California’s CARE Act is cruel and inhumane. It’s not the answer to solving homelessness | Opinion

The CARE Act is a controversial new law developed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and big city mayors looking to rid streets of encampments. The act, which creates a civil court system to make medical decisions for people with severe mental health disabilities, such as schizophrenia and psychosis, will disappoint those who think this is a solution to those problems.

In recognition of our mandate to protect and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, Disability Rights California opposed the CARE Act with a broad coalition, including the Western Center on Law and Poverty and the Public Interest Law Project, as well as leaders on homelessness, racial justice and disability rights.

While our hearts go out to families and friends desperate to help a loved one, it is reprehensible to give them false hope with this program, which is unsupported by data and does nothing to significantly scale up the availability of mental health services.

Similarly, the act will not make a dent in the state’s housing crisis — the leading factor in homelessness — because it does not provide sufficient funding for permanent supportive housing.

Newsom’s recent announcement on housing investments does little to reassure us because the governor may only spend funds previously allocated; CARE Court relies on existing, insufficient housing programs.

The CARE Act establishes an involuntary, court-ordered treatment system that strips individuals with mental health disabilities of their right to make their own decisions about their lives. It relies on court orders and coercion and involves consequences such as conservatorships and institutionalization which significantly deprive individuals of their liberty for failure to comply.

“Our mental health system is already underfunded, understaffed and going through a crisis of its own,” said Kelechi Ubozoh, a leader in California’s mental health peer movement. “We should be moving in the direction of alternatives that are human rights based and center the voice of people with lived experiences.”

Based on stigma and stereotypes of people with mental illness experiencing homelessness, we also believe the CARE Act furthers institutional racism. Because of long-standing discrimination in housing, employment, healthcare, education and policing, Black and brown Californians represent most of the unhoused population, a target group for the act.

Furthermore, Mental Health America has found that Black men are more likely than their white counterparts to be over-diagnosed with psychotic disorders — such as schizophrenia — which also makes them more likely to be the subject of a CARE Act petition.

The CARE Act could also harm survivors of domestic violence, which is the third-leading cause of homelessness in the country.

Under this act, a broad range of people, including family members who may be perpetrators of domestic violence, can file a petition against their victims. It also allows for these same family members to obtain private and confidential information about an individual’s health, entirely against their will and wishes, and to invoke the court’s authority to subject the individual to coerced treatment.

Rather than rely on an unproven program that tramples on people’s rights without a shred of data to back it up, California should create and fund permanent supportive housing, a necessary springboard toward successful mental health recovery for unhoused people.

We must provide the voluntary wrap-around services and support to accompany this housing. Only then will we truly provide the care that individuals with mental health disabilities deserve.

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