BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
Senator Jim Nielsen, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 866 Hearing Date: 4/12/16
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|Author: |Roth |
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|Version: |3/14/16 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Wade Teasdale |
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Subject: Veterans housing
DESCRIPTION
Summary:
Authorizes a housing developer or service provider that receives
bond moneys under the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention
Bond Act of 2014 (VHHP), to provide housing or services to
veterans and their children in women-only facilities in limited
instances, as specified.
Existing law:
1)Enacts the VHHP, also known as Proposition 41, which
authorized the issuance of $600 million in general obligation
bonds to provide multifamily housing to veterans pursuant to
the VHHP.
2)Requires specified state departments to collaborate in
establishing and implementing VHHP housing programs that focus
on veterans at risk for homelessness or experiencing temporary
or chronic homelessness. (Department of Housing and
Community-HCD, Department of Veterans Affairs-CalVet,
California Housing Finance Agency-CalHFA)
3)Requires the departments, to the extent feasible, to
prioritize VHHP projects that combine housing and supportive
services, including, but not limited to, job training, mental
health and drug treatment, case management, care coordination,
or physical rehabilitation.
4)Prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color,
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religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national
origin/ancestry, familial status (households with children
under age 18), source of income, disability, and age.
This bill:
1)Establishes the "Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Act
of 2016: Proposition 41 Expenditures: Military Sexual Trauma."
2)For specified purposes, defines "women-only facilities" as
those that may house and provide services to female veterans
only and their children, and shall not house or provide
services to any adult who is not a dependent of a female
veteran.
3)Provides that a housing developer or service provider - that
receives VHHP bond moneys - may provide housing or services to
female veterans and their children in women-only facilities in
limited instances, specifically when a female veteran:
a) Has suffered any form of sexual abuse, trauma, or
intimidation or harassment while serving in the military
and is seeking treatment for that sexual abuse, trauma, or
intimidation or harassment, or (B) is seeking the housing
or services as a result of being a victim of sexual abuse
or domestic violence; or
b) Is seeking the housing or services as a result of being
a victim of sexual abuse or domestic violence.
4)Provides that a housing developer or service provider that
provides housing or services to female veterans in women-only
facilities pursuant to paragraph (1) shall ensure that the
housing or services shall provide supportive housing or
services with a focus on, among others, treating the effects
of military sexual abuse, trauma, or intimidation in a
gender-specific manner.
5)Makes legislative findings and declarations:
a) The significant number of women veterans, as a
percentage of all veterans, and also as California's share
of the nation's total population of women veterans.
b) The statistical percentage of women veterans who have
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experienced military sexual trauma (MST).
c) The life-changing consequences of MST on victims,
including, for example, the increased risks post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) of becoming homeless following
separation from the military.
d) The need to ensure that women veterans, particularly
those who have suffered MST and its negative consequences,
receive women-centered treatment, which has been
demonstrated to be "the most important factor contributing
to their comfort" with federal veterans' benefit services.
e) Providing gender-specific treatment and housing,
pursuant to this act:
i) Serves a compelling state interest, which interest
is providing the best possible treatment to female
veterans, who have served our country and who now face
additional hurdles that disproportionately affect female
veterans over male veterans.
ii) Is substantially related to the achievement
of those objectives.
BACKGROUND
Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Program
According to a federal agency report to the Congress:
A veteran is 50 percent more likely to be homeless than a
nonveteran. Although only eight percent of adults in the
United States are veterans, federal surveys suggest that
veterans represent up to 16 percent of America's homeless
population.
According to one major point-in-time survey, on a given night
nearly half of homeless veterans were concentrated in just
four states: California, Florida, Texas, and New York - even
though only 28 percent of all veterans were located in those
same four states.
In November 2014, voters approved the VHHP Bond Act of 2014,
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also known as Proposition 41, which authorized the issuance of
$600 million under AB 639.
The VHHP requires CalHFA, HCD, and CalVet to establish and
implement a program that focuses on veterans at risk of
homelessness or experiencing temporary or chronic homelessness.
This program will fund the acquisition, construction,
rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable multifamily
supportive housing, affordable transitional housing, affordable
rental housing, or related facilities for veterans and their
families to allow veterans to access and maintain housing
stability.
More specifically, the Act requires the program to:
1) Leverage public, private, and nonprofit funding
sources;
2) Prioritize projects that combine housing and supportive
services, including but not limited to: job training,
mental health, drug treatment, case management, care
coordination, or physical rehabilitation; and
3) Ensure that program guidelines and terms provide
requirements or scoring criteria to advance applicants
with that combine permanent or transitional housing, or
both, with supportive services for veterans, or for
partnering with housing developers or service providers
that offer housing or services to veterans.
Unique Needs of Women Veterans
A recent report by the federal Government Accountability Office
found that women veterans identifying themselves as homeless
more than doubled, increasing by more than 140% from 2006 to
2010. During the same time frame, there was a 45% increase in
homelessness for male veterans.
For female veterans, especially those who have suffered from
military sexual trauma, living in a housing facility that houses
mainly men poses serious safety and health risks. Women do not
feel comfortable or safe in these facilities. Most (about 60%)
of transitional housing facilities do not allow young children.
This limitation, combined with the safety risks of living in
male dominated facilities, makes finding housing for female
veterans with children nearly impossible. SB 384 seeks to
eliminate some of these barriers by ensuring that funding is
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available for housing for underserved veterans - allowing
construction of facilities that serve this vulnerable
population.
In a recent white paper ("Women Veterans Must Have Equal Access
to Veteran-Only Permanent Housing Facilities under the Fair
Housing Laws," March 2016), the Women's Law Center stated:
"Veteran-only supportive housing facilities are intended to
couple access to medical and social services with permanent
housing solutions, serving an essential function in helping
veterans who have encountered difficulty adjusting to
civilian life get back on their feet. Many veterans are
confronted with mental and physical health issues resulting
from their military service. For example, many women
veterans who were the victims of military sexual trauma
(MST) suffer from PTSD and other related disabilities.
Supportive housing is intended to serve all veterans and to
accommodate and serve veterans with disabilities, among
others.
Women veterans, however, are deterred from seeking
veteran-only housing or are effectively being denied equal
opportunity to use and enjoy such facilities because of
conditions such as MST-related PTSD. These disabilities are
exacerbated when women veterans who suffered MST are
required to live in an environment that triggers their
experience of being in the male-dominated military where
they were assaulted or harassed. Women veterans have
legitimate concerns about their mental and physical
well-being living in such facilities because veteran-only
housing providers fail to make gender-specific
accommodations for MST-related disabilities."
Equal Opportunity/Anti-Discrimination Law
In November 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209,
also known as the "California Civil Rights Initiative," which
prohibits the State from using race and gender conscious
decision-making in the areas of public employment, public
education, and public contracting or procurement.
The Fair Employment and Housing Act, which includes the
California Family Rights Act, prohibits harassment and
discrimination in employment on the basis of numerous specified
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attributes, including sex, gender, gender identity, and gender
expression.
Under the Unruh Civil Rights Act, all persons are entitled to
full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities,
privileges, or services in all business establishments,
including both private and public entities. The Unruh Civil
Rights Act protects all persons against arbitrary and
unreasonable discrimination by a business establishment.
Some debate has occurred within the women's and veterans'
advocacy communities that existing anti-discrimination law may
hinder the state's ability to accommodate the needs of women
veterans with MST-caused disabilities by permitting veteran-only
housing providers to provide the option of separate housing for
women veterans.
However, others have opined that the failure of housing
providers to grant equal access to veteran-only permanent
housing to women veterans, who have incurred disabilities as a
result of military sexual trauma, constitutes disability
discrimination. The Women's Law Center says:
Both federal and state law prohibits discrimination in
housing, including discrimination based on disability. For
example, the federal Fair Housing Act and its amendments
(the "FHA") were enacted to provide for fair housing
throughout the United States. The FHA has a broad reach and
encompasses the owner, operator and manager of any covered
property, as well as those involved in the design or
construction of covered housing. The FHA has two important
tenets: (1) a mandate not to discriminate and (2) an
affirmative duty to accommodate the needs of protected
classes to ensure that they have equal access to housing
facilities. Specifically, the FHA makes it unlawful "[t]o ?
make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any person because
of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national
origin" or "make unavailable or deny, a dwelling to any
buyer or renter because of a handicap." A "handicap," more
commonly referred to as a "disability," is defined as "a
physical or mental impairment which substantially limits
one or more of such person's major life activities." Mental
and emotional illnesses, such as depression and PTSD,
qualify as disabilities for purposes of the FHA. Thus, MST
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victims who suffer from PTSD, depression and other mental
health illnesses qualify as "disabled" under the fair
housing laws and are entitled to their protections.
The FHA defines discrimination to include the "refusal to
make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies,
practices, or services, when such accommodations may be
necessary to afford [a disabled] person equal opportunity
to use and enjoy a dwelling." A reasonable accommodation is
one that is necessary to give a resident an equal
opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. It is "reasonable"
when the requested accommodation imposes neither an undue
financial or administrative burden on the housing provider,
nor causes a fundamental alteration in the housing
provider's business operation. Such accommodation is
"necessary" if, without the accommodation, a person will be
denied an equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling.
And where the accommodations are both reasonable and
necessary to ensure equal access, the FHA requires housing
providers to cover the costs of these accommodations.
Female veterans with MST-related disabilities do not
currently have equal opportunity to use and enjoy
veteran-only housing facilities absent the option of
separate housing . . . .
The Women's Law Center argues that "separate housing is a
reasonable and necessary accommodation for MST-related
disabilities," noting that "(t)he option of separate housing is
a reasonable accommodation because it can be implemented on an
individual facility basis and does not necessarily require
costly or substantial changes to the housing facility's
operations."
COMMENT
1)Author Comments :
"Women who were assaulted, raped, or sexually harassed during
their service suffer from the effects of MST for years in the
form of psychological, physical, and social problems. This is
because MST victims have been found to suffer different and
more severe mental health symptoms than civilian women who
have been sexually assaulted. The VA has reported that
approximately 1 in 4 female veterans report experiencing MST.
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This translates to a rate of sexual assault 12 times higher
than that for the civilian female population. Making up only
4% of the Veteran Population, female veterans often report
feeling intimidated in predominantly male facilities, where
sexual assaults remain to be all too common. This concern for
their own safety often leads women, especially those who have
suffered from MST, to be deterred from accessing the housing
and supportive services they need and deserve.
"MST victims are nine times more likely to exhibit PTSD
symptoms than those who have not been sexually assaulted.
Symptoms become exacerbated when female veterans who suffered
MST live in an environment that triggers their experience in
the male-dominated military where they were assaulted or
harassed. Female veterans have legitimate concerns about their
mental and physical well-being living in such facilities
because veteran-only housing providers often fail to make
gender-specific accommodations for female veterans with MST.
When available, female veterans have reported that women
centered treatment was the most important factor contributing
to their comfort with VA services. California must ensure that
women centered treatment is available under the housing built
with Proposition 41 bonds."
2)Committee Comments :
Concerns exist that existing anti-discrimination law may
hinder the ability to deliver women-centric housing and
treatment under the VHHP program. This bill is, in part, an
attempt to address those concerns. Neither the administering
agencies nor the Department of Fair Employment and Housing
have produced legal analyses that clarify specifically where
in law the various concerns are generated.
a) What, if any, is the relevance of the California
Constitution (Article 1, § 31), which states, in part:
"The State shall not discriminate against, or grant
preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the
basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in
the operation of public employment, public education, or
public contracting.
And also states:
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"Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as
prohibiting bona fide qualifications based on sex which are
reasonably necessary to the normal operation of public
employment, public education, or public contracting."
i) Does the VHHP Program constitute a form of public
contracting?
ii) Do the gender-specific health needs of
disabled women veterans, who are MST victims, constitute
a bona fide qualification based on sex that may justify
gender-specific, disability-related policy responses,
including housing segregated by gender, by the State?
b) How do evolving legal definitions of gender identity and
gender expression factor into this bill's policy concerns?
c) Do the concerns represent a potential conflict between
(i) a requirement to prohibit gender discrimination and
(ii) a requirement to act affirmatively and without
resource discrimination in meeting the needs of disabled
persons? If so, are there any relevant precedents that may
help devise a balancing test?
3)Related Legislation
SB 384 (Leyva, pending Assembly, 2015 ) in order to help meet
the specific housing needs of underserved veterans, sets aside
a percentage of any state funds being used to acquire,
construct, rehabilitate or preserve multifamily housing units
for underserved veterans.
AB 639 (J. Pérez, Ch. 727, Stats. 2013 ), authorizes issuance
of $600 million in general obligation (GO) bonds to fund the
acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of
multifamily supportive housing, affordable transitional
housing, affordable rental housing, and related facilities for
veterans and their families, if approved by the voters at the
June, 2014, statewide election. (As Proposition 41, the
measure was approved by the voters 65.4% to 34.6 %.)
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POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author
Support: National Association of Social Workers
Oppose: None received
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