Homelessness: Striking Worker Emergency Homelessness Prevention program.

Existing law establishes the Encampment Resolution Funding program to award moneys appropriated as competitive grants to assist cities, counties, and continuums of care in ensuring the safety and wellness of people experiencing homelessness in encampments, to provide encampment resolution grants to resolve critical encampment concerns and transition individuals into safe and stable housing, and to encourage a data-informed, coordinated approach to address encampment concerns. Existing law authorizes a continuum of care, city, or county to submit a specified application to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness for a program grant, and requires the council to prioritize funding applicants that demonstrate a commitment to cross-systems collaboration and innovative efforts to resolve encampment issues, as specified. Existing law requires the council to administer the program in accordance with a specified timeline. Existing law requires grant recipients to provide specified data elements, including health information, in a manner consistent with state and federal law, to their local Homeless Management Information System for tracking in the statewide Homeless Data Integration System. This bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, create within the Encampment Resolution Funding program the Striking Worker Emergency Homelessness Prevention (SWEHP) program administered by the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The bill would specify that purpose of the program would be to prevent workers suffering strike-related hardship, as defined, from becoming homeless due to a prolonged labor dispute by making zero-interest loans available to eligible striking workers to assist them in paying their housing costs. The bill would require the agency, in consultation with the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, to develop an internet website and online application for the program, as specified. The bill would require an applicant for the program to electronically sign a declaration of strike-related hardship, as specified, under penalty of perjury. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make other conforming changes to the Encampment Resolution Funding program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.