AB 2802, authored by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein, was signed into law in 2023 and went into effect on Jan 1, 2024. AB 2802 requires the state to allow transition age youth, in partnership with their care providers, to have a choice in their living arrangements in transitional housing programming. It prohibits county contracts that assign housing slots by gender and instead allows for gender flexibility in alignment with youth needs and preferences.
Two years into implementation, our panel of experts from California Alliance of Child and Family Services and housing providers will discuss circumstances when this law has resulted in positive placement matches, such as a sibling set that had initially been refused an apartment sharing opportunity, but subsequently were allowed to live together immediately following the signing of the bill. The panel will also discuss situations where improvements still need to be made to maximize housing options for youth. For example, there are contracts that specifically state that an individual should be placed in a slot with their identified gender, but do not account for non-binary youth, or that youth may feel safer sharing spaces with someone that is not the same identified gender. While this law does not prevent programs from targeting specific populations of focus who may express preferences such as survivors of domestic violence, commercially sexually exploited children and others, it aims to provide flexibility to meet individual needs. The panel will offer recommendations on how to optimize opportunities to make best decisions alongside transition age youth themselves and explore why this is important for placement safety and stability.
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