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.

As the federal government dismantles lifelines of support for crime survivors, California must do everything it can to ensure victims receive the services and support they need to get 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. California can help crime survivors break free from violence by providing these vital services.

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.

Instead of doubling down on proven strategies to reduce overdose deaths, federal GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration have passed catastrophic cuts to Medicaid – the single largest payer of addiction treatment in the country.

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 Get Ahead

Everyone should have equal access to the California Dream, but that dream is falling out of reach for far too many residents. Families throughout the state are grappling with the rising costs of housing, food, transportation, and health care. Federal Republicans’ cuts to funding for essential programs like Medi-Cal and CalFresh further threaten Californians’ wellbeing and food security to fund massive tax breaks for the wealthy.

California state lawmakers must put their collective energy behind meaningful, state-level solutions that support economic and housing stability for all Californians.

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

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. At the same time, the Trump Administration proposed billions in cuts to Indigenous Communities nationwide.

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.