SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) In 2020 and continuing into 2021, across the state, nation, and world, the COVID-19 pandemic has had drastic effects on the public’s health and economy.
(b) As of May 4, 2021, COVID-19 has claimed over 60,000 lives in California.
(c) In addition to being a catastrophic public health crisis, COVID-19 has claimed over 20,000,000 jobs statewide.
(d) A 2017 study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which looks at how persons in poverty, with low incomes, and of low socioeconomic status (SES) experience disasters, states that “people of low SES are more vulnerable in the face of disasters and are more likely to suffer more serious consequences during impact, from property damage to homelessness to physical and financial impacts.”
(e) Additionally, the article states that the economic impact of disasters impacts people with lower income, “Because people of low SES have fewer assets, they have less to lose, and when they experience financial loss in disasters, a given amount of loss has a greater financial impact on them than it will on people of higher SES, as the loss is proportionally greater relative to a poorer person’s assets than it will be relative to the assets of someone of
higher SES.”
(f) A September 2020 Pew Research Center study looking at the effects of COVID-19 on Americans’ financial situations found that “One-in-four adults have had trouble paying their bills since the coronavirus outbreak started, a third have dipped into savings or retirement accounts to make ends meet, and about one-in-six have borrowed money from friends or family or gotten food from a food bank.”
(g) These types of experiences continue to be more common among adults with lower incomes.
(h) In recent written testimony provided to the United States House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, the Director of Emergency Services stated that “the State of California arguably faces the most complex and severe disaster conditions in the nation and these challenges and complexities grow in magnitude each
year. In the past decade, California has experienced every conceivable type of natural and manmade disaster including drought, earthquake, flood, catastrophic wildfire, mudslides, dam failure, cyber security attacks, oil spills, natural gas leak, civil unrest, terrorism, and tsunami. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has put our emergency management system to the test.”
(i) In California, it is not a matter of “if” a major earthquake or wildfire occur, it is a matter of “when.”
(j) Scientific evidence strongly indicates that California will experience worsening wildfires due to climate change and that California is overdue for its next major earthquake.
(k) Increased residential development in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has placed more residents in the potential path of destruction. In total, over 11,000,000
people (approximately 25 percent of the state’s population) live in high fire risk areas, including the WUI.
(l) In California, the 2020 Fire Siege claimed the lives of 28 civilians and three firefighters.
(m) The 2018 Camp Fire claimed the lives of 85 people.
(n) Since 2017, California wildfires have claimed the lives of over 140 people.
(o) The United States Geological Survey and other scientists estimate a 72-percent probability that at least one earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater, capable of causing widespread destruction, will strike the San Francisco Bay area before 2044. For the Los Angeles region, the same model forecasts a 60-percent probability that an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater will occur before 2044.
(p) The cost for funeral services can change from year to year.
(q) According to the National Funeral Directors Association, for 2019, the median cost of a funeral with viewing and burial was $7,640, and if a vault is included—something that is typically required by a cemetery—the median cost was $9,135. For many individuals, especially low-income individuals and those facing unemployment due to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the costs for funeral expenses for a deceased loved one may be exorbitant and may cause financial stress.
(r) This act differs from programs offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in that it would allow for the assistance of expenses yet to be paid to be sent to the service provider directly, relieving the applicant from struggling to come up with the money
upfront.
(s) It is the intent of the Legislature that moneys be appropriated for purposes of the bill’s provisions following a declaration of a state of emergency.