march 2024 primary
Yes On Prop 1
Behavioral Health Services Program and Bond Measure
California’s social safety net is in tatters. Thanks to deinstitutionalization, we’re short approximately 8,000 adult psychiatric beds. Proposition 1 would pass a $6.4 billion bond that will develop inpatient and residential treatment beds for people with mental health disorders and build permanent supportive housing. We all see our state’s mental health crisis up close—it’s impossible to ignore. For the first time in 50 years, this proposition funds the infrastructure needed to care for people with severe mental illnesses.
ENDORSEMENT TEMPERATURE: FINALLY
The Context
Proposition 1 combines two state bills, SB 326 and AB 531, which aim to reform and modernize the Mental Health Services Act from 2004. How? By funding mental health treatment and behavioral health housing at the necessary level for the first time in 50 years.
It’s unconscionable that the state with the largest economy in the country can’t properly care for its own people. Ever since California shut down its large mental health hospitals in the 1960s and 70s, the streets in cities across the state have effectively become open-air waiting rooms, as unhoused people with untreated mental health disorders deteriorate without care. This $6.4 billion general obligation bond addresses the gap in care by improving the psychiatric and addiction treatment infrastructure in California. The state is short 8,000 adult psychiatric beds, so $4.4 billion will go to developing inpatient and residential treatment beds. The other $2 billion will fund the construction of permanent supportive housing, with 50 percent specifically for veterans facing mental health or addiction issues. California talks about valuing all people—it’s time we put our money where our mouths are.
The Support
Support comes from Governor Gavin Newsom, and basically every Democratic legislator who wants to keep their job. This bill is very popular—no known committees or organized opposition for this measure exists yet.
Anything Else I Should Know?
There’s a huge gap in services available for people with mental health disorders. A study from the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative found that about two-thirds of the homeless people surveyed in California have a mental health disorder, but only 19 percent of them had received recent treatment. This proposition should help address that gap, and start to heal some of the damage done by deinstitutionalization.
Paid for by TogetherSF Action (tsfaction.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.