BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 2264
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 5, 2010

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                   AB 2264 (De Leon) - As Amended:  April 6, 2010 

          Policy Committee:                              Public  
          SafetyVote:  5-2

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill prohibits garnishing the bank account or earnings of a  
          homeless youth for failure to pay penalties imposed by a court  
          due to violation of a state or local law related to truancy,  
          loitering, curfew violations, or illegal lodging. A homeless  
          youth is defined as a person under the age of 25 who lacks a  
          fixed residence.

           FISCAL EFFECT
           
           1)Moderate annual GF costs, likely in the low hundreds of  
            thousands of dollars for court staff to research whether cited  
            youths are homeless and otherwise eligible for exemption from  
            garnishment. Moreover the determination of homelessness is not  
            a static determination as this status is transient.  

          2)Minor state and local revenue loss to the extent that fewer  
            financial penalties on homeless youth are not collected.

           COMMENTS 

          1)Rationale.  The author notes that homeless youth are not  
            homeless by choice and that the threat of garnishment serves  
            only as a barrier to reintegration into society. According to  
            the author, "Homeless youth are often ticketed for 'quality of  
            life' offenses such as loitering, truancy, illegal lodging,  
            and curfew violations. When they cannot pay the fines,  
            sometimes their wages and/or bank accounts are garnished,  
            making it harder for the nearly half of homeless youth who  
            have jobs and are working to try to end their homelessness.  
            And, by making it harder for homeless youth to obtain homes by  








                                                                  AB 2264
                                                                  Page  2

            their own hard work, garnishment actually promotes the  
            behaviors (loitering, illegal lodging, etc.) the tickets are  
            intended to dissuade. 

            "AB 2264 seeks to provide some much-needed relief for former  
            foster youth and other youth who have been forced into  
            homelessness and are trying to work their way out of sleeping  
            on the streets. Homeless youth would still be required to pay  
            the original fines for these 'quality of life' offenses, but  
            orders to garnish bank accounts or earnings would be  
            prohibited for homeless youth under 25 years old." 

           2)Efficacy?  While this bill is clearly well-intentioned, court  
            representatives are concerned the proposal is unworkable. The  
            courts simply lack the information to comply. The courts also  
            contend that it is a rare occurrence for a homeless youth to  
            be garnished, as the courts and their intermediary collecting  
            agencies do not recoup their collection costs unless the fines  
            are collected, and in most cases, homeless youth are difficult  
            to find and even more difficult to collect from.    

            

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081