Housing element: emergency shelters, temporary housing, and supportive housing.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires each county and city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and of specified land outside its boundaries, that includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Existing law requires that the housing element include, among other things, an inventory of land suitable for residential development and an analysis of any special housing needs, such as those of the elderly, persons with disabilities, large families, farmworkers, families with female heads of households, and families and persons in need of emergency shelter. This bill would additionally require the inventory to include an analysis of potential sites available for the development of emergency shelters, temporary housing, and supportive housing necessary to provide shelter to the locality's homeless population. The bill would require a locality develop a comprehensive plan for making emergency shelters, temporary housing, and supportive housing available to the locality's homeless population, with the goal of transitioning individuals housed in emergency shelters into supportive housing and require the plan to address the types of supportive services that the locality will provide to individuals housed in emergency shelters, temporary housing, and supportive housing. Existing law requires a housing element to include an analysis of any special housing needs, including the need of families and persons in need of emergency shelter, based on, among other things, the capacity necessary to accommodate the most recent homeless point-in-time count conducted before the start of the planning period. Existing law allows a local government to reduce the need for emergency shelter by the number of supportive housing units that are identified in an adopted 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness. This bill would instead allow a local government to reduce the need for emergency shelter by the number of supportive housing units available to end homelessness. Existing law authorizes a local government to satisfy all or part of its requirement to identify a zone suitable for the development of emergency shelters by adopting and implementing a multijurisdictional agreement that requires the participating jurisdictions to develop at least one year-round emergency shelter within 2 years of the beginning of the planning period. This bill would instead require the participating jurisdictions to develop at least 2 year-round emergency shelters. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.