Housing

Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development and requires it to administer various programs intended to promote the development of housing, as specified, pursuant to which the department provides financial assistance in the form of deferred payment loans to pay for the eligible costs of development of specified types of housing projects. Existing law sets forth various general powers of the department in implementing these programs, including authorizing the department to enter into long-term contracts or agreements of up to 30 years for the purpose of servicing loans or grants or enforcing regulatory agreements or other security documents. This bill would permit the department to waive payment of residual receipts or minimum annual loan payments used to cover the cost of project monitoring required under a department regulatory agreement, based on the assessment by the department's actual cost in combination with a project's ability to pay.

Existing law, the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act (CARE Act) , authorizes specified persons, including a person with whom the respondent resides, family members, and first responders, among others, to petition a civil court to create a voluntary CARE agreement or a court-ordered CARE plan and implement services, to be provided by county behavioral health agencies, to provide behavioral health care, including stabilization medication, housing, and other enumerated services, to adults who are currently experiencing a severe mental illness and have a diagnosis identified in the disorder class schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, or bipolar I disorder with psychotic features, and who meet other specified criteria. Existing law requires the Judicial Council to develop a mandatory form for use to file a CARE process petition with the court and any other forms necessary for the CARE process, to be signed under the penalty of perjury, and requires the form to contain certain information, including either a specified affidavit of a licensed behavioral health professional or evidence the respondent was detained for a minimum of two intensive treatments pursuant to specified provisions of law. Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPS Act) , generally provides for the evaluation, treatment, and civil commitment of persons with mental health disorders and other specified persons. Existing law authorizes, under a superior court order, an evaluation of a person alleged, as a result of mental disorder, to be a danger to themselves or others or to be gravely disabled, and provides the forms to use for these evaluations. The CARE Act authorizes a court to terminate a respondent's participation in the CARE process if the court determines that the respondent is not participating in the CARE process or is not adhering to their CARE plan, as specified, and authorizes the court to order the court-ordered evaluation under the LPS Act. If the court finds the petitioner has made a prima facie showing that the respondent is, or may be, a person eligible for the CARE program, the court is required to order the county behavioral health agency, or their designee, as specified, to submit a written report to the court with specified information, including, but not limited to, a determination whether the respondent meets, or is likely to meet, the criteria for the CARE process and conclusions and recommendations about the respondent's ability to voluntarily engage in services. Existing law requires the court to, within 5 days of receiving the report, take one of several actions, including dismissing the petition if the court determines that voluntary engagement with the respondent is effective and the individual has enrolled, or is likely to enroll, in behavioral health treatment. This bill would require the written report to include conclusions about whether the respondent is likely to need a higher level of care than is available under the CARE Act and, if so, recommendations about the appropriate level of care and the necessary steps to obtain that level of care for the respondent and remove the authorization for a court to dismiss the petition if the respondent is only likely to enroll in behavioral health treatment. If the court intends to dismiss a petition because the respondent needs a higher level of services, the bill would authorize the court to order the county to conduct a prepetition screening and hold the CARE petition open until the screening is complete. The bill would also make other technical and conforming changes. By requiring a higher level of service on the county, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires all hearings regarding these provisions to occur in person unless the court, in its discretion, allows a party or witness to appear remotely. This bill would require the court to allow the hearings to be held remotely, unless otherwise ordered by the court or demanded by the respondent. 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, requires each county and each city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and specified land outside its boundaries, that includes, among other specified mandatory elements, a housing element. That law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, in consultation with each council of governments, to determine the existing and projected need for housing in each region and further requires the appropriate council of governments, or the department for cities and counties without a council of governments, to adopt a final regional housing need plan that allocates a share of the regional housing need to each city, county, or city and county, as provided. Existing law establishes the Local Government Planning Support Grants Program, administered by the department, for the purpose of providing regions and jurisdictions with one-time funding, including grants for planning activities to enable jurisdictions to meet the sixth cycle of the regional housing need assessment, as provided. This bill would establish the Regional Early Action Planning Fund in the State Treasury for the purpose of providing councils of governments, regional entities, and jurisdictions with one-time funding, including grants for planning activities, to enable those entities to meet the 7th and subsequent cycles of the regional housing need assessment. The bill would require the department to allocate funds, upon appropriation by the Legislature, from the Regional Early Action Planning Fund to each council of governments or regional entity responsible for allocating regional housing need that applies and qualifies for those moneys, as specified. The bill would authorize a council of governments or regional entity to expend funds awarded for certain purposes, including for activities that support the development, improvement, or implementation of the methodology for the 7th and subsequent regional housing needs assessment cycles, and for providing jurisdictions with technical assistance, planning, temporary staffing, or consultant needs associated with updating local planning and zoning documents, as provided. The bill would require a jurisdiction that receives a suballocation of funds to only use that suballocation for housing-related planning activities, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to monitor expenditures and activities of an applicant, as the department deems necessary, to ensure compliance with program requirements. The bill would require each recipient of funds under the program to expend those funds no later than 3 years from the date of award of those funds, subject to an extension by the department. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations, including emergency regulations, by state agencies. This bill would require the department, in collaboration with stakeholders, to adopt emergency regulations to implement the above-described provisions. The bill would also make those emergency regulations effective until nonemergency regulations implementing the above-described provisions become effective.

Existing law requires, by December 31, 2026, the State Air Resources Board, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, as provided, to develop a framework for measuring the average carbon intensity of the materials used in the construction of new buildings, including those for residential uses. Existing law requires, by December 31, 2028, the state board to develop a comprehensive strategy for the state's building sector to achieve a 40% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of building materials, as specified, as soon as possible, but no later than December 31, 2035. Existing law authorizes the state board to establish an embodied carbon trading system, as defined, in compliance with these requirements, as provided. This bill would require the state board to determine whether using building materials with lower embodied carbon would be cost effective during the first 2-year period of their use compared to using conventional building materials before implementing the above-described provisions. If the state board determines that using building materials with lower embodied carbon would not be cost effective during the first 2-year period of their use compared to using conventional building materials, the bill would require the state board to delay or suspend, as applicable, implementation of those provisions for not less than 5 years, not to exceed 10 years in total.

Existing law, the Planning and Zoning Law, provides for the adoption and administration of zoning laws, ordinances, rules and regulations by counties and cities and the implementation of those general plans as may be in effect in those counties or cities. In that regard, existing law requires each local agency, by January 1, 2025, to develop a program for the preapproval of accessory dwelling unit plans. This bill would require each local agency, as defined, to develop a program for the preapproval of single-family and multifamily residential housing plans, whereby the local agency accepts single-family and multifamily plan submissions for preapproval and approves or denies the preapproval applications, as specified. The bill would require a large jurisdiction, as defined, to develop this program by July 1, 2027, and a small jurisdiction, as defined, to develop a program by January 1, 2029. The bill would require the local agency to post preapproved single-family or multifamily residential housing plans and the contact information of the applicant on the local agency's internet website. This bill would require a local agency to either approve or deny ministerially an application for a single-family or multifamily residential housing unit within 30 days if the lot meets certain conditions and the application utilizes specified plans that have been preapproved by the local agency or that are identical to a plan used in an application approved by the local agency. The bill would prohibit the preapproval program from applying to single-family or multifamily residential housing plans intended for use in certain communities and developments, as specified. Existing law requires each county and each city to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan for the physical development of the county or city, and specified land outside its boundaries, that includes, among other specified mandatory elements, a housing element. That law requires the planning agency of a city or county to provide by April 1 of each year an annual report to, among other entities, the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation. Existing law requires the annual report to include, among other things, the city's or county's progress in meeting its share of regional housing needs, as specified. Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) , requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA does not apply to the approval of ministerial projects. To the extent that the ministerial review process established by the bill would apply to final, discretionary approval of an application for a single-family or multifamily housing unit, the bill would exempt those projects from CEQA. This bill, beginning on April 1, 2028, for large jurisdictions and beginning on April 1, 2030, for small jurisdictions, would require the local agency to include in its annual report the number of units of residential housing that are approved using a preapproved housing plan pursuant to this act. By imposing new duties on local agencies with regard to developing a preapproval program and its annual report, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law states the intent of the Legislature to ensure that all pupils in foster care and those who are homeless, as defined, have a meaningful opportunity to meet the challenging state pupil academic achievement standards to which all pupils are held. Existing law requires educators, county placing agencies, care providers, advocates, and the juvenile courts to work together to maintain stable school placements and to ensure that each pupil is placed in the least restrictive educational programs and has access to the academic resources, services, and extracurricular and enrichment activities that are available to all pupils, as provided. This bill would require the State Department of Education to administer formula grants as part of a pilot program, to be known as the Unaccompanied Youth Support Grant Program, for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools to provide supports necessary to improve school attendance, pupil engagement, pupil graduation rates, and pupil wellbeing for unaccompanied youth, as defined, who are 16 or 17 years of age, including connecting youth with resources to find stable housing. The bill would require, subject to an appropriation and subject to specified allocation metrics, 5-year grants that commence with the 2028–29 fiscal year, to be awarded by the Superintendent of Public Instruction to local educational agencies, or consortia of local educational agencies, to support unaccompanied youth, and would require grant funds to be used for, among other things, referrals to existing social services support systems, and providing basic needs and educational support services, as specified. The bill would require, to be eligible to apply for a grant under the program, a local educational agency to have identified at least one unaccompanied youth enrolled during the prior fiscal year, as specified. The bill would require local educational agencies applying for grant funds under the program to submit an application that includes, among other things, a description of how grant funds will be used to identify eligible pupils, the types of supports to be provided based on the eligible uses of grant funds, and the performance measures the local educational agency will use to measure progress towards program goals. The bill would require local educational agencies awarded grant funds under the program to submit annual reports to the department that include, among other things, a description of the expenditure of funds and the number and characteristics of unaccompanied youth served.

The Insurance Rate Reduction and Reform Act of 1988, an initiative measure enacted by Proposition 103, as approved by the voters at the November 8, 1988, statewide general election, prohibits specified insurance rates from being approved or remaining in effect that are excessive, inadequate, unfairly discriminatory, or otherwise in violation of the act. Under the act, rates and premiums for automobile insurance are determined based on specified factors, including the insured's driving safety record. Existing law authorizes the provisions of Proposition 103 to be amended by a statute that furthers the purposes of the act and is enacted by the Legislature with a 23 vote. This bill, the Consumer Driving Data Protection Act of 2026, would authorize a consumer to opt to use telematics to establish their driving record, thus amending Proposition 103. The bill would prohibit the use of telematics data for a purpose other than rating private passenger automobile insurance. The bill would require a rate application under which telematics would be used to establish an insured's driving record to include specified materials related to the insurer's telematics program. This bill would prohibit an insurer that uses telematics from taking specified actions, including conditioning eligibility for a discount upon participation in a telematics program, unless the discount is approved by the commissioner. The bill would also set forth written consent and privacy requirements for the collection and use of telematics data. The bill would authorize the commissioner to impose specified penalties for violations of the bill's provisions, including civil penalties and suspension of an insurer's telematics program. This bill would require an insurance provider or third-party vendor to take specified actions with respect to the telematics data, including immediately deleting the data once a rating has been assigned to the consumer and obtaining an express written or electronic signature of a consumer on a notice meeting specified conditions. The bill would additionally prohibit an insurance provider or third-party vendor from keeping the telematics data for longer than 6 months and collecting audio or visual recordings of the occupants of the vehicle or persons outside the vehicle, among other specified prohibitions. The bill would declare that its provisions further the purposes of Proposition 103. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

(1) Existing law, the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act (the act) , authorizes specified persons, including a person with whom the respondent resides, family members, and first responders, among others, to petition a civil court to create a voluntary CARE agreement or a court-ordered CARE plan and implement services, to be provided by county behavioral health agencies, to provide behavioral health care, including stabilization medication, housing, and other enumerated services, to adults who are currently experiencing a severe mental illness and have a diagnosis identified in the disorder class schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and who meet other specified criteria. Existing law, the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, authorizes a conservator of the person, of the estate, or of the person and the estate to be appointed for a person who is gravely disabled as a result of a mental health disorder or impairment by chronic alcoholism. Existing law requires the officer providing the conservatorship investigation, which may include a public guardian or a county mental health program, to investigate all available alternatives to conservatorship and to recommend conservatorship to the court only if no suitable alternatives are available. Existing law requires a conservatorship under these provisions to terminate after one year and specifies procedures if the conservator determines conservatorship is still required. This bill would authorize a conservator to, upon the termination of a conservatorship, request the court refer the conservatee to CARE court, as specified. (2) The act authorizes services and supports to be provided to adults who are currently experiencing a qualifying severe mental illness and who meet other specified criteria, including that the person is not clinically stabilized in ongoing voluntary treatment and is either unlikely to survive safely in the community without ongoing supervision and the person's condition is substantially deteriorating or the person is in need of services and supports to prevent a relapse or deterioration that would likely result in grave disability or serious harm to the person or others. This bill would authorize the court, beginning July 1, 2028, and if it dismisses a CARE petition because a respondent needs a higher level of services, to order the county to develop an exit plan for the respondent. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services, by July 1, 2028, to develop, with input from certain stakeholder groups, a CARE Act model exit plan that identifies appropriate services and ongoing monitoring of an individual with a petition dismissed because the individual needed a higher level of services. This bill would update the definition of a petitioner for the purposes of the act. (3) Existing law requires the Judicial Council to develop a mandatory form or forms to use to file a CARE process petition. Existing law requires the petition to be signed under the penalty of perjury and to contain specified information, including the petitioner's relationship to the respondent and either an affidavit of a licensed behavioral health professional stating the licensed behavioral health professional or their designee has examined or made multiple unsuccessful attempts to examine the respondent within 60 days of submission of the petition, or that the respondent was detained for a minimum of 2 intensive treatments pursuant to state law. This bill would extend the 60-day period for examination of the respondent to 120 days. The bill would also authorize a petition to include evidence that the respondent was either detained for a minimum of 2 involuntary holds in the last 120 days or that they were referred to a full service partnership program more than once, but was not enrolled due to inability or unwillingness to engage in the previous 120 days. (4) Existing law authorizes a court to terminate a respondent's participation in the CARE process if the court determines that the respondent is not participating in the CARE process or is not adhering to their CARE plan, as specified. Existing law authorizes the court to order an evaluation under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, as specified, to ensure the respondent's safety. Existing law requires the court to consider the respondent's failure to successfully complete their CARE plan and the reasons for that failure in a subsequent hearing under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, provided that the hearing occurs within 6 months of the termination of the CARE plan, and creates a presumption that the respondent needs additional intervention beyond the supports and services provided by the CARE plan. This bill would prohibit the court from terminating a respondent's participation in the CARE process solely due to a failure of the county or other local government entity to properly engage with the CARE process. (5) Existing law requires CARE Act proceedings to occur in person unless the court, in its discretion, allows a party or witness to appear remotely through the use of remote technology. Existing law authorizes the respondent to be in person for all hearings. This bill would instead authorize all parties and witnesses to appear remotely through the use of remotely technology. The bill would authorize the court with discretion to order a party or witness to appear in person if necessary. This bill would authorize the parties to agree to an alternative method of service for all subsequent reports and notices after the notice of initial appearance. This bill would require, by January 1, 2028, all counties to establish a process for electronic submission of CARE Act documents using a secured portal. By increasing the duties on county behavioral health agencies, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. (6) Existing law authorizes a provider of health care or a covered entity, as defined, to disclose to the county behavioral health agency any information, including protected health information, and mental health records excluding psychotherapy notes, in its possession about the respondent that is relevant to the county behavioral health agency's provision, coordination, or management or services or supports. Existing law specifies protections for this information and required procedures when such a disclosure is made. This bill would authorize a county behavioral health agency to disclose to a provider of health care or a covered entity any information, including protected health information, and mental health records, excluding psychotherapy notes, in its possession about the respondent that is relevant to the provider or entity's provision, coordination, or management of services and supports. The bill would also specify protections for this information and required procedures when such a disclosure is made. (7) Existing law requires the department to develop, in consultation with specified entities, an annual CARE Act report that includes specified information on CARE Act petitions, including the number of initial appearances, and information compiled from county behavioral health departments and courts. This bill would expand the information on CARE Act petitions to include the number of petitions submitted electronically as well as other specified information. The bill would also expand the data to be compiled from county behavioral health departments and courts to include the number of individuals who were enrolled in a Full Service Partnership program postreferral, among other things. The bill would also require the data collected from county behavioral health departments and courts to be collected for cases involving dismissed respondents, where available. (8) Existing law requires the California Health and Human Services Agency, or a designated department within the agency, to perform specified functions, including engaging an independent, research-based entity to advise on the development of data-driven process and outcome measures to guide the planning, collaboration, reporting, and evaluation of the CARE Act. This bill would require the agency to annually release a list of overperforming counties and shall annually provide written notice identifying areas of concern and opportunities for improvement to underperforming counties. This bill would also establish within the California Health and Human Services Agency the position of a CARE Court Ombudsperson, as specified. (9) 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.

(1) The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development that includes, among other things, a housing element. Existing law requires the housing element to include, among other things, an inventory of land suitable and available for residential development, including specified sites, an analysis of the relationship of zoning and public facilities and services to these sites (first analysis) , and an analysis of the relationship of the sites identified in the land inventory to the jurisdiction's duty to affirmatively further fair housing (2nd analysis) . This bill would remove the requirement on cities and counties to include the 2nd analysis in their housing elements. (2) Existing law requires a housing element to include a program that sets forth a schedule of actions during the planning period, each with a timeline for implementation such that there will be beneficial impacts of the programs within the planning period, that the local government is undertaking or intends to undertake to implement the policies and achieve the goals and objectives of the housing element through specified actions. Existing law requires this program to, among other things, identify actions that will be taken to make sites available, as provided, to accommodate that portion of the city's or county's share of the regional housing need for all income levels that could not be accommodated on sites identified in the inventory of sites without rezoning, and to comply with the certain zoning and rezoning requirements. If the inventory of sites does not identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of all household income levels, as provided, existing law requires that the local government rezone those sites within specified time periods and requires the local government housing element program to identify sites that can be developed for housing within the planning period, as specified. Existing law also requires this program to affirmatively further fair housing and include an assessment that consists of specified components, including an analysis of available federal, state, and local data and knowledge to identify integration and segregation patterns and trends, racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty and affluence, disparities in access to opportunity, and disproportionate housing needs, including displacement risk. Under the above-described program, existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a standardized reporting format for certain programs and actions taken, and requires the standardized reporting format to enable the reporting of all of the assessment components and certain fields, including timelines for implementation. This bill would additionally require the above-described program to identify actions that will be taken to make sites available to ensure that the distribution of sites across the jurisdiction affirmatively furthers fair housing. The bill would require those sites, after any required rezoning and among other things, to be distributed throughout the jurisdiction in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing, as specified. The bill would additionally require the local government to rezone the sites within specified time periods, as described above, and identify sites that can be developed for housing within the planning period, as described above, if the inventory of sites does not affirmatively further fair housing, as specified. For those additionally identified sites, the bill would require the jurisdiction to demonstrate that those sites will affirmatively further fair housing, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local entities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would revise and recast the requirement that the program affirmatively further fair housing. The bill would require that program to include an assessment of fair housing that includes, among other things, an analysis of available federal, state, and local data and knowledge to identify and examine certain patterns, trends, areas, disparities, and needs, as specified. The bill would also require each city or county to make the draft assessment publicly available and solicit public comments for a period of at least 90 days. The bill would require the city or county to include, among other things, in its first draft revision of the housing element, the assessment, including any revisions made in response to the public comments, and specified strategies and actions to implement the jurisdiction's fair housing priorities and goals. By imposing additional duties on local entities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would instead require the department to develop a standardized format for describing those strategies and actions to be taken, and would require the standardized reporting format to address all of the assessment components and, in addition to the above-described certain fields, a field for which fair housing priority the program is intended to address, the intended impacts, and how the strategies and actions will result in those impacts. (3) Existing law authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development, in evaluating a proposed or adopted housing element for substantial compliance, to allow a city or county to identify adequate sites by a variety of methods, including, among others, redesignation of property to a more intense land use category. Existing law also authorizes the department to allow a city or county to identify sites for accessory dwelling units based on the number of accessory dwelling units developed in the prior housing element planning period whether or not the units are permitted by right, the need for these units in the community, the resources or incentives available for their development, and any other relevant factors, as determined by the department. This bill would revise the department's authorization to allow a city or county to identify sites for accessory dwelling units in each income category based on the number of accessory dwelling units developed in the prior housing element planning period in that income category whether or not the units are permitted by right, the need for these units in the community, the resources or incentives available for their development, and any other relevant factors, as determined by the department. The bill would also require the jurisdiction to provide proof of a recorded deed restriction requiring the continued affordability of the unit, as specified, for accessory dwelling units developed in the prior housing element period to count towards determining the number of sites for accessory dwelling units a jurisdiction can include in the lower income category. (4) Existing law requires a city's or county's inventory of land suitable for residential development to be used to identify sites throughout the community, consistent with certain fair housing requirements, that can be developed for housing within the planning period, and that are sufficient to provide for the jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need for all income levels. This bill would instead require that a city's or county's inventory of land suitable for residential development be used to identify sites that can be developed for housing within the planning period, that are sufficient to provide for the jurisdiction's share of the regional housing need for all income levels, and that are distributed throughout the community in compliance with the requirement that the distribution affirmatively furthers fair housing, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local entities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (5) Existing law requires a city or county to determine whether each site in its inventory of suitable land, as described above, can accommodate the development of some portion of its share of the regional housing need by income level during the planning period. Existing law also requires the inventory to, among other things, specify for each site the number of units that can realistically be accommodated on that site. This bill would additionally require those sites identified as described above to be distributed throughout the jurisdiction in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing by allowing for a reduction in residential segregation, based on a specified determination procedure. By imposing additional duties on local entities, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the department, by no later than April 1, 2027, to develop and publish an online tool to serve as the method for determining whether each city's or county's identification of sites adequate to accommodate its share of the regional housing need at all income levels meets the distribution requirement described above. The bill would authorize the department to grant an adjustment to the distribution requirement described above if underlying data for the jurisdiction renders the tool unreliable. The bill would require the department to include in its materials explaining the online tool a procedure for applying for an adjustment and the factors that the department will consider in determining whether or not to grant an adjustment. 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Existing law authorizes the legislative body of a city or county to designate a proposed enhanced infrastructure financing district to finance public capital facilities or other specified projects of communitywide significance that provide significant benefits to the district or the surrounding community, including, among other things, the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of housing for persons of very low, low, and moderate income for rent or purchase, as specified. Existing law authorizes an infrastructure financing plan to contain a provision for the division of taxes levied upon taxable property in the area included within the district and authorizes the public financing authority of the district to issue bonds, as provided. This bill would establish the Workforce Housing Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Act, which would authorize a city or county to establish a workforce housing enhanced infrastructure financing district (district) if certain requirements are met, including the adoption of an infrastructure financing plan as specified. The bill would prescribe requirements applicable to those districts. Among these requirements, the bill would prescribe requirements for the construction of residential housing that meets specified occupancy and affordability criteria. The bill would provide definitions for its provisions. The bill would authorize the governing board to issue bonds, subject to approval by 23 of the voters voting on the proposition. The bill would prescribe requirements for the issuance of the bond pursuant to its provisions. The bill would further require a district, which finances affordable housing units through the bond, to maintain the housing units at affordable housing costs through a recorded covenant or restriction, as specified. By adding to the duties of local elections officials with respect to administering the above-described provisions, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.