Bill Text: CA AB2264 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Debt collection: homeless youth.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2010-09-23 - Vetoed by Governor. [AB2264 Detail]

Download: California-2009-AB2264-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 2264	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 2, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 15, 2010
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MAY 28, 2010
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 6, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member De Leon
   (Principal coauthor: Senator Liu)
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Bass, Jones, and Skinner)

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2010

   An act to add Section 1463.011 to the Penal Code, relating to debt
collection.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2264, as amended, De Leon. Debt collection: homeless youth.
   Existing law requires the Judicial Council to adopt guidelines for
a comprehensive program concerning the collection of moneys owed for
fees, fines, forfeitures, penalties, and assessments imposed by
court order.
   This bill would prohibit a court from garnishing wages or levying
a bank account for the enforcement and collection of fees, fines,
forfeitures, or penalties imposed by a court against a person under
25 years of age who has  not paid a ticket   an
outstanding unpaid citation  for truancy, loitering, curfew
violations, or illegal lodging if the court obtains information that
the person is homeless or has no permanent address. This bill would
authorize a court to use these collection procedures when that person
is 26 years of age or older. The bill would make related findings
and declarations.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
   
  SECTION 1.    The Legislature finds and declares
all of the following:
   (a) There are approximately 1.6 million homeless youths
nationwide, according to the United States Department of Justice.
   (b) Youths become homeless and disconnected from their parents for
three primary reasons:
   (1) They flee homes that have become dangerous.
   (2) Their parents force them from their homes.
   (3) As a matter of state policy, foster youths, who have been
abused or neglected, are forced onto the streets on their 18th
birthdays.
   (c) Shelters are frequently full or predominantly serve adult
homeless persons. These shelters, even when they have available
space, can be dangerous for youths.
   (d) Despite all of this, homeless youths are routinely ticketed
for offenses that are the inevitable symptoms of the homelessness
that adults have imposed upon them. These offenses include truancy,
loitering, curfew violations, and illegal lodging.
   (e) The California Research Bureau has documented that if a
homeless youth fails to show up to contest or pay a ticket, that
homeless youth's wages or bank accounts may be garnished and his or
her credit report may be damaged.
   (f) Garnishment of the wages and savings of a homeless youth and
the damage to his or her credit report makes it far harder for
homeless youths, attempting to pull themselves up by their
bootstraps, to rent their own apartments and end their homelessness
by their own willpower and initiative.
   (g) The state should not tolerate practices that promote
homelessness among its young people. It should certainly not do so by
taking sums of money from homeless youths trying earnestly to work
and save their way out of their homelessness, when it is the state
and adults who have forced these youths into homelessness in the
first place.
   (h) Moreover, crimes are often made crimes to dissuade individuals
from engaging in unwanted behavior. But, homeless youths are not
homeless by election. Thus, because taking money from homeless youths
makes it more, and not less, likely that they will continue to be
homeless, these practices actually encourage the commission of
offenses the laws are meant to dissuade, such as vagrancy and
loitering.
   (i) It is therefore in the best interest of the state to
discourage practices that make it more difficult for youths who are
homeless by the hand of adults to obtain housing on their own,
through their own hard work, against significant odds, without
exculpating them from the offenses they commit. 
   SECTION 1.    The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:  
   (a) There are approximately 1.6 million homeless youths
nationwide, according to the United States Department of Justice.
 
   (b) Homeless youths become homeless because they flee dangerous
homes, are barred from home by their parents, or are former foster
children forced to live on their own at 18 years of age.  
   (c) Homeless youths are routinely ticketed for offenses that are
the inevitable symptoms of homelessness. These offenses include
truancy, loitering, curfew violations, and illegal lodging. 

   (d) The California Research Bureau has documented that if a
homeless youth fails to show up to contest or pay a ticket, that
homeless youth's wages or bank accounts may be garnished.  
   (e) Garnishment of the wages and savings of a homeless youth makes
it far more difficult for homeless youths to rent their own
apartments and end their homelessness by their own willpower and
initiative.  
   (f) Moreover, because taking money from homeless youths makes it
more, and not less, likely that they will continue to be homeless,
these practices actually encourage the commission of offenses the
laws are meant to dissuade, including illegal lodging and loitering.
 
   (g) It is therefore in the best interest of the state to
discourage wage and bank account garnishment practices that make it
more difficult for youths who are homeless by the hand of adults to
obtain housing through their own hard work without exculpating them
from the offenses they commit. 
  SEC. 2.  Section 1463.011 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
   1463.011.  (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, if a
court, during the course of its routine  efforts 
 process  to collect fees, fines, forfeitures, or other
penalties imposed by a court due to  a citation issued for 
the violation of a state or local law, obtains information indicating
that a person under 25 years of age, who has  not paid a
ticket   an outstanding unpaid citation  for
truancy, loitering, curfew violations, or illegal lodging, is
homeless or has no permanent address, the court shall not garnish the
wages or levy against bank accounts of that person until that person
is older than 25 years of age, as that age is recorded by that
person's credit report or other document already in the possession of
 , or previously provided to,  the court.
   (b) For purposes of this section a person is considered to be
"homeless" or as having "no permanent address" if that person does
not have a fixed, regular, adequate nighttime residence, or if that
person resides in any of the following:
   (1) The home of a person who is not his or her parent or legal
guardian.
   (2) A motel, hotel, or campground.
   (3) An emergency transitional shelter or hospital.
   (4) A public or private place that is not designed or ordinarily
used for a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings,
including, but not limited to, a park or other public space, an
abandoned building, an automobile or other vehicle, or a bus or train
station.
   (c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a court
from engaging in any other lawful debt collection activities.
   (d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require a court
to perform any further investigation or financial screening into any
matter beyond the scope of its regular duties.
   (e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the
Judicial Council from altering any best practices or recommendations
for collection programs pursuant to Section 1463.010.