(a) State law establishes a procedure for the appointment of a conservator for a person who is determined to be gravely disabled as a result of a mental health disorder or an impairment by chronic alcoholism. Chapter 3 of Part 1 of Division 5 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code. State law also establishes a procedure for the appointment of a conservator for individuals who are unable to properly provide for their needs for physical health, food, clothing and shelter, and for individuals who are substantially unable to manage their finances or resist fraud or undue influence. Division 4 of the California Probate Code.
(b) Notwithstanding State and City laws and programs designed to provide care for persons who are unable to care for themselves, some people fall through the cracks. For example, conservatorships under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, Chapter 3 of Part 1 of Division 5 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code (“LPS conservatorships”), do not take into consideration substance use disorders other than alcoholism. Therefore, individuals with a serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorder other than alcohol can be ineligible for LPS conservatorships, notwithstanding their mental health disorder and resulting needs.
(c) Individuals grappling with severe mental illness and a debilitating substance use disorder are often difficult to treat under existing short-term psychiatric programs and outpatient drug treatments available outside of conservatorship; these individuals often cycle in and out of treatment and have difficulty maintaining stable housing. As of the adoption of this Division IV, there is no avenue to conserve individuals in a supportive housing environment that provides wraparound services to those individuals.
(d) S.B. 1045 (Housing Conservatorship for Persons with Serious Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders), codified at Chapter 5 of Part 1 of Division 5 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code, authorizes the counties of San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles, to establish procedures for the appointment of a conservator for a person who is incapable of caring for the person’s own health and well-being due to a serious mental illness and substance use disorder, for the purpose of providing the least restrictive and most clinically appropriate alternative needed for the protection of the person.
(e) The Department of Public Health (“DPH”), the Human Services Agency (“HSA”), and the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (“HSH”) developed a plan (“the Housing Conservatorship Plan”) to implement Chapter 5 of Part 1 of Division 5 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code, in consultation with representatives of disability rights advocacy groups, a provider of permanent supportive housing services, the county health department, law enforcement, labor unions, and staff from hospitals located in San Francisco. The Housing Conservatorship Plan is available in Board of Supervisors File No. 181042.
(f) As required by S.B. 1045, as codified in subsection (b)(2) of Section 5450 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code, the Board of Supervisors held public hearings on May 13, 2019, and May 20, 2019, where staff from DPH, HSA, and HSH presented the Housing Conservatorship Plan to the Board of Supervisors, and provided testimony concerning the available resources for the implementation of Chapter 5 of Part 1 of Division 5 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code. Based on materials and testimony presented at the hearing, the Board of Supervisors finds that the services set forth in subsection (b)(2) of Section 5450 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code are available in, at a minimum, sufficient quantity, resources, and funding levels to serve the identified population that the Board of Supervisors intends to serve in connection with the implementation of the Housing Conservatorship Program.
(g) The City finds that no voluntary mental health program serving adults, no children’s mental health program, and no services or supports provided in conservatorships established pursuant to Division 4 (commencing with Section 1400) of the California Probate Code or conservatorships established pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 5350) of the California Welfare and Institutions Code), including availability of conservators, will be reduced as a result of implementation of the Housing Conservatorship Program.
(Added by Ord. 108-19, File No. 181042, App. 6/21/2019, Eff. 7/22/2019)