Schiavo announces bill package focused on affordability and safety

Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, introduced a legislative package for the 2025 session with 18 new bills. 

The package of bills prioritizes affordability, community safety, housing and homelessness, and more.  

“We need to take bold action to tackle the challenges our community is facing — from the housing affordability crisis to financial hardships that push people further into instability,” Schiavo said in a news release. “These bills are about cutting red tape, expediting action, providing real support for families, and making sure people have the foundation they need to thrive.” 

The release provided the following summaries of several of the bills in the package: 

• Expediting State Housing Permits (Assembly Bill 301): The bill would ensure that housing projects are not stalled by removing red tape and establishing firm timelines for state agencies involved in housing development reviews. The bill requires state agencies to follow the same timelines required of counties for completeness checks and permit approvals. If a state agency fails to meet these deadlines, the permit will be deemed approved, or the review period will be considered complete, allowing housing development to move forward without roadblocks or further delays. 

• Patient Debt Prevention Act (AB 1312): The bill is designed to reduce medical costs by requiring hospitals to prescreen homeless patients, uninsured patients, Medi-Cal recipients, and those with over $500 in medical debt for eligibility to charity care or reduced-cost programs before they are discharged. “Californians should not avoid hospital care out of fear they can’t pay the bill. No family should struggle to pay off avoidable hospital debt as a parent or child is recovering from an illness,” Schiavo said in the release.  

• Foster Youth Housing Stability (AB 534): The bill is designed to help foster youth service providers that support transition-age youth to more reliably access private financing to purchase housing. By amending Transitional Housing Program contracts, the bill decreases the risk of investment and increases the availability of stable, long-term housing for youth exiting foster care, reducing homelessness among this vulnerable population. 

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