BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 508
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 508 (Ian Calderon)
As Amended June 17, 2013
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |77-0 |(April 22, |SENATE: |37-0 |(August 15, |
| | |2013) | | |2013) |
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Original Committee Reference: JUD.
SUMMARY : Prohibits courts from garnishing the wages or levying a
bank account of a homeless veteran for outstanding unpaid citations
related to loitering, curfew violations, or illegal lodging for a
period of up to five years, as provided. Specifically, this bill :
1)Makes legislative findings about homeless veterans, the
garnishment of their wages and savings for offenses inevitably
associated with being homeless; and the negative effect these debt
collection practices have on the ability of homeless veterans to
escape the cycle of homelessness.
2)Provides that, notwithstanding any other provision of law, if a
court, during the course of its routine efforts to collect
delinquent court-ordered debt, obtains information indicating that
a person who has been issued a citation for loitering, curfew
violations, or illegal lodging that is outstanding or unpaid,
served in the military within the last eight years and is homeless
or has no permanent address, the court shall not garnish the wages
or levy against bank accounts of that person for five years from
the date the court obtained the information.
3)Provides, for the purposes of this act, that a person is
considered to be "homeless" or as having "no permanent address" if
that person does not have a fixed, regular, adequate nighttime
residence, or has a primary nighttime residence that is one of the
following:
a) A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed
to provide temporary living accommodations, including, but not
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limited to, welfare hotels, congregate shelters and
transitional housing for the mentally ill;
b) An institution that provides a temporary residence for
individuals intended to be institutionalized; or,
c) A public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily
used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.
4)Provides that nothing in this act shall be construed to:
a) Prevent a court from engaging in any other lawful debt
collection activities;
b) Require a court to perform any further investigation or
financial screening into any matter beyond the scope of its
regular duties;
c) Prevent the Judicial Council from altering any best
practices or recommendations for collection programs pursuant
to Penal Code Section 1463.010; and,
d) Prevent a court from garnishing a person's wages or levying
against a person's bank accounts if the court subsequently
obtains evidence that the person is no longer homeless, or that
the court had on a previous occasion suspended garnishment of
that person's wages or levying against that person's bank
accounts pursuant to these provisions.
The Senate amendments shift the legislative findings and
declarations from the Penal Code to a new uncodified section of the
bill without making any substantive changes to the rest of the bill.
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,
pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : According to the author, homeless veterans are often
caught in a catch-22 situation where their homelessness inevitably
results in citations for offenses like loitering or illegal lodging,
but wage garnishment to collect unpaid fines makes it more difficult
for these veterans to escape the cycle of homelessness - virtually
ensuring that further citations for the same type of offenses will
continue to occur. To address this problem cycle, this bill seeks
to prohibit courts from wage garnishment of homeless veterans for
outstanding unpaid citations related to loitering, curfew
violations, or illegal lodging for a period of five years from the
date the court obtains information indicating the veteran is
homeless in the course of its routine efforts to collect fines.
The author contends that wage garnishment of homeless veterans to
collect unpaid citations for infractions associated with living on
the street perpetuates the cycle of homelessness, making escape more
difficult for veterans trying to legitimately work and establish
stable housing. The author states, "By making it harder for
homeless veterans to save money to end their homelessness, such
garnishments paradoxically also increase the likelihood that the
public safety offenses the tickets are meant to dissuade will in
fact occur."
Sadly, the problem of homelessness among veterans who have proudly
served our country is not a minor one. According to the United
States Department of Housing and Urban Development's most recent
annual survey for point-in-time estimates of homelessness, there
were 16,461 homeless veterans in California in January 2012, of whom
11,949 were considered unsheltered and living on the streets.
(Located at:
http://www.hudhre.info/CoC_Reports/2012_ca_pops_sub.pdf ) A recent
national survey of over 23,000 homeless Americans conducted by the
100,000 Homes Campaign found that homeless veterans reported having
been homeless for an average of 5.77 years as compared to 3.92 years
for homeless non-veterans. In addition, the study found that
veterans were 11% more likely than non-veterans to suffer from at
least one health condition linked to increased risk of death among
the homeless population. ("National Survey of Homeless Veterans in
100,000 Homes Campaign Communities" by the 100,000 Homes Campaign.)
This bill seeks to prohibit courts from wage garnishment of a
homeless veteran for outstanding unpaid citations related to
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loitering, curfew violations, or illegal lodging for a period of
five years - a temporary suspension of the court's authority to
garnish the wages or levy the bank account of the veteran. If the
court subsequently obtains evidence that the veteran is no longer
homeless before five years have elapsed, then the court may resume
wage garnishment or bank levy upon the veteran once again.
The author notes that the bill does nothing to absolve the veteran
of the offense, relieve the legal obligation to pay any associated
fine, or prohibit any ticket from being issued. As such, it does
not appear this bill dismisses accountability for so-called "quality
of life" offenses committed by homeless veterans as much as it
represents an effort to give them a better chance of working to
escape homelessness before wage garnishment can resume.
Under this bill, a court is prohibited from garnishing the wages of
a person when "during the course of its routine process to collect"
unpaid fees or fines, the court "obtains information" indicating
that the person meets the criteria for an eligible homeless veteran.
Penal Code Section 1463.007 describes the types of actions that
courts already take to enhance the collection of delinquent
court-ordered debt where the court runs a comprehensive collections
program. In these debt collection cases, the court will typically
attempt to mail an account statement and/or a warning notice to the
debtor's address, if known, and also contact the debtor by
telephone. Among other things, the court may request a credit
report of the debtor or initiate the use of wage or bank account
garnishments. Under this bill, however, if the court in the process
of its ordinary collection efforts (emphasis added) obtains
information indicating the person is: a) a military veteran who has
served within the last eight years; b) has unpaid citations for
offenses associated with homelessness, like loitering, curfew
violations, or illegal lodging; and c) is homeless or has no valid
permanent address, only then would the court be prohibited from
garnishing the wages of the debtor because such indicators, in all
likelihood, demonstrate that the debtor is a homeless veteran
covered under the bill.
Based on Penal Code Section 1463.007 and the findings of the Gartner
study (Judicial Council, Report to Legislature on Statewide
Collection of Court-Ordered Debt (January 2010) p.10.), it appears
likely that every court collector, in the course of current
practices, will already obtain information as to whether a debtor
meets the applicable definition of homeless. In addition, the bill
specifically provides that nothing in its provisions shall be
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construed to require a court to perform any further investigation or
financial screening into any matter beyond the scope of its regular
duties, nor prevent a court from engaging in any other lawful debt
collection activities. In addition, suspension of court collection
efforts would apply once, at most, to an individual veteran, even if
that individual unfortunately becomes homeless again more than five
years later.
Analysis Prepared by : Anthony Lew / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
FN:
0001310