AB 328: Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program.

AB-328 was authored by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, and co authored by Assemblyman Rob Bonta. It has been in the Appropriations Committee since March 2021. The bill would first establish a Department of Housing and Community Development to administer a slew of laws focused on solving the California housing crisis. Primarily, it hopes to enact a Reentry Housing Act, something which would keep recently incarcerated people out of homelessness and stay housed instead. It would do this from July of 2022 by first scoring applicants on a series of criteria to determine what type of aid they should receive and what their outcomes should be from that aid. The program would then give them aid that helps them receive housing, incentivise landlords to rent out to them, and give them a segue into more permanent state housing assistance programs. The mechanism for awarding this funding would be a 5 year contract with whichever body is receiving the aid, or based on how allotting the money could best help the program member in question. For example, some program members could be best helped if they are directly given money, while others might benefit from the government giving their landlord money directly. At the end of every year, the program beneficiaries will be assessed by an independently contracted agency which will decide how effectively they have used the aid. This will help fine tune aid distribution and mitigate the risk of abuse of funds.

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