Housing: emergency housing and assistance funding.

Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to administer the Emergency Housing and Assistance Program. Under the program, moneys from the continuously appropriated Emergency Housing and Assistance Fund are available for the purposes of providing shelter, as specified, to homeless persons at as low a cost and as quickly as possible, without compromising the health and safety of shelter occupants, to encourage the move of homeless persons from shelters to a self-supporting environment as soon as possible, to encourage provision of services for as many persons at risk of homelessness as possible, to encourage compatible and effective funding of homeless services, and to encourage coordination among public agencies that fund or provide services to homeless individuals, as well as agencies that discharge people from their institutions. Existing law requires the department to distribute funds appropriated for activities providing for capital development programs, including acquisition, leasing, construction, and rehabilitation of sites for emergency shelter and transitional housing for homeless persons, as grants in the form of forgivable deferred loans, as prescribed. Existing law requires the department to make funding available to each project as a loan with a term of 5 years for rehabilitation, 7 years for substantial rehabilitation, or 10 years for acquisition and rehabilitation or new construction. This bill would authorize the department to also make funding available as a loan with a term of 20 years for conversion to permanent supportive housing for homeless families and individuals. Existing law requires that grants awarded by the department pursuant to these provisions be used by a grant recipient to defray costs of eligible activities defined in department regulations. This bill would provide that these grants may also be awarded pursuant to department requirements and would authorize the department to develop requirements that are not subject to review by the Office of Administrative Law, as specified. The bill would also expand eligible activities to include capital development loans for the conversion of emergency shelter or transitional housing to permanent supportive housing for homeless families or individuals, and the provision of effective approaches to rapidly rehouse homeless clients, including homeless system assessments, street outreach and housing and services engagement efforts, coordinated care services, housing location and stabilization services, and rental assistance costs, including deposits and costs necessary for occupancy. The bill would require the department to give priority for capital development funds to applicants proposing capital development loans for the conversion of emergency shelter or transitional housing to permanent supportive housing for homeless families or individuals and to give priority for noncapital development funds to applicants that propose effective approaches to rapidly rehouse homeless clients and that leverage additional funding sources or focus on high-cost users of more than one system of care. The bill would require that the department, no later than June 30, 2015, transfer any unobligated Proposition 46 and Proposition 1C bond funds derived from bonds remaining in the Emergency Housing and Assistance Fund to the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Fund, less any funds needed for state operations to support outstanding awards as determined by the Department of Housing and Community Development, to be expended for the Multifamily Housing Program for supportive housing for a specified target population. By authorizing the use of continuously appropriated funds for new purposes, this bill would make an appropriation. This bill would also incorporate changes in Section 50802 of the Health and Safety Code proposed by AB 1109, that would become operative on the date this bill becomes operative only if AB 1109 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2014, and this bill is chaptered last.