Smart

Supporting Crime Survivors

Investing in smart solutions that ensure safety and justice for all crime victims, and promote real accountability is essential to creating a safer California for all.

While California has made great advances to better support crime survivors over the years, the state can do more to ensure that victims receive the services and support they need to get to safety and back on their feet.  California has just 104 domestic violence shelters.  According to a recent state report, shelters served 13,000 Californians but had to turn down another 15,000 requests.  57% of American women who are unhoused say that domestic violence is the direct cause of losing their permanent home.  Crime survivors need access to services to break free from violence. 

Increasing Access to Drug and Mental Health Treatment

Across the nation, far too many people are dying as a result of accidental drug overdoses.  In California, 1,243,000 adults have a serious mental illness.  Treatment for addiction and serious mental health illnesses is highly effective, but most people are not able to access the care they need.

Only one in ten Californians with a substance use disorder gets life-saving treatment.  Of adults in California who did not receive needed mental health care, 35.3% did not because of cost.  Untreated substance use and mental health conditions can result in other health conditions, unemployment, homelessness, and unnecessary incarceration.  Far too often, we are warehousing people in prisons – at a cost of nearly $133,000 per person per year – instead of providing them the medical care they need upfront.

Helping Californians Move Ahead

Everyone should have equal access to the California Dream, but that dream is falling out of reach for far too many residents.  California has the highest rate of poverty of any state in the nation.

The post-pandemic spike in inflation hit the state’s low-income families the hardest due to the rise in prices for essentials like housing, food, transportation, and health care.  These expenses make up 82% of spending for low-income families in California. Meanwhile, Over the last three decades, California spending on jails and prisons increased three times faster than spending on K-12 schools.

The LA fires further exacerbated the housing and affordability crises Southern California faced.  In the face of a tragedy that led to thousands of people without homes and lost work opportunities for thousands more, lawmakers must put energy behind meaningful solutions that support economic and housing stability

Safety and affordability are deeply intertwined.  Improving one, means improving the other.  We know that formerly incarcerated people who receive supportive housing services were 40% less likely to be rearrested and homicide rates are three to four times lower for neighborhoods that are not experiencing persistent poverty.

Advancing Safety in Tribal Communities

California is currently facing an epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP), yet Indigenous people are far too often left out of public discussions and solutions related to safety.

California has in recent years invested state funds to combat violence and support Tribal communities.  However, the state still has the fifth highest number of unresolved MMIP cases, with the vast majority involving young women and girls.