Our governor is racing through the legislature with a bill that will bring huge changes in how homeless people are treated in California.  The so-called Care Court bill is quickly moving through the committees in both senate and assembly without a single “no” vote.  The people who are saying “no” are disability and homeless advocates who are united in calling this an unacceptable racist and classist plan that will harm the very people it claims it will help.

In this program, two of the people who best understand the perils of the Care Court Bill will tell us why it has caused such fury.  Both have lived expertise in mental health and the criminal justice system and one of them was homeless for almost a decade.

Vanessa Ramos serves on Disability Rights California’s Public Policy team.  She is the Co-Founder of The Healing Heart Project. She brings her experience navigating both the justice and public mental health system as a person living with disabilities to her work.  She shapes policies and create positive outcomes rooted in self-advocacy for people with disabilities. Inspired by her peer mentor, Tina Wooton, Vanessa is focused on implementing wellness strategies within California’s peer mental health workforce and the prison system.  She is a harm reductionist.

Malini Olono lives with complex PTSD, spent nearly a decade in homelessness, and jailed for the non-crime of being human without a home.  Before and during the Reagan years, she worked as a psych tech with people living with psychosis.  She has seen both sides of this issue.

Join the campaign to stop this bill.  Tell your state senators and assembly members about your opposition and ask every organization you support to join the opposition coalition.  Contact Vanessa Ramos at Disability Rights California to sign on: [email protected]

Western Regional Advocacy Project’s Statement on the CARECourt.

Produced by Adrienne Lauby and Jacob Lesner-Buxton.

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