(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) Community alternatives should be expanded to reduce the need for mental health and substance use disorder treatment in jails and prisons. (2) The number of people with serious mental illnesses incarcerated in county jails and the stateâs prison system continues to rise. (3) A significant number of individuals with serious mental illness have a co-occurring substance use disorder. (4) The treatment and recovery of individuals with mental health disorders and substance use disorders are important for all levels of government, business, and the local community. (b) Funds appropriated by the Legislature to the authority for the purposes of this section shall be used to establish a competitive grant program designed to promote diversion programs and services by increasing and expanding mental health treatment facilities, substance use disorder treatment facilities, and trauma-centered service facilities, including facilities providing services for sex trafficking victims, domestic violence victims, and victims of other violent crimes, in local communities, through the provision of infrastructure grants. (c) Grant awards made by the authority shall be used to expand local resources for facility acquisition or renovation, equipment acquisition, and applicable program startup or expansion costs to increase availability and capacity to diversion programs described in paragraph (b). (d) Funds appropriated by the Legislature to the authority for the purposes of this section shall be made available to selected counties, city or county, or counties acting jointly. (e) The authority shall develop selection criteria to expand local resources, including those described in subdivision (b), and processes for awarding grants after consulting with representatives and interested stakeholders from the mental health treatment community, substance use disorder treatment community, and trauma recovery center providers, including, but not limited to, county behavioral health directors, service providers, consumer organizations, and other appropriate interests, such as health care providers, law enforcement, trial courts, and formerly incarcerated individuals as determined by the authority. The authority shall monitor that grants result in cost-effective expansion of the number of community-based resources in regions and communities selected for funding. The authority shall also take into account at least the following criteria and factors when selecting recipients of grants and determining the amount of grant awards: (1) Description of need, including, at a minimum, a comprehensive description of the project, community need, population to be served, linkage with other public systems of health and mental health care, linkage with local law enforcement, social services, and related assistance, as applicable, and a description of the request for funding. (2) Ability to serve the target population, which includes individuals eligible for Medi-Cal and individuals eligible for county health and mental health services. (3) Geographic areas or regions of the state to be eligible for grant awards, which may include rural, suburban, and urban areas, and may include use of the five regional designations utilized by the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California. (4) Level of community engagement and commitment to project completion. (5) Financial support that, in addition to a grant that may be awarded by the authority, will be sufficient to complete and operate the project for which the grant from the authority is awarded. (6) Ability to provide additional funding support to the project, including public or private funding, federal tax credits and grants, foundation support, and other collaborative efforts. (7) Memorandum of understanding among project partners, if applicable. (8) Information regarding the legal status of the collaborating partners, if applicable. (9) Ability to
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