Bill will allow housing for homeless at Patton State Hospital

Asssemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino) has introduced a bill to provide housing and mental health services to the region’s homeless population at Patton State Hospital.

Homelessness has been on the rise recently, increasing 175% over the past five years in San Bernardino, causing the city council to declare homelessness an emergency in the city.

Ramos stated, “We need to look at this as an ‘us’ – not a ‘them’ issue. My bill, AB 349, allows for unused state surplus property at Patton to be leased to other entities for a much-needed asset for our chronically homeless who account for more than 44% of those on our local streets. Chronically homeless means they have been without shelter for a year or more and have a disabling condition such as mental illness, a chronic health condition or a physical disability. By getting to the root of our chronically homeless numbers, we can take a huge step in reversing the increases we are seeing.”

He added, “That is a travesty that can be remedied by leveraging state and local resources to provide stable housing, services and treatment. It requires collaboration and will, but we must reverse the trends we’ve seen for almost a decade.”

AB 349 would authorize the Department of General Services with the consent of the Department of State Hospitals to lease a building located at the Patton State Hospital to a nonprofit corporation or local government to provide housing and mental health services to unsheltered individuals.

The bill has been approved by the Senate Governmental Organization Committee and next it will be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee.