BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 508 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 508 (Ian Calderon) As Amended June 17, 2013 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |77-0 |(April 22, |SENATE: |37-0 |(August 15, | | | |2013) | | |2013) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 AB 508 Page 2 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. AB 508 Page 3 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 AB 508 Page 4 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 AB 508 Page 5 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