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President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order downgrading cannabis from a Schedule I substance — a category reserved for drugs deemed to have no acceptable medical use, such as heroin, LSD and ecstasy — to a Schedule III, opening new avenues for medical research into its potential benefits.

Speaking from the Oval Office this morning, Trump, who referred to himself as the “president of common sense,” said the reclassification will allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to research medical cannabis and cannabidiol (CBD) as potential alternatives to opioid painkillers.

“This reclassification order will make it far easier to conduct marijuana-related medical research, allowing us to study benefits, potential dangers and future treatments,” Trump said during a press briefing at the Oval Office. “In other words, you now have a much larger sample, and you’ll be able to see if it’s as good as many people say. I mean, people say it is beyond good. And you’ll be able to find that out.”

The executive order, Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research, directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to finalize the rescheduling process, which began under the Biden administration in December 2024. The order removes decades-old regulatory hurdles that have prevented the FDA from researching both cannabis and CBD, the non-psychoactive compound derived from hemp.

“The reschedule opens the door to actually be able to accelerate the rate at which we can do research and discovery,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), said at today’s press briefing. “Yes, cannabis can be addictive … but we cannot close our eyes to research and the opportunity that we are hearing from patients that, for some of them, cannabis can solve their problem.”

Trump emphasized that the federal order “doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape or form,” nor does it “sanction use as a recreational drug.”

You can watch this morning’s press briefing in the video up top and read the full text of the executive order here.

PREVIOUSLY: Trump is About to Reclassify Cannabis, Easing Restrictions on Banking, Taxes and Research, According to Multiple News Outlets

The Arcata City Council went over a few things worth covering last night: an update on the large parking lot in the Bottoms Cal Poly Humboldt is planning on constructing, and the results of research done on the future Valley West Community Center. 

Foster Campus Connectivity Project

Cal Poly Humboldt’s Michael Fisher, their Interim Vice President for Administration and Finance, presented an update on the Foster Campus Connectivity Project. When construction is finished around Sep. 2026, the land will have space for 212 cars and will also eventually (we’re talking long-term — like, 10-20 years long-term) include an athletics complex, housing, a softball and soccer field, an NCAA-compliant track, and space for an additional 800 cars. 

The highlight of the presentation was the reveal of a plan to turn an old railroad track into a trail from the lot to the intersection of Foster Avenue and Heather Lane. From there, it’d be about a mile to campus. The idea is that commuting students — or ones that live in the Hinarr Hu Moulik dorms, which have a parking lot with far fewer spaces than there are people living there — could drive to the lot and then walk or cycle to campus proper. 

There isn’t currently any electricity or running water on the land. Fisher said the university was working on ways to run basic infrastructure to the property. When that’s done, he said they’d be able to install lighting along the road and on the property. 

CPH is working through the CEQA process during this initial phase, which will include wetland mitigation for a wetland on the property.

The other option is that they take a shuttle to campus, one that swings by every 15 minutes. That idea has some Bottoms residents chafed, one of whom took the opportunity to comment on the plan. Brittney Villigran claimed to have talked to 50 of their neighbors and didn’t hear a single positive remark about the scheme, mostly because of the increased traffic from the shuttles and the cars. Foster Avenue’s numerous 90-degree blind turns also raised some concerns about pedestrian safety. 

“It’s not as rosy as Mike is saying,” Villigran said. “Would you want shuttles going down your street every 15 minutes?”

Valley West Community Center

The other main item on the agenda was a presentation from representatives from the Environmental Services and the Community Development departments, and from private contracting groups Housing Tools and Salazar Architect. They went over results from a study done on a future community center in Valley West, identifying a few potential sites and what community members want from it. 

They conducted two in-person and five online “visioning” sessions, asking Valley West residents what they wanted from the center. The results from that, plus a survey sent out to residents, show that many of them want a place to socialize and exercise, a food pantry, youth-focused programming, a library branch, public WiFi and computers, and healthcare, and a huge variety of other things. 

The researchers shared a few locations in Valley West that might be worth considering. After tallying up the most mentioned amenities and estimating how much space they’d take up, they claim 18,000 square feet would be about the target. 

Site one is a vacant lot south of the Valley West Shopping Center at 4800 Valley West Boulevard. Site two is the former Laurel Tree School at 4555 Valley West; site three is the Woodsman Hall, 4700 Valley West. (For a comprehensive breakdown on their respective pros and cons, click this link.)

None of them are already owned by the city, something that drives the cost of the project up dramatically. The researchers included a few other recently-built California community centers in their study for comparison, which cost between $12 million and $77 million. The process is only in its infancy (the study was funded by a $250,000 federal grant), but councilmembers were wary of encroaching costs and directed staff to find plenty of grants to fund it. 

Councilmember Meredith Matthews said she felt the report was “duplicative,” a viewpoint shared by a couple other councilmembers. Many of the programs the center could offer are already done by Community United of North Arcata. 

“Just to remind folks — we look at this and it’s amazing, all the things we could do — but just to remind the city, we don’t own any of those properties,” councilmember Stacy Atkins-Salazar said. “…Not to be the downer, but just to be the realistic person so we’re not all wondering when construction begins — we don’t have funding for it.”

Other Stuff

Councilmembers voted to make Eye Street a permit-required parking zone; students living in the new Hinarr Hu Moulik dorms had made parking difficult for residents on the street. There’s a 30-day grace period for those without a permit. 

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Dec. 16 and 17, 2025, deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Enforcement Team served a series of four search warrants as part of an ongoing investigation into human trafficking at a state-licensed marijuana cultivation site. Two warrants were served in the 37000 block of Mattole Road in Petrolia. Additional search warrants were served in the 7000 block of Benbow Drive and the 800 block of Redway Drive. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Cannabis Control assisted with the service of the warrants.

At the licensed cultivation site, deputies contacted and provided resources to five victims of labor exploitation. During the operation, deputies located a total of 14,000 pounds of illegal processed marijuana and four firearms.

Deputies arrested and booked Emrah Cevik, 31, of Oklahoma into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of Possession of Marijuana for Sales (Health and Safety Code 11359), and Failure to Obey a Court Order (Penal Code 166). Several other suspects have not been arrested, but additional charges, including those pertaining to labor trafficking, are expected to be sought.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip Line at 707-268-2539.

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Press release from Green Diamond:

Green Diamond Resource Company (Green Diamond) announced the completion of the Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement, a significant conservation project in partnership with the Northcoast Regional Land Trust (NRLT) and with funding support from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Forest Legacy Program. This project ensures sustainable forest management, the protection of wildlife habitat and provides lasting public benefits to the surrounding communities.

The 2,815-acre Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement permanently conserves working forestlands and a critical watershed in Humboldt County. Lindsay Creek serves as an important spawning tributary to the Mad River (Baduwa’t), supporting Coho and Chinook salmon, summer and winter run steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout. With the adjacent Van-Eck Forest Conservation Easement and McKinleyville Community Forest, this easement creates a 5,200- acre expanse of protected lands, which provides important habitat for these vulnerable species and a corridor for many more. Thanks to all project partners, the wild, working and scenic values of the Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement will remain protected for future generations.

“This project reflects our long-term commitment to balancing sustainable forest management with conservation and community benefit,” said Pete Jackson, Vice President and General Manager, Green Diamond. “The Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement completes a broader conservation strategy for Green Diamond’s McKinleyville property which included the transfer of roughly 600 acres to the McKinleyville Community Services District in 2023 for the establishment of the McKinleyville Community Forest”.

The vision for the McKinleyville Community Forest and the Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement originated in the 2002 McKinleyville Community Plan, reflecting the community’s commitment to preserving the forested corridor between McKinleyville and Fieldbrook and preventing future development. As the fastest growing population center in Humboldt —having expanded nearly 20% since 2000 — McKinleyville faces increasing development pressure. The Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement ensures that the property will remain a productive forestland and critical wildlife corridor by protecting it from subdivision and residential development.

The Northcoast Regional Land Trust, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving wild and working lands across northwestern California, will hold and monitor the easement in perpetuity. The easement ensures that the property will remain a productive forestland and critical wildlife corridor by protecting it from subdivision and residential development.

“The Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement represents a collaborative approach to conservation that supports both the environment and local economies,” said Daniel Ehresman, NRLT Executive Director. “Through the Forest Legacy Program and partnerships with landowners like Green Diamond, we can protect landscapes that matter most to our region.”

Funding for the project was provided through the CAL FIRE Forest Legacy Program, which is supported by California Climate Investments, a state initiative that supports conservation ofprivate forestlands threatened by conversion to non-forest uses. The program helps preserve

California’s forest heritage while promoting sustainable forestry and enhancing public values such as clean water, carbon storage, and wildlife habitat.

The Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Invest, formerly known as Cap-and-Trade, dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.

The Lindsay Creek Conservation Easement adds to a growing network of conserved forestlands across Northern California that together support resilient ecosystems, local communities, and the long-term sustainability of California’s natural resources.

About Green Diamond Resource Company

Green Diamond Resource Company is a sixth-generation, family-owned forest products company that owns and manages working forests in California, Oregon, Washington, Montana and the southeastern United States. The company is committed to environmental stewardship, sustainable forestry, and community engagement. Learn more at www.greendiamond.com

About Northcoast Regional Land Trust

The Northcoast Regional Land Trust is a nonprofit organization which conserves wild and working lands across northwestern California for the benefit of the region’s farms, forests, watersheds, wildlife, and people. Since 2000, NRLT has protected over 68,000 acres through voluntary partnerships with landowners, tribes, public agencies, and community support. Learn more at https://ncrlt.org/.

About CAL FIRE’s Forest Legacy Program

The CAL FIRE Forest Legacy Program partners with landowners, conservation organizations, and local communities to protect privately owned forestlands through conservation easements and other voluntary measures that prevent forestland conversion and maintain ecological and public benefits.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom two years ago launched a new program called CARE Court that gave hope to families struggling with severe mental illness.

It promised to provide treatment and housing through court-supervised plans that would keep difficult-to-help individuals on track.

We spent much of the past year talking with dozens of people who’ve interacted with CARE Court as participants, petitioners and as employees trying to fulfill the program’s goals.

Here’s a sampling of their experiences.

June Dudas sits outside the San Diego Superior Court in San Diego on Nov. 17, 2025. Dudas delivered a victim statement on behalf of her aunt at the sentencing hearing of her cousin Edward, whom the family twice sought to enroll in the CARE Court program but were denied. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

‘I felt so defeated’

Last summer, June Dudas was in church when she got a text message from her 84-year-old aunt: “He’s here.”

Dudas called back, and, in a whisper, her aunt said she’d locked herself in the bathroom to hide from her son, Ed, who was outside her San Diego home. It was an all-too familiar situation. Over the years, Dudas had helped her aunt fortify her fence, install multiple security cameras and file restraining orders. It was an effort to protect her from a man who, when not gripped by psychosis, was a “gentle giant” who loved animals and made jewelry out of gemstones – but, when at the mercy of his delusions, could turn violent.

This time, Dudas told her aunt, she had a new solution. She had just learned about CARE Court, which she’d heard could compel people into treatment. Dudas’ aunt quickly submitted a CARE Court petition on her son’s behalf.

But when the CARE Court team offered Ed help, he refused, according to Dudas. Saying there was nothing more they could do, a judge dismissed his case.

“I felt so defeated for my cousin,” Dudas said. “It’s like, ‘OK, Eddy, they’re saying that when you’re well enough to understand how sick you are, then they’re ready to help you, but until then you’re on your own, buddy, and there’s nothing they’re going to do for you.’ And it just struck me as very callous.”

Dudas’ aunt tried again with a second petition in October. That one was dismissed as well.

Now, Ed is in jail for violating his mother’s restraining order. Dudas worries that when he gets out, which likely will be early next year, her family will be back where they started: With her and her aunt living in fear, and Ed still not getting the help he needs.

J.M., who prefers to use his initials for privacy, looks out at the San Francisco Bay at Jack London Square, where he walks almost daily for exercise and because he enjoys looking at the water, in Oakland on Dec. 1, 2025. JM received housing support through CARE Court and now lives within walking distance of Jack London. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters/Catchlight

‘Life’s treating me pretty good’

When outreach workers found J.M. in February, he was sleeping on some blankets under an awning in Oakland. He didn’t have a tent, despite the winter cold, and he couldn’t walk due to a foot injury. He wore multiple pairs of pants and socks in an effort to compress his foot and relieve the pain and swelling.

J.M., who had been homeless for several years, asked CalMatters to refer to him using his initials, to protect his privacy.

At first, the county sent J.M. to a psychiatric hospital on a temporary hold. He received treatment for his foot and for his mental health, but said it was frustrating to have no choice in the matter. He found the facility depressing and didn’t like the food.

When he was discharged, CARE Court got him a room in a hotel in downtown Oakland that was converted into temporary housing for clients who need mental health services.

Now, J.M. regularly walks the half mile from the hotel to the waterfront at Jack London Square, where he sits and watches the water.

He wants to go back to school and get his GED diploma. He dropped out of high school in ninth grade, and he’d like to find a tutor to help him with his reading, spelling and vocabulary – areas he’s always struggled with. He’s looking for work, and trying to quit smoking cigarettes.

“It’s been pretty good,” J.M. said. “Life’s treating me pretty good.”

Mary Peters at her home in Riverside, on Nov. 19, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters

‘They were so caring’

CARE Court has been a lifeline for 64-year-old Mary Peters of Riverside. Until then, Peters was navigating her younger sister’s mental illness all on her own.

In addition to her sister, Peters was helping to take care of their father, who had dementia. Meanwhile, her sister bounced in and out of the hospital and homelessness. Sometimes, Peters didn’t know where she was or how to find her. Even if she suspected her sister was hospitalized, hospital staff often wouldn’t give her any information, citing patient privacy.

Peters filed a CARE Court petition on her sister’s behalf in October 2023, and all of that changed. Suddenly, she had people to help her. The CARE Court team tracked down her sister when Peters’ couldn’t, and got her into a sober living facility. When her sister didn’t like that facility, they helped her move somewhere else, Peters said.

“Without the CARE team, it would have been impossible for me to do this,” Peters said. “There were times when I wanted to give up. There were days when you just kind of throw your hands up, if someone is feeling so hopeless and you’re doing everything you can to try to help.”

Peters’ sister graduated from CARE Court earlier this year, in a small courtroom celebration with cupcakes. Now, she lives in her own apartment in Riverside.

Her sister still has her ups and downs, but she seems more clearheaded now, she reconnected with her two adult sons, and she feels less hopeless, Peters said. And she credits CARE Court.

“They were so patient,” Peters said. “They were so caring.”

Antonio Hernandez at his apartment complex in Bakersfield on Nov. 19, 2025. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

‘My sister that I used to know …’

Antonio Hernandez first learned about CARE Court when he saw a flyer that his older sister brought home after being discharged from a treatment facility.

“I was so excited about this CARE Court,” he said. “Oh my gosh, that’s exactly what we need.”

His sister, who has schizophrenia, was stable then, taking medication and talking about getting a job.

Hernandez filed a petition for his sister to enter CARE Court in Kern County. The county’s CARE Court process was rife with delays and extensions, her brother said. In the meantime, he said, his sister was left in limbo and began decompensating.

Eventually, she was evicted from a Bakersfield room and board and transferred to a sober living home, he said. Six months after he first petitioned, he said, his sister signed the CARE agreement. That same day, she was kicked out of the sober living facility, too.

She became homeless, camping in the park and talking to herself, he said. She stopped taking her medication.

“You have to be at your worst for them to help,” he said. “It kind of makes no sense. They expect you to be at your worst to be accepted. At the same time, they expect autonomy from patients to make their own decisions when they’re at their worst.”

He worries about the irreversible damage being done to his sister’s brain.

“My sister that I used to know, I’ll no longer get to have that sister anymore because of their failure, their negligence, and their inability to follow through with what the law states,” he said.

C.M., who prefers to not use her full name, sits in her bedroom at a transitional home provided through CARE Court after receiving treatment for schizophrenia in Oakland on Dec. 1, 2025. She now lives in a single-occupancy room and is preparing to begin classes at Chabot College in January. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters/Catchlight

A life-changing program

C.M., 55, was on the verge of homelessness when CARE Court stepped in last January.

In her 40s, she’d started experiencing bouts of psychosis when she was under extreme stress, with terrifying symptoms that included hearing cruel voices or feeling like her body was being shocked with electricity.

In her 50s, she lost her construction management job because of one of those episodes, and struggled to pay the rent on her San Leandro apartment. Her disability benefits were about $1,600 a month, but her rent was $1,750. She drove for Lyft to try to close the gap, but then her Lyft app started glitching, she said. She knew she couldn’t pay her bills, and the stress sent her spiralling into another episode of psychosis.

In January 2025, one of the EMTs on San Leandro’s mental health crisis response team saw that she needed help, and filed a CARE Court petition on her behalf.

Now, C.M. has her own room on the first floor of an old Victorian house in West Oakland, with a window overlooking a yard and a giant agave plant. She’s taped photos of her two adult sons as little boys to one of the walls, next to a printed-out list titled “coping skills.”

“I literally didn’t spend any time on the streets after I got evicted, because of CARE Court,” said C.M., who asked to be referred to by her initials out of fear that being associated with schizophrenia would hurt her chances of getting a job.

She can live there rent-free while her caseworkers help her find permanent housing. That stability is important for anyone, but it’s particularly life-changing for C.M., as financial stress and the fear of homelessness are psychological triggers that can launch her back into psychosis.

Now, C.M. is looking toward the future. She’s starting school for construction management next year, and hopes to find another job in the industry. But there’s some uncertainty there as well. C.M. is set to graduate from CARE Court in April, and as that date fast approaches, she’s still not sure where her next housing placement will be.

Anita Fisher at her home in Spring Valley on Nov. 17, 2025. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

‘This is what families have to endure’

At first, Anita Fisher was an enthusiastic advocate for CARE Court. She met with Gov. Newsom to discuss it. She appeared on 60 Minutes talking about how the program was a promising tool to help people with serious mental illness.

At the time, her own son, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia, was doing well.

Some of her last words in the 60 Minutes interview?

“I hope he will never have to use it.”

Then her son stopped his medication and ended up in a mental health crisis.

Fisher’s petition for CARE Court in San Diego County was accepted. But, soon, her son was arrested. Then he was discharged to the streets. At one point, he went missing.

“Can you imagine having to wonder if your son is alive or dead for three weeks?” she said. “This is what families have to endure.”

Her son, who she describes as a sweet, docile man, had been an Army medic with an impeccable record until his illness popped up at the age of 21. Now he kept going to jail.

Two years after she first petitioned CARE Court to get him help, she has nothing positive to say about the program she once lauded.

“I look at it as a total failure,” she said.

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This story was produced jointly by CalMatters & CatchLight as part of our mental health initiative. It was reported with support from the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism.

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Every time Jennifer Farrell got close to her brother, he slipped through her fingers.

As she walked the railroad tracks on the border of San Lorenzo and Hayward last month, searching for signs of her homeless younger sibling, she thought she caught a glimpse of him on a discarded mattress. But it turned out to be someone else.

Store clerks in a nearby strip mall and the groundskeeper at a local park all knew her brother. They told Farrell they’d seen him recently lying on the sidewalk outside a Jack in the Box. Another time, he was walking down the street, dragging a blanket behind him. He was spotted outside a church just that morning, someone said.

But he remained a phantom. Everywhere Farrell looked, it seemed like her brother had just left.

Farrell wasn’t supposed to have to do this anymore. Last Christmas Eve, she’d jumped at the chance to get her 59-year-old brother, who has been homeless off and on since 2017 and struggles with schizophrenia and meth use, into a new program called CARE Court. It was supposed to help people like him stabilize their mental health and get off the streets.

For a short time, it did. Her brother moved into a converted hotel in Oakland in late April, Farrell said, but five months later, he fled the hotel and disappeared.

“We’re coming up on a year (since he enrolled in CARE Court),” Farrell said. “And we are nowhere…we’re probably in the same place we were when I filed. And maybe even worse off.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced CARE Court in 2022 in part as a way to bring people with serious mental illnesses off of California’s streets. He continues to tout it as part of his homelessness strategy, as recently as this month in a news release.

But data from the state and counties, as well as interviews with service providers, CARE Court participants and their family members, highlight the ways in which the program is struggling to help homeless Californians.

More than two years after the program first launched, most people starting the CARE Court process aren’t homeless, and those who are homeless aren’t always getting what they need most: housing.

To assess the program, CalMatters requested housing information from California’s 25 largest counties, as well as all of the ones that first launched the program. Of the 2,362 CARE Court petitions filed in those counties, fewer than a third were for people who were homeless.

When asked how many people were housed through CARE Court, even the most successful counties reported just a few dozen.

Six of the counties polled by CalMatters either did not track housing status or total number of petitions, or did not disclose that data.

The state has not made detailed, up-to-date data about CARE Court performance public. Tracking housing status by county is difficult, as counties collect that data in different ways. Some count people as homeless if they are incarcerated or hospitalized, and some don’t. In some cases, counties don’t know the housing status of the client when a petition is filed. CalMatters asked each county included in this report for its most up-to-date CARE Court data, and most provided data through October or November. A handful only provided data that ended in August.

CARE Court began rolling out in California in October 2023 as a court-based treatment program for people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. People enter it through a petition, which can be filed by their family members, first responders or mental health clinicians. Almost all of the agreements are voluntary, and even court-ordered treatment plans can’t force compliance.

“You know what it’s like? It’s like the Wizard of Oz,” Rebekah Cooke said earlier this year, when her 36-old daughter was enrolled in CARE Court while living in a Marin County homeless encampment. “You go through all this and you think there’s hope at the end. And when you get to the end, you realize it’s all smoke and mirrors. And there’s really nothing at the end.”

CARE Court’s efforts to move her daughter indoors failed for eight months. Her daughter finally got housing that worked for her after leaving CARE Court.

How CARE Court functions varies greatly by location, and depends on how many and what kind of beds a county has available, and how it allocates housing resources.

“The most common unmet need for CARE participants was securing and maintaining permanent housing,” according to the most recent detailed state data on the program — more than a year old — which found 28% of people receiving CARE Court services were unhoused for at least part of the time they were in the program.

CARE Court has helped people in San Mateo County get mental health treatment, and moved some into housing, which is “fantastic,” said Ally Hoppis, clinical services manager for the county’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services division. But, at least in her community, housing is not the main service CARE Court offers.

San Mateo County only has 15 beds prioritized for CARE Court participants. As of October, the county had received 81 CARE Court petitions. Most people in CARE Court who need housing still have to go through the regular routes of getting it. Sometimes, the county puts people up in a motel for a month or longer because there is no other option, an expensive solution.

“Is (CARE Court) fixing our homelessness problem for the seriously mentally ill? No, it’s not,” Hoppis said.

Nor is it making a noticeable dent on the streets of Los Angeles County, said John Maceri, chief executive of The People Concern, one of the county’s largest social service providers. His organization has referred about 10 people to CARE Court — either people who are living on the street, or people who live in interim housing but are struggling and need more help. Only four of those people were enrolled.

“The reality has been that some of the folks that we have referred have not been accepted into CARE Court,” Maceri said, “and the few that have, we haven’t seen the results in terms of the promise of support that was there, or that we thought would be there.”

The court can dismiss a CARE Court petition for a variety of reasons, including the person not meeting the strict eligibility criteria (participants must be diagnosed with schizophrenia or a similar psychotic disorder).

Housing is an “extremely important” part of CARE Court, and the program’s ability to offer it in some cases makes it different from other mental health interventions, said Corrin Buchanan, undersecretary for the California Health and Human Services Agency, which oversees the program.

CARE Court doesn’t come with specific funds for housing, a concern counties raised early on, but the state has provided more than $1 billion for Behavioral Health Bridge Housing – temporary homes for people with mental health needs. State law requires CARE Court participants be “prioritized” for that housing, but it’s not exclusively for them.

Starting Jan. 1, Medi-Cal will cover temporary rent support that could also help CARE Court participants, Buchanan said.

“I think there’s a lot of hope that we’ll continue to be able to make sure that this is a meaningful part of what can be made available,” Buchanan said.

Though it’s hardly a widespread solution to homelessness, CARE Court has succeeded in helping some individuals get off the street.

When outreach workers found him last winter, J.M. was sleeping on blankets under an awning in Oakland’s Jack London Square, with no tent to protect him from the elements. A foot injury had left him unable to walk, and he wore multiple pairs of pants and socks in an attempt to compress the limb and alleviate his symptoms.

CalMatters is using J.M.’s initials to protect his privacy.

First: J.M., who prefers to use his initials for privacy, looks through his bedroom window at a transitional home provided through CARE Court in Oakland on Dec. 1, 2025. Last: The water at Jack London Square where J.M., who prefers to use his initials for privacy, walks almost daily for exercise and because he enjoys looking at the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, on Dec. 1, 2025. He received housing support through CARE Court and now lives within walking distance of Jack London. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters/CatchLight

A year later, J.M. lives at a hotel in downtown Oakland that was converted into temporary housing with mental health services. J.M. received medical care for his foot, and now regularly walks the half mile from his room to the Jack London Square waterfront, where he enjoys the sea air and waves lapping against the dock.

He feels better about himself, J.M. said, and he’s making plans for his future. He’s looking into finding work as a janitor. He wants to quit smoking cigarettes and get his GED diploma.

“Mentally and physically, I feel good,” he said.

Matching people to the right housing: A difficult puzzle

CARE Court participants can enter into a voluntary CARE agreement or a court-ordered CARE plan, both of which, according to state law, “may” include behavioral health care, medications, a housing plan and other supportive services on an as-needed basis.

But in a state where affordable housing is in short supply, the housing part can be difficult. Behavioral Health Bridge Housing – the only housing required to be set aside for CARE Court – isn’t always a good fit for those clients.

In San Mateo County, that money funds 15 beds on one floor of a new behavioral health facility in Redwood City. The rooms are clean and private, but the campus is remote, said Brian Fraser, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, who represents CARE Court participants. It’s in a wooded area four miles from downtown and only one city bus stops there twice a day.

For clients who can’t get a bed there, need something more central, or aren’t comfortable with the institutional feel, most of the other options are shelters where they’d have to share rooms, Fraser said. But if someone’s mental health struggles are severe enough to land them in CARE Court, chances are slim that they’d do well in a room with strangers, he said.

“There are times where there is no option for certain clients,” Fraser said. “And it’s frustrating.”

Monterey County’s 55 Behavioral Health Bridge Housing apartments have served “very few if any” people in CARE Court, as CARE Court participants tend to need more services than bridge housing can provide, said Melanie Rhodes, the county’s behavioral health director.

In other counties, no bridge housing is available. Santa Cruz County’s first project using those state funds isn’t set to open until next year.

In Marin County, Shaylee Koontz spent almost the entire eight months she was enrolled in CARE Court either sleeping at a homeless encampment in a park in Fairfax, or in the hospital. Though she and the county have differing views on how her time in the program ended, and whether it was ultimately successful, two facts are clear: the interventions CARE Court offered failed multiple times, and she remained outside for months.

Koontz entered into CARE Court last December, after her mother, Cooke, filed a petition on her behalf. Koontz said CARE Court workers used to stop by her encampment and check on her periodically. They’d offer her small things, such as rides to the food bank, she said.

“They were helpful to a degree,” Koontz said. “And then it was hard to get a hold of them after a while…They kind of stopped taking my phone calls.”

While Koontz was in CARE Court, the county referred her to residential mental health crisis and substance use treatment programs three times, said Todd Schirmer, director of the county’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Services. She never lasted longer than three days in any of the programs.

It appears the very mental health symptoms that qualified Koontz for CARE Court in the first place also made it hard for her to succeed there. During one stay, the treatment center said she failed to follow the rules. Another time, it appears they asked her to leave following an unspecified “incident.”

“We recognize that recovery is not always a straight line and that periods of progress and setback are a normal part of healing,” Schirmer said in an email. “Our system is designed to stay connected during these moments, adjust supports as needed, and continue offering options that reflect each person’s goals, preferences, and needs.”

Koontz left CARE Court in August. Koontz and her mother said she was kicked out, while the county said she left voluntarily. She was referred to another county program.

Shaylee Koontz, 36, in San Rafael, on Oct. 27, 2025. Koontz’s mother helped her get into CARE Court, but she exited the program before getting stable housing. Photo by Florence Middleton for CatchLight/CalMatters

Shortly after, as the city planned to clear her encampment and displace her and her friends, Koontz decided she’d had enough. She was drinking too much, she said, and wanted to get sober and move indoors. She got a motel room for the night, and then she moved into a rehab facility.

Now, Koontz is living in a women’s sober living house, and doing well. She’s no longer drinking, she recently finished writing a fantasy screenplay, and she plans to start taking college classes for a film degree next year.

“I do feel good,” Koontz said. “I feel much better.”

A golden ticket to housing in Alameda County

On the other side of the bay, Alameda County had, as of August, moved 38 CARE Court participants into temporary or permanent housing out of 41 petitions it received for people who were homeless.

Alameda County has 200 interim beds, 40 beds in board-and-care homes and six medical respite beds for CARE Court clients and others with mental health needs, plus additional money to help people with rent in private-market units. If nothing is immediately available, the county can put CARE Court clients up temporarily in a motel.

In Alameda County, people accepted into CARE Court essentially get a golden ticket that allows them to jump the housing line, said Stephanie Regular, an attorney with the county public defender’s office, which represents CARE Court participants. Without CARE Court, people wait an average of six months to get into Behavioral Health Bridge Housing, according to the county. The longest wait was a year and a half.

“We can go out to clients and say, ‘We can offer you housing,’” Regular said. “That’s huge to these clients, and life-changing, and a reason for them to want to participate.”

But as is common when working with high-needs homeless clients, just because someone moves into a room, doesn’t mean they stay there. Eddie’s Place, a converted hotel in Oakland, offers transitional housing for up to two years with private rooms and bathrooms, meals, nurses, and other social services to people struggling with their mental health or substance use. The property has about 30 beds funded by the state money that prioritizes CARE Court clients.

So far, only about six people have moved into Eddie’s Place through CARE Court. None of them are still there, said Meg O’Neill, director of transitional housing programs for Cardea Health, which runs the facility.

CARE Court clients tend to do well there for a few weeks, but then their medical needs, substance use or mental health symptoms become too acute even for the nurses and social services Eddie’s Place offers, and they end up back in the hospital, she said. Or, they choose to leave and go back to the street. In some cases, O’Neill doesn’t know where they went.

“What’s been hard there is just seeing folks come to us and then not stay,” O’Neill said. “I didn’t really anticipate that, but in hindsight, it does make sense.”

Why aren’t more homeless Californians accessing CARE Court?

In Los Angeles County, most people who started the CARE Court process already had housing. As of October, fewer than a quarter of the 629 petitions filed there were for people who were homeless.

That could partly be because, at least initially, most CARE Court petitions have been filed by family members, and people who still have strong family connections may be less likely to wind up on the street.

In many cases, CARE Court participants aren’t technically homeless, but they would likely end up on the street without the program’s intervention, said Martin Jones, Jr., who oversees CARE Court programs for Los Angeles County. As of October, 54 CARE Court participants in his county had moved into interim housing.

“I would say that, yes, the majority of our folks have not been unhoused,” he said, “however, their current living situation, especially with their families, is very fragile.”

C.M., who prefers to not use her name, sits in her bedroom at a transitional home provided through CARE Court after receiving treatment for schizophrenia in Oakland on Dec. 1, 2025. She now lives in a single-occupancy room and is preparing to begin classes at Chabot College in January. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters/Catchlight

That was the case for C.M., a CARE Court participant in Alameda County. She asked to be referred to using her initials over fears that being associated with schizophrenia would hurt her chances of getting a job.

The 55-year-old experiences bouts of hearing voices and other delusions when she’s under extreme stress, and she lost her job because of an episode in 2022. After that, she received disability payments and drove for Lyft, but it wasn’t enough to pay the rent for her San Leandro apartment. Then, she said, her Lyft app started glitching, cutting off that income. Soon she spiraled back into psychosis, and the city’s mental health crisis team started showing up at her home. After one of those visits, an EMT filed a CARE Court petition.

Now, she has her own room in a large Victorian house in West Oakland, where a nonprofit provides mental health services. She’s planning on going back to school next month for construction management.

“I initially was all suspicious of CARE Court,” C.M. said. “But I really couldn’t have gotten any luckier, given the circumstances. I was about to be homeless. They made sure I didn’t spend one day on the streets.”

First: Fall leaves rest on the sidewalk outside the transitional home in Oakland where C.M., who prefers to use her initials for privacy, lives through CARE Court on Dec. 1, 2025. Last: C.M., who prefers to use her initials for privacy, now lives in the single-occupancy room and is preparing to begin classes at Chabot College in January. Photos by Florence Middleton for CalMatters/CatchLight

In the Central Valley’s Stanislaus County, CARE Court is mostly serving unhoused people. Of the 102 petitions the county received as of the end of October, 60% were for people who were homeless. Almost 70% of the CARE agreements filed were for homeless participants.

It’s hard to know for sure, but that may be because when CARE Court launched, the county focused on teaching first responders and homeless outreach workers about the program and getting them on board, said Behavioral Health Director Ruben Imperial.

“We’ve had real intentional effort around the homeless population,” he said.

When first responders and outreach workers weren’t filing petitions because the process was too complicated and time consuming, Imperial’s department made a change: Now, those workers can refer homeless clients to the county, which will file the CARE Court petition on their behalf.

Back in Alameda County earlier this month, Farrell got the call she’d been waiting for. Her brother’s CARE Court caseworker found him just half a mile from where she’d been searching. He was hospitalized on a temporary mental health hold. But Farrell knew he could be out of the hospital, and back on the street, at any time.

She hopes this will be what it takes to get her brother out of CARE Court and into a conservatorship that forces him into treatment. But at his last CARE Court hearing, to which her brother didn’t show up, the county said they’re still trying to convince him to accept help.

“OK, fine,” Farrell said in an interview later. “But we’ve been doing this process for almost a year. So when do we take it up a step?”

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This story was reported with support from the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. It was produced jointly by CalMatters & CatchLight as part of our mental health initiative.

John DeMatos – husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle and friend — passed away naturally at his home in Arcata on Saturday December 6, 2025. He was 88 and surrounded by loved ones.

John was born in 1937 in the small village of Carvalhal, Portugal. His family moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when he was a teenager. He met the love of his life, Maria Jose Lourenco, who he married, in 1963 and later welcomed twoDan Adams’s children. In 1968 Maria Jose’s family helped them to immigrate to the United States and soon after welcomed a daughter in 1970. Maria Jose passed away in 1982 and John remarried and found happiness again with Ana Noia in 1989.

John was a dedicated, loyal, kind and intelligent man. He went to school in Brazil and graduated with an accounting degree. He was a hardworking, capable father who always provided for his family. While he lived in Brazil, he had many passions and worked as a shoemaker, butcher and accountant. In the U.S. he worked and retired from Louisiana Pacific after 33 years of hard work. He often told us that he came to America with only $600, got a job and bought a home.

He loved to travel and made many trips back to his homeland in Brazil to visit his parents, siblings, nieces and nephews. He enjoyed puzzles, trivia and gardening and canning large batches of tuna. He loved going on walks and in his later years he would even use his walker and walk a mile up to his favorite bakery. Some of his famous words to us in the end was “ I Do it Myself”

His late wife, Maria Jose, was blessed with a large family “11 brothers and sisters” and they all considered him to be like a brother even to this day. He always enjoyed big family get-togethers, eating delicious homemade food, playing games and laughing. He enjoyed his grandchildren and often took care of them. He loved attending all of their school events like soccer, basketball, baseball, concerts and graduations.

He was very devoted to the Catholic Church and attended every week, rain or shine. He was a big part of the Portuguese community and loved to attend and be part of the big Portuguese festivals. John was a strong, loving man who will be truly missed.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Firmino and Elisa; first wife Maria Jose; second wife Ana; daughter, Susanna; sisters Celeste and Mabilia; grandson Coleman.

He is survived by his children, Amelia and David; stepson Joe; son-in-law, Steve; grandchildren: Cody, Kurtis, Kiana, Lourenco, Santa, Shaneil, Brittany and Nicholas; great-grandchildren Leo, Luna, Gavin, Kayla, Kaden, and Kenley; many in-laws; many nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and nephews, and great-nieces and -nephews.

The family would like to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved with his care in his final days.

Family and friends are invited to a public viewing and to share their final goodbyes at Goble’s Mortuary in Fortuna between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday December 19.

Funeral Services will be on Saturday, December 20 at 12 p.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Arcata, with a rosary prior at 11:30 a.m. Following the service John will be laid to rest at Ocean View Cemetery Sunset Memorial Park in Eureka at 2 p.m.

Pallbearers: Cody, Kurtis and Leo Pitzer, Lourenco DeMatos, Nicholas Machado, Frank Oliveira Jr., Anthony Lourenco and Brian Halverson.