Housing finance programs: development reserves.

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 Program 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. This bill would prohibit the department from requiring a project-specific transition reserve, as defined, for any unit subject to a qualified project rental or operating subsidy. This bill would create the Pooled Transition Reserve Fund and would continuously appropriate moneys in that fund to the department for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a pooled transition reserve, as defined. This bill would prescribe the sources from which the fund may receive moneys, and would make a transfer of $5,000,000 to the Pooled Transition Reserve Fund from the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Fund. By establishing, and transferring moneys to, a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation. This bill would authorize the department to charge a fee to a development that receives qualified project rental or operating subsidies at the time of permanent loan closing, not to exceed the department's reasonable costs to capitalize the reserve fund and cover administrative costs, to be deposited in the fund. This bill would authorize the department to adopt guidelines to implement these provisions and would exempt the adoption, amendment, or repeal of those guidelines from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. This bill would provide that these provisions apply to units financed by any department-administered program, for which permanent loan closing has not occurred prior to January 1, 2023, as specified. Existing law, the No Place Like Home Program, as ratified and amended by Proposition 2, which was approved by the voters at the November 6, 2018, statewide general election, provides funding to provide permanent supportive housing for a specified target population, which is defined to include individuals who have a serious mental disorder and who are homeless, chronically homeless, or at risk of chronic homelessness. Existing law authorizes the Legislature to amend Proposition 2 by a 23 vote, so long as the amendment is consistent with and furthers the intent of that measure. The bill would state the findings of the Legislature that these provisions are consistent with, and further the intent of, the No Place Like Home Act.