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Honorable Governor Gavin Newsom
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, California 95814
sent via email to leg.unit@gov.ca.gov
RE: AB 1309 (Gómez Reyes) – Request for Signature
Dear Governor Newsom:
I write to you in support of AB 1309, a bill that would help curtail the epidemic of unsafe evictions from California nursing homes.
Nursing home evictions are typically haphazard, inappropriate, and dangerous. When residents’ lucrative Medicare coverage ends, often days or weeks after their admission, facilities have enormous financial incentives to evict them in favor of new residents with fresh Medicare coverage. Evictions are closely tied to profitability which is why residents are often rushed home with inadequate care or sent to motels or homeless shelters.
Bad evictions have long been one of the most common complaints filed against nursing homes. In recent years, the problem of illegal evictions has been reported by local and national media and federal government oversight agencies and has led to several noteworthy lawsuits filed by state and local prosecutors.
Under current law, nursing homes need only check a box on an eviction notice to justify its reason for an eviction. There is no requirement to provide any details to support its reasoning. In Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly (RCFEs), eviction notices must include “specific facts to permit determination of the date, place, witnesses, and circumstances concerning” the reason for discharge. Nursing home residents do not get this information and are thus significantly hampered in their ability to fight their eviction.
AB 1309 clarifies that nursing homes must tell residents the basis for their evictions as well as share their discharge plan and summary. This information is already required to be in the residents’ medical records. Mandating that it be shared with residents will enable them to better defend against inappropriate and unsafe evictions on appeal.
Please sign AB 1309.
Sincerely,
[Your name]