Accessible housing.

Existing law establishes various programs under the Department of Housing and Community Development, including the California Housing Rehabilitation Program for the development of low-income and multifamily rental housing in the state. Existing law creates the Multifamily Housing Program under the department to provide a standardized set of program rules and features applicable to all housing types based on the existing California Housing Rehabilitation Program. Among other things, the program provides financial assistance to fund projects for, among other things, the development and construction of new, and rehabilitation or acquisition and rehabilitation of, existing, transitional, or rental housing developments, and establishes a project selection process for loans for these projects. Existing law also requires the department to establish a program for the purpose of housing assistance for the physically or developmentally disabled, or mentally disordered. This bill would require, as part of the next intervening code adoption cycle of the California Building Standards Code adopted after December 1, 2013, that the Division of the State Architect, in consultation with the Department of Housing and Community Development, propose, and that the Building Standards Commission adopt, building standards requiring public housing facilities to provide a specified number of residential dwelling units that have compliant mobility and communications features that make them accessible for persons with disabilities, and that clarify the definition of "public housing," as specified. The bill would also require the Department of Housing and Community Development to adopt regulations that require owners and managers of multifamily housing projects that have received a department grant or loan, and that have accessible units, to give priority for those units to persons with disabilities, as specified.