Local governments: affordable housing: local tenant preference.

Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and makes the department responsible for administering various housing programs throughout the state. The California Fair Employment and Housing Act generally prohibits housing discrimination with respect to the personal characteristics of race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, source of income, disability, veteran or military status, or genetic information. Under existing law, the Civil Rights Department is responsible for receiving, investigating, conciliating, mediating, and prosecuting complaints alleging violations of specified civil rights. Existing law requires local agencies to provide, by April 1 of each year, an annual report to the legislative body, the Office of Planning and Research, and the Department of Housing and Community Development, the progress in meeting its share of regional housing needs. Existing law requires that annual report to include a housing element portion, which includes, but is not limited to, the number of units that have been completed, as specified. This bill would provide that it is the state's policy that lower income individuals residing in neighborhoods and communities experiencing significant displacement, as specified, need access to housing that is affordable and assists in avoiding displacement. The bill would provide that, to the extent feasible and consistent with other laws, the low-income housing tax credit program and tax-exempt bonds for qualified residential rental property used for affordable housing may be used to support access to housing that would allow households facing or at risk of displacement to remain in the community. The bill would specify that a local tenant preference adopted pursuant to the bill's provisions is subject to the duty of public agencies to affirmatively further fair housing, as specified. The bill would require any local government adopting a local tenant preference policy to create a webpage on its internet website containing the ordinance and its supporting materials, and to annually submit a link to its tenant preference webpage to the Department of Housing and Community Development. The bill would require the department to post on its internet website a list of jurisdictions that have tenant preference policies. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2033.