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AB 37

Workforce development: mental health service providers: homelessness.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Sade Elhawary

AB 37 requires the California Workforce Development Board to study expanding the mental health workforce serving people experiencing homelessness, signaling future legislation.

Re-referred to Com. on L. & E.
#workforcedevelopment #homelessness #mentalhealthserviceproviders
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Bill Summary · AB 37

AB 37 — Workforce development: mental health service providers: homelessness

Author: Elhawary
Introduced: December 2, 2024
Status: Re‑referred to Assembly Committee on Labor & Employment (3/17/2025)
Code section added: Unemployment Insurance Code §14014.5

Purpose / Intent

AB 37 directs the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) to conduct a study on how to expand the workforce of mental health service providers who deliver services to people experiencing homelessness. The bill also states the Legislature’s intent to pursue future legislation to expand that workforce. The bill defines “homeless persons” to include individuals or families who lack (or are perceived to lack) a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, or whose primary nighttime residence is a shelter, the street, a vehicle, or an unauthorized/uninhabitable structure.

Key provisions

  • Adds Section 14014.5 to the Unemployment Insurance Code requiring the CWDB to study ways to expand the workforce of mental health providers serving homeless persons.
  • Includes legislative intent language that signals forthcoming legislation to address workforce expansion.
  • Provides a statutory definition of “homeless persons” consistent with the bill’s scope.

The bill does not itself appropriate funds or create new programs; it imposes a study requirement on the CWDB. No deadlines, required deliverables, or funding sources for the study are specified in the text.

Who is affected

  • California Workforce Development Board: required to undertake the study.
  • Mental health service providers and clinical workforce (e.g., clinicians, counselors, peer specialists) who serve people experiencing homelessness — potential subject of recommendations.
  • State and local agencies (counties, health, and homeless services) that coordinate care and workforce development.
  • Educational institutions, training programs, and workforce intermediaries that might be engaged to expand training and recruitment pipelines.
  • People experiencing homelessness, as eventual beneficiaries if subsequent policy/actions expand provider capacity.

Procedural / timeline notes

  • Introduced Dec 2, 2024; printed Dec 3, 2024.
  • Referred and amended in committee; most recently re‑referred to the Assembly Committee on Labor & Employment on March 17, 2025.
  • Digest indicates majority vote requirement and no appropriation attached. The bill currently requires committee consideration; no final report, deadline, or enacted requirements for the CWDB study are specified in the text.

Potential impact

Because AB 37 only mandates a study and expresses legislative intent, immediate effects are limited. The study could produce findings and recommendations that prompt later legislation, budget requests, or programmatic changes to increase recruitment, training, credentialing, retention, and deployment of mental health workers serving homeless populations. Any concrete changes—funding, new programs, regulatory adjustments—would require subsequent legislative or administrative action.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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