Affordable housing: alternative forms of development.

Existing law establishes various programs and funding sources administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development to enable the development of affordable housing, including the Building Homes and Jobs Act, the Multifamily Housing Program, the Housing for a Healthy California Program, and the Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Act of 2014. Under existing law governing the State Community Development Block Grant Program, the department is required to distribute funds made available under the program in order to provide decent housing, a suitable living environment, and expand economic opportunities, consistent with federal requirements. Existing federal law also establishes the HOME Investment Partnership Act to, among other things, expand the supply of affordable housing. Existing law designates the department as the state agency responsible for administering the HOME Investment Partnership Act. Existing law authorizes the Department of General Services (DGS) to dispose of surplus state real property, as provided. Under existing law, DGS is required to offer surplus state real property, that has been determined by DGS not to be needed by any state agency, to any local agency, as defined, and then to nonprofit affordable housing sponsors, as defined, prior to being offered for sale to private entities or individuals. This bill would require the department to solicit and consider proposals for adaptive reuse, as defined, that demonstrate cost efficiencies and timely completion in implementing the affordable housing loan and grant programs described above. The bill would require any notice of funding availability issued by the department to state that adaptive reuse of a property for affordable housing purposes is an eligible activity. The bill would require an adaptive reuse proposal to result in at least 50% of all units being affordable to persons who are extremely low and very low income and would require an adaptive reuse proposal to ensure that construction workers on the projects are paid prevailing wages, as defined, and that the contractors use a construction workforce that is skilled and trained, as defined. This bill would require a local agency, nonprofit affordable housing sponsor, private entity, or individual that receives surplus state real property to consider adaptive reuse in any housing development on the acquired property. This bill would prohibit a local affordable housing bond measure, including any current local bond program for which the funds are not fully encumbered, from prohibiting or excluding a project proposal that uses an adaptive reuse model solely on the basis that the proposal is for an adaptive reuse project. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.