BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2264|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2264
Author: De Leon (D), et al
Amended: 8/2/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 5-1, 6/29/10
AYES: Leno, Cedillo, Hancock, Steinberg, Wright
NOES: Huff
NO VOTE RECORDED: Cogdill
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 49-25, 6/2/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Truancy, loitering and curfew violations fines;
debt
collection from homeless youth
SOURCE : Childrens Advocacy Institute
DIGEST : This bill prohibits courts from garnishing the
wages or levying against bank accounts of a person under 25
years of age who has not paid a ticket for truancy,
loitering, curfew violations or illegal lodging where, in
the course of its routine efforts to collect fines, the
court obtains information indicating that person is
homeless, as specified.
ANALYSIS : Current law requires that any county or court
that implements or has implemented a comprehensive program
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to identify and collect delinquent fees, fines,
forfeitures, penalties, and assessments, including, but not
limited to, public defender fees, with or without a warrant
having been issued against the alleged violator, if the
base fees, fines, forfeitures, penalties, and assessments
are delinquent, may deduct and deposit in the county
treasury or in the trial court operations fund the cost of
operating that program, excluding capital expenditures,
from any revenues collected thereby prior to making any
distribution of revenues to other governmental entities
required by any other provision of law. Any county or
court may establish a minimum base fee, fine, forfeiture,
penalty, or assessment amount for inclusion in the program,
as specified. For purposes of this section, a
comprehensive collection program is a separate and distinct
revenue collection activity and shall include at least 10
of the following components:
1. Monthly bill or account statements to all debtors.
2. Telephone contact with delinquent debtors to apprise
them of their failure to meet payment obligations.
3. Issuance of warning letters to advise delinquent debtors
of an outstanding obligation.
4. Requests for credit reports to assist in locating
delinquent debtors.
5. Access to Employment Development Department employment
and wage information.
6. The generation of monthly delinquent reports.
7. Participation in the Franchise Tax Board's Interagency
Intercept Collections Program.
8. The use of Department of Motor Vehicle information to
locate delinquent debtors.
9. The use of wage and bank account garnishments.
10.The imposition of liens on real property and proceeds
from the sale of real property held by a title company.
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11.The filing of a claim or the filing of objections to the
inclusion of outstanding fines and forfeitures in
bankruptcy proceedings.
12.Coordination with the probation department to locate
debtors who may be on formal or informal probation.
13.The initiation of driver's license suspension actions
where appropriate.
14.The capability to accept credit card payments.
15.Participation in the Franchise Tax Board's Court-Ordered
Debt Collections Program.
16.Contracting with one or more private debt collectors.
17.The use of local, regional, state, or national skip
tracing or locator resources or services to locate
delinquent debtors. (Penal Code Section 1463.007.)
Current law allows peace officers to transport any person,
as quickly as is feasible, to the nearest homeless shelter,
or any runaway youth or youth in crisis to the nearest
runaway shelter, if the officer inquires whether the person
desires the transportation, and the person does not object
to the transportation. (Penal Code Section 647a.)
Current law states that when the public defender or an
assigned counsel represents a person who is a minor in a
criminal proceeding, at the expense of a county, the court
may order the parent or guardian of such minor to reimburse
the county for all or any part of such expense, if it
determines that the parent or guardian has the ability to
pay such expense. (Penal Code Section 987.4.)
Current law provides any person under the age of 18 years
who persistently or habitually refuses to obey the
reasonable and proper orders or directions of his or her
parents, guardian, or custodian, or who is beyond the
control of that person, or who is under the age of 18 years
when he or she violated any ordinance of any city or county
of California establishing a curfew based solely on age is
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within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court which may
adjudge the minor to be a ward of the court. (Welfare and
Institutions Code Section 601(a).)
Current law states that it is the policy of California "to
facilitate and support the development and operation of
housing for homeless youth," and authorizes the provision
of housing for homeless youth is hereby authorized, which
"shall not be considered unlawful age discrimination.
(Government Code Section 11139.3(a) and (b).)
Current law defines "homeless youth" as either of the
following:
1. A person who is at least 18 years of age, but not older
than 24 years of age, and meets one of the following
conditions:
A. Is homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
B. Is no longer eligible for foster care on the basis
of age.
C. Has run away from home.
2. A person who is less than 18 years of age who is
emancipated and who is homeless or at risk of becoming
homeless. (Government Code Section 11139.3(e)(2).)
Current law defines "at risk of becoming homeless" to mean
facing eviction or termination of one's current housing
situation. (Government Code Section 11139.3(e)(1).)
Current law defines a "homeless person" as any person who
lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence or
has a primary nighttime residence in a shelter, a temporary
living institution, or a public or private place not
designated for regular sleeping accommodations for humans.
(Health and Safety Code Section 50582.)
This bill provides that, "(n)otwithstanding any other
provision of law, if a court, during the course of its
routine efforts to collect fees, fines, forfeitures, or
other penalties imposed by a court due to the violation of
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a state or local law, obtains information indicating that a
person under 25 years of age, who has not paid a ticket for
truancy, loitering, curfew violations, or illegal lodging,
is homeless or has no permanent address, the court shall
not garnish the wages or levy against bank accounts of that
person until that person is older than 25 years of age, as
that age is recorded by that person's credit report or
other document already in the possession of the court."
This bill provides that for purposes of this section, "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 if that person
resides in any of the following:
1. The home of a person who is not his or her parent or
legal guardian.
2. A motel, hotel, or campground.
3. An emergency transitional shelter or hospital.
4. A public or private place that is not designed or
ordinarily used for a 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.
This bill provides that nothing in its provisions "shall be
construed to prevent a court from engaging in any other
lawful debt collection activities," to "require a court to
perform any further investigation or financial screening
into any matter beyond the scope of its regular duties," or
to "prevent the Judicial Council from altering any best
practices or recommendations for collection programs
pursuant to Section 1463.010."
This bill contains legislative findings concerning the
incidence of homeless youth, the garnishment of their wages
and savings, and the effect of these debt collection
practices on the ability of homeless youth to improve their
life circumstances, as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
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Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/2/10)
Children's Advocacy Institute (source)
California Coalition for Youth
California Public Defenders Association
California State PTA
Children's Law Center of Los Angeles
SEIU
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office states,
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 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.
This bill 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 have
to pay the original fines for these "quality of life"
offenses, but the court would be required to consider
alternatives to the garnishment of wages and bank accounts
if it has reason to believe that the debtor is a homeless
youth under 25 years old.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Ammiano, Arambula, Bass, Beall, Blakeslee, Block,
Blumenfield, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero,
Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Coto, Davis, De La
Torre, De Leon, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fong, Fuentes,
Furutani, Galgiani, Hall, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jones, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza,
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Monning, Nava, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin,
Salas, Saldana, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson, Torlakson,
Torrico, Yamada, John A. Perez
NOES: Adams, Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Conway, Cook,
DeVore, Emmerson, Fletcher, Fuller, Gaines, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hagman, Harkey, Jeffries, Knight, Logue, Miller,
Nestande, Niello, Nielsen, Silva, Smyth, Tran, Villines
NO VOTE RECORDED: Tom Berryhill, Lieu, Norby, Audra
Strickland, Torres, Vacancy
RJG:do 8/3/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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