Local Housing Trust Fund Matching Grant Program.

(1) Existing law establishes the Local Housing Trust Fund Matching Grant Program for the purpose of supporting local housing trust funds dedicated to the creation or preservation of affordable housing. Under the grant program, the Department of Housing and Community Development is authorized to make matching grants available to cities and counties, or a city and county, and existing charitable nonprofit organizations that have created, funded, and operated housing trust funds. The minimum allocation to a program applicant is $1,000,000, and the maximum allocation is $2,000,000, with all funds provided under the grant program to be matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis with money that is not required by any state or federal law to be spent on housing. This bill would establish the minimum allocation at $500,000 for a newly established trust, as defined, that is in a county with a population of less than 425,000 persons, based on the decennial United States Census for the year 2000, and at $1,000,000 for all other trusts. The bill would prohibit an application for a new trust to be considered unless the Department of Housing and Community Development has received adequate documentation, as determined by the department, that an ordinance imposing or dedicating a tax or fee to be deposited into the new trust has been enacted or the applicant has adopted a legally binding commitment to deposit matching funds into the new trust. The bill would prohibit funds to be disbursed by the department to any trust until all matching funds are on deposit. (2) Existing law requires that in order to be eligible for funding, a city, county, city and county, or nonprofit organization applicant meet a specified requirement. This bill would additionally require the city, county, or city and county to submit an annual progress report required by existing law within a specified time if the department has adopted certain forms and definitions. The bill would additionally require a nonprofit organization to agree to utilize the funds in a project located in such a municipality that has submitted that report. (3) Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to make available the amount of $35,000,000 for the Local Housing Trust Fund Matching Grant Program, and requires the department, when awarding grants using those funds to newly established housing trust funds, to set aside funding, for a period of 36 months from the date funds are first made available, for newly established housing trust funds that are in a county with a population of less than 425,000 persons. This bill would require that this maximum population figure be based on the decennial United States Census for the year 2000.