What is the California Legislature Doing About Homelessness This Year? These are the Bills to Watch

by Marisa Kendall/CalMatters

Bills moving through the Legislature this year address state-funded sober housing, RVs parked on city streets and homelessness prevention.

As this year’s legislative session speeds to a close, a handful of bills focused on the state’s homelessness crisis have made the cut so far.

Though homelessness improved slightly last year, there are still an estimated 182,000 Californians with nowhere to call home.

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The Cost of Homelessness: Subsidies and Social Housing

by Zach Bollinger

In the final two weeks of June, organizations, nonprofits, activists and concerned citizens assembled at City Hall, largely under the banner of The People’s Budget Coalition, to demand, well, a budget for the people, not a budget for the billionaires, speculators, and landlords. This coalition lobbied for a variety of interests, including funding for arts programs, women’s safety and rights organizations, maintaining Free City College,

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Free City

by Sabrina K. Hall

Sabrina Hall in front of San Francisco City Hall at a People’s Budget action on June 18, 2026. Funding for Free City College, the program that ensures residents free tuition, was endangered until supervisors restored funding in last-minute negotiations. Photo by Zach Bollinger.

They want to audit the ambition of the block,

Put a price tag on the pivot,

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One Meal a Day: California’s Unspoken Food Crisis

by Kenyota G.

Living on a fixed income in one of the many Single Room Occupancies (SROs), Senior Assisted Living Units, or in a navigation center can prove challenging. At no time has that challenge become more manifest than recently with passage of H.R. 1—Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Act.” That act contained wording that eliminated the federal government’s responsibility for providing 100% of the costs for CalFresh recipients. As of June 1,

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