2019-2020 Legislative Session Highlights
and Legislation
AFFORDABLE SENIOR HOUSING
SB 611 (Caballero) – Housing: Elderly and Individuals with Disabilities
LeadingAge California Position: Sponsored
Would establish the Master Plan for Aging Housing Task Force to make recommendations to the Legislature for legislation that will help increase the supply of affordable housing for older adults and reduce barriers to providing health care and social services to older adults in affordable housing.
SB 623 (Jackson) Multifamily Housing Program: Total Assistance Calculation
LeadingAge California Position: Sponsored
Seeks to modernize the older adult assistance calculation in the Multi-family Housing Program to help ensure that the supply of affordable housing for older adults is keeping pace with the demand.
AB 10 (Chiu) Income taxes: credits low-income housing: farmworker housing
LeadingAge California Position: Support
This bill would expand the state’s low-income housing tax credit program, allowing the state to leverage $1 billion in federal resources and create thousands of new affordable homes. The low-income housing tax credit program is a vital financing resource that our nonprofit developers rely on for the preservation and development of affordable senior housing.
AB 816 (Quirk-Silva) California Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool Program
LeadingAge California Position: Support
Would establish the California Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool Program within the Department of Housing and Community Development for the purpose of making grants available to applicants, defined to include a city, county, city and county, or continuum of care, for eligible activities including, among other things, rental assistance, operating subsidies in new and existing affordable or supportive housing units, and specified outreach services. The bill would continuously appropriate $450M from the General Fund every fiscal year to the department for purposes of the program, and set forth how these funds must be allocated.
RESIDENTIAL CARE & HEALTH SERVICES
AB 1709 (Jones-Sawyer) Nursing Homes: Staff
LeadingAge California Position: Sponsored
Current law provides for the certification of nurse assistants by the State Department of Public Health. Current law requires the department, among other duties, to prepare and maintain a list of approved training programs for nurse assistant certification, to review, on or before January 1, 2004, the current examination for approved training programs for certified nurse assistants and to develop a plan concerning career opportunities, as specified. Existing law requires certificate holders to complete 48 hours of in service training every 2 years. This bill would require the department to complete the review of the current examination and the development of a plan by January 1, 2022, and every 10 years thereafter.
AB 50 (Kalra) Medi-Cal: Assisted Living Waiver Program
LeadingAge California Position: Support
Would require the State Department of Health Care Services to submit to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services a request for amendment of the Assisted Living Waiver program with specified amendments. The bill would require, as part of the amendments, the department to increase the number of participants in the program from the currently authorized 5,744 participants to 18,500, to be phased in, as specified. The bill would require the department to increase its provider reimbursement tiers to compensate for mandatory minimum wage increases, as specified.
AB 506 (Kalra) Long-Term Health Facilities
LeadingAge California Position: Oppose
The Long-Term Care, Health, Safety, and Security Act of 1973 generally provides for the licensure and regulation of long-term health care facilities by the State Department of Public Health and establishes an inspection and reporting system to ensure that long-term health care facilities are in compliance with state statutes and regulations. The term “long-term health care facility” includes, among other types of facilities, a skilled nursing facility and intermediate care facility. This bill would redefine a class “AA” violation as a class “A” violation that the department determines to have been a substantial factor, as described, in the death of a resident of a long-term health care facility. The bill would deem a violation of certain resident’s rights described under a class “B” violation as constituting harm and require a separate citation for each violation, as specified.
AB 816 (Quirk-Silva) California Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool Program
LeadingAge California Position:
Support
Would establish the California Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool Program within the Department of Housing and Community Development for the purpose of making grants available to applicants, defined to include a city, county, city and county, or continuum of care, for eligible activities including, among other things, rental assistance, operating subsidies in new and existing affordable or supportive housing units, and specified outreach services. The bill would continuously appropriate$450,000,000 from the General Fund every fiscal year to the department for purposes of the program, and set forth how these funds must be allocated.
AB 1128 (Petrie-Norris) Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly
LeadingAge California Position: Support
Would require a PACE center to maintain a license both as a primary care clinic and an adult day health center, and to either maintain a license as a home health agency or contract with a licensed home health agency for the provision of home health services. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services, as the single state agency overseeing the PACE program, to license and regulate any primary care clinic, adult day health center, and home health agency that is related to a PACE center, thereby transferring these duties from the State Department of Public Health to the State Department of Health Care Services, and would authorize the State Department of Health Care Services to exempt certain PACE centers from these provisions.
SB 512 (Pan) Long-term services and supports
LeadingAge California Position: Support
Would establish the California Long-Term Services and Supports Benefits Board (LTSS Board), to be composed of 9 specified members, including, among others, the Treasurer as chair, the Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency as vice chair, and 3 members to be appointed by the Governor. The bill would require the LTSS Board to manage and invest revenue deposited in the California Long-Term Services and Supports Benefits Trust Fund (LTSS Trust), which the bill would create in the State treasury, to, upon appropriation, finance long-term services and supports for eligible individuals.
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