Assemblywoman Suzette Martinez Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, released a statement on her thoughts following Governor Gavin Newsom’s signing of the CARE Courts legislation. 

CARE Court is legislation set to provide individuals with severe mental health and substance use disorders the care and services they need to get healthy. 

“When it comes to our homelessness crisis, the status quo is inhumane. I voted for CARE Courts because they will be an important tool to get the mentally ill and drug addicted off our streets and into treatment,” Valladares said. 

Newsom’s Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court proposal swept through the state Legislature with resounding approval from Democrats and Republicans in both houses on Aug. 31. 

The proposal was authored by Senators Tom Umberg of Garden Grove and Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton through Senate Bill 1338.

In the new system, family, close friends, first responders and behavioral health workers are able to submit a petition to the court, signed under penalty of perjury, on behalf of a person with untreated schizophrenia spectrum or other psychotic disorders that shows why they qualify for CARE Court. 

In order to qualify, the person must be either unlikely to survive safely without supervision or be a threat to themselves or others without support. The petition must include either an affidavit from a licensed health care professional who examined them or tried to — or prove the person was recently detained under intensive treatment.

As a result of the signing of the legislation, California’s 58 counties will be tasked with setting up new court systems to address the needs of people with severe mental illness in the next two years. 

The pilot counties are San Francisco, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Glenn. 

“We can and must do more, but this is an important step in the right direction,” said Valladares.

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