BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2264
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2264 (De Leon)
As Amended May 28, 2010
Majority vote
PUBLIC SAFETY 5-2 APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Ammiano, Beall, Hill, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Ammiano, |
| |Portantino, Skinner | |Bradford, |
| | | |Charles Calderon, Coto, |
| | | |Davis, |
| | | |Monning, Ruskin, Skinner, |
| | | |Solorio, Torlakson, |
| | | |Torrico |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Hagman, Gilmore |Nays:|Conway, Harkey, Miller, |
| | | |Nielsen, Norby |
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SUMMARY : Prohibits the garnishment of a bank account or the
earnings of a homeless youth for failure to pay fees, fines,
forfeitures, or other penalties imposed by a court due to the
violation of a state or local law related to truancy, loitering,
curfew violations, or illegal lodging. Specifically, this bill :
1)Declares the following:
a) There are approximately 1.6 million homeless youth
nationwide, according to the United States Department of
Justice;
b) Youths become homeless and disconnected from their
parents for three primary reasons:
i) They flee homes that have become dangerous;
ii) Their parents force them from their homes; or,
iii) As a matter of state policy, foster youths, who have
been abused or neglected, are forced onto the streets on
their 18th birthdays.
AB 2264
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c) Shelters are frequently full or predominately serve
adult homeless persons. These shelters, even when they
have available space, can be dangerous for youths;
d) Despite all of this, homeless youths are routinely
ticketed for offenses that are the inevitable symptoms of
homelessness that adults have imposed upon them. These
offenses include truancy, loitering, curfew violations, and
illegal lodging;
e) The California Research Bureau has documented that if a
homeless youth fails to show up to contest or pay a ticket,
that homeless youth's wages or bank accounts may be
garnished and his or her credit report may be damaged;
f) Garnishment of the wages and savings of a homeless youth
and the damage to his or her credit report makes it far
harder for homeless youths, attempting to pull themselves
up by their bootstraps, to rent their own apartments and
end their homelessness by their own willpower and
initiative;
g) The State should not tolerate practices that promote
homelessness among its young people. It should certainly
not do so by taking sums of money from homeless youths
trying earnestly to work and save their way out of their
homelessness in the first place;
h) Moreover, crimes are often made crimes to dissuade
individuals from engaging in unwanted behavior. But,
homeless youths are not homeless by election. Thus,
because taking money form homeless youths makes it more,
and not less, likely that they will continue to be
homeless, these practices actually encourage the commission
of offenses the laws are meant to dissuade, such as
vagrancy and loitering; and,
i) It is therefore in the best interest of the state to
discourage practices that make it more difficult for youths
who are homeless by the hand of adults to obtain housing on
their own, through their own hard work, against significant
odds, without exculpating them from the offenses they
commit.
AB 2264
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2)Requires the court to consider collection alternatives to the
garnishment of earnings or the placement of a levy on a bank
account for the enforcement or collection of fees, fines,
forfeitures, or other penalties imposed by a court due to the
violation of a state or local law related to truancy,
loitering, curfew violations, or illegal lodging if the court
has reason to believe that the debtor is a homeless youth.
3)Defines "homeless youth" to be a person younger than 25 years
of age who has violated a provision of state or local law
related to loitering, truancy, curfew, or illegal lodging and
who lacks a fixed, regular, adequate nighttime residence.
"Homeless youth" includes, but is not limited to, a person
who, due to loss of housing, lack of adequate alternative
accommodation, economic hardship, or because he or she is
awaiting placement in foster care, presently resides in any of
the following:
a) The home of a person who is not his or her parent or
legal guardian;
b) A motel, hotel, or campground;
c) An emergency transitional shelter or hospital; or,
d) A public or private place that is not designed or
ordinarily used for regular sleeping accommodation for
human beings, including, but not limited to, a park or
other public space, an abandoned building, an automobile or
other vehicle, or a bus or train station.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, minor absorbable costs.
COMMENTS : According to the author, "Homeless youth are not
homeless by choice. Approximately half are former foster youth
who have been emancipated into the streets; the rest are forced
from their homes by abuse or are kicked out.
"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
AB 2264
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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 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."
Please see the policy committee for a full discussion of this
bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Nicole J. Hanson / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744
FN: 0004602