Friend –

We all deserve to live in healthy and flourishing communities with dignified housing and access to quality care. But for many Californians, making rent and paying medical bills is a constant struggle, and for some of us, these basic necessities are simply far from reach.

Right now, instead of creating permanent and supportive housing, Governor Newsom and a number of state legislators are steamrolling costly legislation that would establish a court system that would force people who are disabled and unhoused into treatment and institutionalization.

Take action and tell your state legislator to oppose this regressive and inhumane legislation.

Medicating and institutionalizing people against their will was a barbaric practice in our state's history. We've been here before, and we won't go back. And 32 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the so-called "CARE Court" bill (SB 1338) flies against the values and spirit behind the landmark legislation. Instead, SB 1338 would:

• Seriously endanger the civil liberties of Californians living with disabilities and experiencing houselessness. Besides having the power to force medication, these courts could also force those who do not comply into state conservatorships.
• Harm people of color, whom doctors are more likely to misdiagnose with serious mental health conditions like schizophrenia.
• Unravel hard-won progress by the disability rights movement for self-determination, equality, and dignity.

Make no mistake – we have a housing crisis in California driven by corporate developers and politicians who continue to prioritize profits over people.

But if passed, this vague, $65-million legislation will only further entrench systems that have historically targeted Black, brown, and indigenous people and kept people impoverished in desperate and precarious circumstances.

This moment calls for innovative, compassionate, and bold solutions and leadership – not more of the same.

Your state legislator needs to hear from you: Tell them to vote no on SB 1338 now.

Thanks for taking action,

Carlos Marquez III
Executive Director, ACLU California Action