits of, or be unlawfully subjected to, discrimination under any program or activity that is conducted, operated, or administered by the state or by any state agency, is funded directly by the state, or receives any financial assistance from the state. FISCAL IMPACT Unknown. BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION According to the author, SB 273 is needed in response to the 2008 Third District Court of Appeal decision in Woods v. Horton (previously known as Woods v. Shewry) which requires existing state-funded battered women's shelters to provide services to all victims of domestic violence regardless of gender. The author contends that the changes proposed in SB 273 ensure that existing shelters have continued state funding, and that all victims of domestic violence receive the critical services they need. Woods v. Horton According to court documents, four men and the daughter of one of them, plaintiffs in Woods v. Horton, challenged that statutes relating to domestic violence shelter services violate equal protection requirements because they are available only to battered women and their children. The plaintiffs alleged that they were denied services for victims of domestic violence at state-funded domestic violence organizations because the organizations only serve women. The court held that under the state's equal protection STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 4 clause, and anti-discrimination statutes, women and men are "similarly situated" with regard to domestic violence, and therefore the language in the code should be revised to make state-funding for domestic violence shelter services gender-neutral. Both the plaintiffs and the Attorney General agreed that the clear legislative intent was to provide funding for programs offering services to all victims of domestic violence. This intent is expressed in the opening language of subdivision (a) of Penal Code Section 13823.15: "The Legislature finds the problem of domestic violence to be of serious and increasing magnitude. The Legislature also finds that, existing domestic violence services are underfunded and that some areas of the state are unserved or underserved." Nothing in either statute evinces a legislative intent to restrict funding to programs that assist only women. Indeed, all of the programs funded under Penal Code Section 13823.15 and the vast majority (85 percent) of the programs funded under Health and Safety Code Section 124250 provide services on a gender-neutral basis. The court found the only evidence that some state-funded programs discriminate against men to be the declaration of Dr. Susan Steinberg, then the public health medical administrator for the Department of Health Services, who stated that 85 percent of agencies funded by the department provide services to men, from which the court presumed the other 15 percent do not. The court ordered Sections 124250 of the Health and Safety Code and 13823.15 of the Penal Code to be reformed in order to extend the statutory benefits of domestic violence services to men. The court noted that, reforming the statutes that provide funding for domestic violence programs to be gender-neutral, does not require that such programs offer identical services to men and women. The court also noted that, given the noted disparity in the number of women needing services and the greater severity of their injuries, it may be appropriate to provide more and different services to battered women and their children. For example, a program might offer shelter for women, but only hotel vouchers for a smaller number of men. Impact of domestic violence STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 5 As reported in a 2003 California Research Bureau (CRB) report entitled, "California County Approaches to Domestic Violence," intimate partner violence in the United States is a serious social problem. Based on survey data from the National Institute of Justice, 5.3 million intimate partner violence victimizations occur among U.S. women ages 18 and older each year. This violence results in nearly two million injuries, more than 550,000 of which require medical attention. In addition, intimate partner violence victims lose a total of nearly 8 million days of paid work, the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs, and nearly 5.6 million days of household productivity as a result of the violence. The report asserts that although domestic violence has existed throughout history, efforts to control and discourage it are relatively recent. In the 1980s, domestic violence and abuse of one's marriage partner were made criminal acts. These laws were later expanded to include violence against a cohabitant, dating partner, or former partner. According to a 2002 CRB report entitled, "The Prevalence of Domestic Violence in California," victims of domestic violence come from all socioeconomic classes and ethnic groups, although the poor probably suffer most. A disproportionate number of persons in domestic violence shelters are persons who have children, limited education, no insurance, and are unemployed. Often they depend on their spouses for the day-to-day necessities and do not have the resources to leave or support themselves and their children. Children suffer deep and lasting emotional problems and may continue the violent cycle by abusing their partners. Family violence contributes to many social, educational, and health problems in the United States. The report notes that there are 98 shelters in California that receive state and federal funding, out of an estimated 112 shelters in California. About 14 other shelters do not receive state and federal funds. Domestic violence shelters are often part of larger organizations that provide an array of social services to families, either in-house or through referrals to other agencies. All shelters operate 24-hour hotlines, which provide information about safe shelter, emotional support, counseling, and referral to a STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 6 range of services. Shelters assist clients in obtaining restraining orders and financial assistance. They develop client safety plans; make referrals for medical treatment, drug treatment, and mental health services. They also offer parenting and life skills classes, assist with legal advocacy and/or court accompaniment, help with immigration issues, retrieve belongings, provide child care, and assist clients to obtain transportation vouchers, temporary housing, and employment and/or training. Not all shelters offer all of these services. Some shelters contract with other organizations that provide these services. Some shelters have the ability to follow up on the referrals they provide to clients, but that is not required, and most do not. The report additionally notes that victims' greatest needs, in terms of services, are for housing, financial assistance, and counseling, both when they arrive and when they leave the shelter. The report also states that although Section 124250 of the Health and Safety Code excludes men from its definition of victims, law enforcement professionals, health care providers, domestic violence shelters, and others in the field recognize that men can also be victims of domestic violence, in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. Domestic violence legislation in California According to a 2003 California Senate Office of Research (SOR) report entitled, "California's Response to Domestic Violence," a movement to establish safe houses for domestic violence victims and their children in the 1960s and 1970s led to efforts for systemic changes. Early measures provided revenues for shelters, required law enforcement agencies to develop written policies to guide their responses to domestic violence, and made spousal rape a crime. By the 1990s, legislation addressing domestic violence had grown and the SOR report lists California laws that presently exist in response to domestic violence issues that include funding, housing assistance, restitution and fines, confidentiality, death review teams, family violence, funding for victims' services, health care, insurance discrimination, prevention, welfare reform, workplace, batterer treatment programs, battered woman syndrome, domestic violence courts, criminal enforcement, firearms, release from jail, restraining orders, spousal rape, stalking, training for law enforcement and court STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 7 personnel, family law/child custody, spousal support, court interpreters, juvenile court and civil remedies. According to the SOR report, predictably, a myriad of other problems are associated with battering and batterers including depression, suicidal tendencies, and alcohol and drug abuse. Children who grow up in violent families are likely to have problems in school, to abuse drugs and alcohol and to repeat the pattern of abuse as adults. The report also adds that approximately 100 community-based organizations in California offer many of the same services as shelters. They provide some combination of social support and intervention for battered and abused women. These organizations include family support networks, victims' assistance programs, community-based agencies, faith-based organizations, hospitals and emergency centers, health care clinics, and individual doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, dentists, and many others. Family and friends are often the first line of help and assistance. Prior legislation AB 100 (Cohn), Chapter 462, Statutes of 2005, extends the January 1, 2006 sunset for a Maternal and Child Health Branch advisory council regarding comprehensive shelter-based programs to January 1, 2010. SB 185 (Bowen), Chapter 439, Statutes of 2001, requires the Maternal and Child Health Branch to strengthen oversight and technical assistance to the shelters receiving state grants. AB 167 (B. Freidman), Chapter 140, Statutes of 1994, enacts the Battered Women Protection Act of 1994 to establish a comprehensive domestic violence program. Requires the Maternal and Child Health Branch to administer, in consultation with an advisory council, a comprehensive shelter-based services grant program for battered women's shelters. Arguments in support Supporters of SB 273 state that this bill would require existing state-funded battered women's shelters to provide services to all victims of domestic violence, regardless of gender. Supporters also state that while at least 85 percent of battered women's shelter programs provide services to both men and women, this bill will ensure that STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 8 state funding will be used to provide critical services to all victims, regardless of gender. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) states that while women are victims of domestic violence at a higher rate than men, domestic violence is committed upon men even though it is not widely discussed in society. AFSCME contends that an important consequence of SB 273 is that all shelters funded by the department will provide services to domestic violence victims, regardless of gender. The National Coalition for Men, San Diego Chapter, writes that while it is in support of SB 273, the bill's findings fail to grasp the true nature of the serious problems caused by wrongful gender biased beliefs and resulting discrimination. Support if amended The National Family Violence Legislative Resource Center (NFVLRC) writes that, while they are in agreement with the general features of SB 273, they recommend two amendments in order to support the bill. NFVLRC proposes the bill be amended so that future research on domestic violence is based on multiple sources of data, including large representative sample surveys, public health studies, dating surveys, and clinical studies involving victims and perpetrators of both genders. NFVLRC also proposes the bill be amended to include one representative for male victims of domestic violence, and at least one representative from a multi-ethnic and cross-cultural perspective who acknowledges the needs of both male and female victims on the advisory council to the Maternal and Child Branch relating to domestic violence shelters. COMMENTS 1.Technical amendments: page 4, lines 4-5: (1) Emergency shelterto women and their children escaping violent family situations.to victims of domestic violence and their children escaping violent family situations. page 4, lines 6-8: (2) Transitional housing programsto help women and their STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 9 children find housing and jobs so that they are not forced to choose between returning to a violent relationship or becoming homeless.to help victims of domestic violence and their children find housing and jobs so they are not forced to choose between returning to a violent relationship or becoming homeless. page 4, lines 12-13: (3) Legal and other types of advocacy and representationto help women and their children pursue the appropriate legal options.to help victims of domestic violence and their children pursue the appropriate legal options. page 4, line 14: (4) Other support servicesfor battered women and their childrenfor victims of domestic violence and their children. page 4, line 18:services to battered women and their children.services to victims of domestic violence and their children. POSITIONS Support: California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (sponsor) American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees California Catholic Conference Domestic Violence Practicum, Berkeley School of Law, University of California at Berkeley Interval House Lake Family Resource Center Laura's House Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office Marjaree Mason Center National Coalition for Men, San Diego Chapter National Family Violence Legislative Resource Center (if amended) Option House Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California (PPAC) STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL SB 273 (Corbett)Page 10 Rainbow Services Sojourn Su Casa - Ending Domestic Violence Tri-Valley Haven Oppose: None received -- END --