California lawmakers are supporting the idea to provide $200 million over the next three years to fund anti-hate crime movements and efforts against Asian Americans in the country who have been seeing a rise in violent crimes.
Officials said more than $100 million would go to providing grants to nonprofit and community groups that conduct legal services, health care, mental health, victim compensation, or counseling. Groups that provide escorts for elders to keep them safe while out in public and organizations that provide systemic racism education will be eligible for the money.
Anti-Hate Crime Fund
Lawmakers are providing $10 million to set up a hate crime hotline that will allow victims to report their experiences. It would also send out the reports to police or legal, health, or mental health services.
The next $20 million will help cultural enclaves such as traditional Chinatowns, Japantowns, Koreatowns, and Little Manilas. The California Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus is responsible for authoring the proposal. It has 10 members in the Legislature comprised of 120 individuals.
Democrat Phil Ting is included in the caucus and is the head of the Assembly Budget Committee. Several members said other budgeting and Democratic leaders have expressed their support for the idea early on.
“We want to address not only, of course, the recent events of hate directed toward our community, but also to recognize longstanding issues in terms of access for our community to public services, government services,” Democratic Senator Richard Pan said.
The caucus is looking forward to receiving enough funding with Newsom and other lawmakers saying there will be an available $76 million budget. Authorities have until June 15 to approve a budget for the July 1 fiscal year, the Associated Press reported.
The budget would be used to help Asian and Pacific Islander families enroll their children in schools and to combat bullying. Officials would also use the money to support the Stop AAPI Hate organization which was the first to compile data on hate crimes in the victims’ own languages.
