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Legislators from rural districts press to pause CONREP placements, push for transitional housing and new laws
Summary
Several state senators and assemblymembers whose districts include the High Desert and Antelope Valley said repeated placements of conditional-release participants have concentrated risk in their communities and urged statutory changes, program suspension or development of transitional housing.
Lawmakers representing communities that have received multiple CONREP placements told the Joint Legislative Audit Committee the program is failing their constituents and urged rapid reforms.
Assemblymember Eduardo Carrillo said his High Desert district had three CONREP placements and described constituent confusion about how an out-of-state vendor was selected to help locate housing. “There seems to be ambiguity on how the process works,” Carrillo said. He asked whether the state could restart placement contracting through a new RFP that would allow in-state vendors to bid.
Senator Jones called the system “broken.” “If you add those two convicted and the 18 people who were returned to the Department of State Hospitals…that’s actually a 37 percent failure rate,” he said, arguing the program needs “serious reforms.”
Assemblymember DeMaio said the title of the auditor’s report risked misleading readers and urged stronger action, including temporary suspension of placements: “Stop placing ******** violent predators in residential communities,” she said, calling on Governor Newsom to act by executive order if necessary.
Why it matters: Several lawmakers said placements were repeatedly concentrated in particular counties or regions — notably parts of San Diego County and the Antelope Valley — and that rural areas lacked services and fast law enforcement response times.
Specific requests and proposals
- Transitional housing: Senator Jones and others said a state-run transitional housing option could serve as an intermediate placement while community housing searches proceed; Parks recommended studying state-owned transitional housing but DSH declined to adopt it.
- Legislation: Senator Jones said he has a bill (SP 380) in Assembly Appropriations that would require DSH to consider developing a transitional housing program. Lawmakers signaled bipartisan support for exploring statutory fixes to address county-of-domicile rules and extraordinary-circumstances processes.
- Vendor and procurement scrutiny: Several members asked whether Liberty Healthcare’s long-standing contract (Liberty has run the CONREP program in California since 2003) should be reexamined, and questioned whether landlords and neighbors had been adequately informed about placements.
Community impacts described
Legislators representing rural districts described long sheriff response times, limited behavioral-health resources, and homeowner and neighborhood pushback when placements were announced. Assemblymember Carrillo said communities felt “like we keep getting these individuals.” Senator Valladares added that in some rural parts a routine call can take hours for law enforcement to respond.
What legislators asked for next
Members signaled plans for follow-up: potential statutory fixes to SB 1034’s extraordinary-circumstances provisions, support for targeted bills such as SP 380 on transitional housing, and continued oversight to test whether DSH and Liberty implement audit recommendations. Several speakers asked the governor and state agencies to act quickly if local conditions continue to show concentrated placements and public-safety risk.
