The Planning and Zoning Law requires cities and counties to prepare, adopt, and amend general plans and elements of those general plans, as specified. After the legislative body has adopted all or part of a general plan, the law requires the planning agency to provide by April 1 of each year an annual report to specified entities that includes certain information, including the status of the plan and progress of its implementation. This bill would require the planning agency to include in that report, beginning with the report due by April 1, 2028, the number of temporary emergency shelter beds and the number of permanent housing units serving those experiencing or exiting homelessness in the jurisdiction in each of specified categories. By requiring planning agencies to include additional information in these annual reports, 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.
Existing law provides for the establishment of district agricultural associations and authorizes a district agricultural association to engage in various activities, including to purchase, acquire, hold, sell, exchange, or convey any interest in real property with the approval of the Department of General Services. This bill would specify that the above-described authorization includes the construction and maintenance of affordable housing, as defined, and the construction and maintenance of housing affordable for persons and families of low or moderate income, as defined. Existing law authorizes a district agricultural association, with the approval of the Department of General Services, to lease for the use of its real property, or any portion of that property, to any person or public body for whatever purpose approved by the board of directors of the association, including the construction and maintenance of housing affordable to persons and families of low or moderate income, as defined, and limits a lease to not more than 55 years. This bill would specify that the above-described authorization includes the construction and maintenance of affordable housing, as defined, and would increase the maximum duration of a lease to not more than 99 years. This bill would require an affordable housing development constructed or maintained on real property purchased, acquired, held, sold, exchanged, conveyed, or leased by a district to have a recorded deed restriction that ensures, for a period of at least 55 years, that 100% of the units, except as specified, are dedicated to persons and families of low or moderate income, as defined, at an affordable rent, as defined. Existing law prohibits the Department of Housing and Community Development from making grants or loans pursuant to the Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Program on or after January 1, 2020, for the purpose of funding predevelopment of developing or operating any housing that is rented, sold, or subleased to certain entities who employ at least one H-2A worker until the expiration of a regulatory agreement or affordability covenant, as applicable. Existing law requires a person or entity who receives a grant or loan under that grant program on or after January 1, 2020, and expends any of those funds for housing that is rented, sold, or subleased to those certain entities until the expiration of the regulatory agreement or affordability covenant, as applicable, to reimburse the department, as specified. Existing law also prohibits state funding from being provided to an employer or its agent who employs at least one H-2A worker for the purposes of funding predevelopment of, developing, or operating any housing, and requires an employer or other recipient of state funding who uses state funding for those purposes to reimburse the state or state agency, as provided. This bill would expressly specify that those prohibitions and requirements apply to the authorized district agricultural association transactions and construction and maintenance actions described above and to funds, state subsidies allocated, and real property purchased, acquired, held, sold, exchanged, or conveyed by a district agricultural association, as specified. Existing law provides that any violation of the Food and Agricultural Code is a misdemeanor, except as otherwise specified. By creating a new crime, this 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program for the purpose of providing jurisdictions with grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges, as specified. Existing law provides for the allocation of funding under the program among continuums of care, cities, counties, and tribes in 6 rounds, with rounds 1 to 5, inclusive, administered by the Interagency Council on Homelessness and round 6 administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development, as provided. Existing law establishes round 7 of the program and states the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation that specifies the parameters, as specified. To be eligible for round 5 or round 6 base program allocation, existing law requires a jurisdiction that is not a tribe to apply as part of a region and be signatory to a regionally coordinated homelessness action plan that meets specified requirements. This bill would apply to the allocation of funding available under round 8 of the program and require a round 8 regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to include certain components, including a description of programs and interventions provided by smaller jurisdictions, as defined, that serve the objects and goals of the program, as specified. The bill would authorize a region receiving funding under round 8 to allocate a portion of that funding to smaller jurisdictions to support those programs. The bill would prescribe requirements for a smaller jurisdiction to be eligible to receive funding pursuant to these provisions.
Existing law establishes the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, under which, through a combination of federal, state, and county funds, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Existing law makes a family eligible for homeless assistance under the CalWORKs program if the homelessness is a direct result of domestic violence by a spouse, partner, or roommate, and authorizes that domestic violence to be verified by a sworn statement by the victim. Existing law limits homeless assistant payments, if the domestic violence is verified by a sworn statement by the victim, to two periods of not more than 16 cumulative calendar days of temporary shelter assistance and two payments of permanent housing assistance. Existing law also makes a CalWORKs applicant who provides a sworn statement of past or present domestic abuse and who is fleeing their abuser deemed as homeless and eligible for temporary shelter assistance, as specified. Existing law limits the homeless assistance payments to the CalWORKs applicant to 2 periods of not more than 16 cumulative calendar days each of temporary shelter assistance within the applicant's lifetime, and provides that these homeless assistance payments are in addition to other homeless assistance payments for which the CalWORKs applicant, if the applicant becomes a CalWORKs recipient, may later qualify. This bill would require that the above-described applicant or recipient receiving homeless assistance due to domestic violence who does not use all of the temporary shelter assistance for which they are eligible due to finding permanent housing receive the value of the remaining days of eligible temporary shelter assistance as permanent housing assistance. By increasing the duties of counties administering the CalWORKs program, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also require the State Department of Social Services to establish a one-stop reentry program that collaborates with local registrars of birth, death, and marriage and county recorders, credit bureaus, and financial institutions to assist survivors of domestic violence in, among other things, obtaining copies of their and their dependents' vital records, credit reports and credit scores from all of the major credit bureaus, and a listing of all bank, checking, investment, and other financial accounts in their name. Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program. This bill would instead provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of the bill. 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.
Existing law prescribes the general responsibilities and roles of the Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Housing Finance Agency in carrying out state housing policies and programs. Existing law establishes various programs to promote development of affordable housing for tenants and homeowners, including the Multifamily Housing Program, low-income housing tax credits, and the Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Program. This bill would, by January 1, 2028, require the department and the agency to develop and implement strategies, as specified, to promote the movement of tenants of deed-restricted affordable housing into home ownership through existing home ownership programs implemented by the department or the agency.
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 or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. If a lead agency determines that a project will have a significant transportation impact, existing law authorizes the lead agency to mitigate the transportation impact to a less than significant level by helping to fund or otherwise facilitating housing or related infrastructure projects, including by contributing an amount, to be determined pursuant to guidance issued by the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, to the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Fund for purposes of the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Program. Existing law makes those moneys available to the Department of Housing and Community Development, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purpose of awarding funding for affordable housing or related infrastructure projects under the program in accordance with specified priorities. On or before July 1, 2026, and at least once every 3 years thereafter, existing law requires the office, in consultation with other state agencies, to issue guidance related to the implementation of these provisions, as provided. This bill would authorize a lead agency for a land use project to require an applicant to contribute to the Transit-Oriented Development Implementation Fund if certain cost conditions are met and the department and the office have validated the reductions in vehicle miles traveled that are attributable to the project, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries 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. Existing law requires a city or county, based on that inventory of land, to determine whether each site in the inventory can accommodate the development of some portion of its share of the regional housing need by income level during the planning period, as provided. Existing law requires local governments to rezone sites according to a specified program if the inventory of sites suitable and available for residential development does not identify adequate sites to accommodate the need for groups of all household income levels. Existing law requires that program to accommodate 100% of the need for housing for specified lower income households on sites required to be zoned to permit owner-occupied and rental multifamily residential use, as provided, and requires these sites to be zoned with specified minimum density and development standards, as provided. This bill would provide that these zoning requirements would be met by applying a zoning classification, including, but not limited to, an overlay zone, mixed-use zone, combining district, or similar zone that permits owner-occupied and rental multifamily residential use with the above-described minimum density and development standards, as specified. The bill would require a program that includes application of this zoning classification to include a written explanation of the housing and affordability incentives of the zoning classification. The bill would permit this zoning classification to allow a mix of uses if it meets prescribed requirements. The bill would define key terms for these purposes. The bill would apply these provisions only to the 6th housing element revision cycle and retroactively to January 1, 2019. Existing law, commonly referred to as the Housing Element Law, prescribes requirements for a city's or county's preparation of, and compliance with, its housing element, and requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to review and determine whether the housing element substantially complies with the Housing Element Law, as specified. Existing law provides that a housing element or amendment is considered substantially compliant with the Housing Element Law when the local agency has adopted a housing element or amendment, the department or a court of competent jurisdiction determines the adopted housing element or amendment to be in substantial compliance with the Housing Element Law, and the department's compliance findings have not been superseded by subsequent contrary findings by the department or by a decision of a court of competent jurisdiction or the court's decision has not been overturned or superseded by a subsequent court decision or by statute. Existing law, the Housing Accountability Act, among other things, prohibits a local agency from disapproving, or conditioning approval in a manner that renders infeasible, a housing development project for very low, low-, or moderate-income households unless the local agency makes written findings as to one of certain sets of conditions, as specified. One set of conditions is that (1) the jurisdiction has adopted a housing element that is in substantial compliance with the Housing Element Law, and (2) the jurisdiction has met or exceeded its share of the regional housing need allocation for the planning period for the income category proposed for the housing development project. Existing law requires a housing element or amendment to be considered in substantial compliance with the Housing Element Law only if the element or amendment was determined to be in substantial compliance when a preliminary application or complete application was submitted, as specified. This bill would require, if a court of competent jurisdiction finds an adopted housing element or amendment to be to be out of compliance despite the department's findings of substantial compliance, that the housing element or amendment be considered in substantial compliance until either the date the department finds that a newly adopted housing element or amendment is in substantial compliance, or 275 days after a court order, writ, or judgment is issued requiring the local agency to bring its housing element into substantial compliance, whichever is earlier.
Existing law authorizes a county to establish a homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined, with the goal of facilitating the expedited identification, assessment, and linkage of homeless individuals to housing and supportive services within that county and to allow provider agencies to share confidential information for the purpose of coordinating housing and supportive services to ensure continuity of care. This bill would authorize a county to also establish a behavioral health multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined, with the goal of facilitating the expedited identification, assessment, and linkage of a justice-involved person, as defined, diagnosed with a mental illness to supportive services within that county while incarcerated and upon release from county jail and to allow provider agencies and members of the personnel team to share confidential information, as specified, for the purpose of coordinating supportive services to ensure continuity of care. The bill would require the sharing of information permitted under these provisions to be governed by protocols developed in each county, as specified. This bill would authorize a behavioral health multidisciplinary personnel team to designate a qualified person to be a member of the team for a particular case and would require a member who receives information or records regarding a justice-involved person in their capacity as a member of the team to be under the same privacy and confidentiality obligations and subject to the same confidentiality penalties as the person disclosing or providing the information or records. The bill would also require the information or records to be maintained in a manner that ensures the maximum protection of privacy and confidentiality rights.
Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to oversee the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations, and, among other things, identify resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. Existing law requires a state agency or department that funds, implements, or administers a state program that provides housing or housing-related services to people experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness to revise or adopt guidelines and regulations to include enumerated Housing First policies. Existing law specifies the core components of Housing First, including services that are informed by a harm-reduction philosophy that recognizes drug and alcohol use and addiction as a part of tenants' lives and where tenants are engaged in nonjudgmental communication regarding drug and alcohol use. This bill would authorize state programs to fund supportive-recovery residences, as defined, that emphasize abstinence under these provisions as long as the state program meets specified criteria, including that at least 90% of program funds awarded to each jurisdiction is used for housing or housing-based services using a harm-reduction model. This bill would specify requirements for applicants seeking funds under these programs and would require the state to perform periodic monitoring of select supportive-recovery residence programs to ensure that the supportive-recovery residences meet certain requirements, including that core outcomes of the supportive-recovery housing emphasize long-term housing stability and minimize returns to homelessness. The bill would also prohibit eviction on the basis of relapse, as specified. The bill would require, if a tenant is no longer interested in living in a supportive-recovery residence with an abstinence focus, is at risk of eviction, or is discharged from the program, the tenant to reside in the supportive recovery residence until the operator secures the tenant a new permanent housing placement option operated with harm-reduction principles that is also permanent housing. The bill would require supportive housing and services to support residents' access to and use of medications to treat behavioral and physical health conditions, as specified, and to provide overdose prevention training and overdose reversal medication to staff and residents, as specified. Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development and requires it to administer various programs that provide services to homeless individuals. This bill would require the department to adopt the most recent standards approved by the National Alliance for Recovery Residences or other national standards as the minimum standard for supportive-recovery residences that receive public funds under these provisions. The bill would require the department to establish a separate process for determining if the supportive-recovery residence complies with the core components of Housing First. The bill would require the department to verify compliance with the core components of Housing First for residences seeking Housing First certification, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to charge an annual fee to verify that supportive-recovery residences comply with the core components of Housing First in an amount not to exceed the reasonable cost of administering the program, not to exceed $100, and would establish the Supportive-Recovery Residence Program Fund for collection of the fee, to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature.
(1) Existing law, 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, which includes, among other mandatory elements, a housing element. Existing law requires a public agency to administer its programs and activities relating to housing and community development in a manner to affirmatively further fair housing, and take no action that is materially inconsistent with its obligation to affirmatively further fair housing. Existing law defines "affirmatively furthering fair housing," as provided. The Planning and Zoning Law requires that a housing element include, among other things, a program that sets forth a schedule of actions during the planning period. Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a standardized reporting format for programs and actions taken pursuant to the requirement to affirmatively further fair housing. This bill would require the department to develop the above-described standardized reporting format on or before December 31, 2026. (2) Existing law requires, for the 4th and subsequent revisions of the housing element, the department to determine the existing and projected need for housing for each region, as specified. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with the council of governments, to determine the existing and projected need of housing for each region at least 2 years prior to the scheduled revision of the housing element, as provided. Existing law requires the department to meet and consult with the council of governments regarding the assumptions and methodology to be used to determine the region's housing needs at least 26 months prior to the scheduled revision of the housing element, as provided. This bill, except as specified, would extend the above-described timeline for the department to determine the existing and projected need of housing for each region from 2 years to 3 years prior to the scheduled revision of the housing element. The bill would require the department to meet and consult with the council of governments, as described above, pursuant to prescribed deadlines. For the 7th revision of the housing element, the bill would require the department to meet and consult with each council of governments at least 38 months prior to the scheduled revision, except for specified councils of governments. For the 8th and subsequent revision of the housing element, the bill would require the department to meet and consult with each council of governments at least 38 months prior to the scheduled revision. (3) Existing law authorizes at least 2 or more cities and a county, or counties, at least 28 months prior to the scheduled housing element revision, to form a subregional entity to allocate the subregion's existing and projected housing need among its members. If the council of governments does not receive a notification of this formation at least 28 months prior to the update, existing law requires the council of governments to implement specified requirements regarding the regional housing need process. Existing law requires the council of governments to determine the share of regional housing need assigned to each delegate subregion at least 25 months prior to the scheduled revision. This bill would extend the above-described timeline for cities and counties to form a subregional entity to allocate the subregion's housing need, as provided, from 28 months to 34 months, and the above-described timeline for the council of governments to determine the share of regional housing need assigned to each subregion from 25 months to 31 months, respectively. (4) Existing law, at least 2 years before a scheduled revision of the housing element, as specified, requires each council of governments, or delegate subregion as applicable, to develop, in consultation with the department, a proposed methodology for distributing the existing and projected regional housing need to jurisdictions, as specified. Existing law, at least 1 12 years before a scheduled revision of the housing element, as specified, requires each council of governments and delegate subregion, as applicable, to distribute a draft allocation of regional housing needs to each local government in the region or subregion, where applicable, and the department, as specified. This bill, except with respect to the 7th housing element cycle for councils of governments with a housing element revision due date during the 2027 calendar year, would instead require that the above-described methodology be developed from at least 2 12 years before a scheduled revision of the housing element, and that the distribution of the draft allocation plan be made at least 2 years before a scheduled revision of the housing element, respectively. (5) Existing law requires a planning agency to submit a copy of its draft housing element or amendments to its housing element or housing element revision to the department for review, and requires the department to notify the city, county, or city and county with written findings if the department finds that the housing element or the amendment does not substantially comply with specified law. If the department finds that the draft housing element or draft amendment is not in substantial compliance, existing law requires the jurisdiction to either update the draft to substantially comply with specified law, or adopt the draft housing element or amendment without changes, as provided. This bill would require the department, if the department finds that a draft element or draft amendment does not substantially comply, as described above, to (A) identify and explain the specific deficiencies in the draft element or draft amendment and (B) provide the specific analysis or text that the department expects the planning agency to include in the draft element or draft amendment to remedy those deficiencies, as specified. The bill would require a jurisdiction, in updating a noncompliant housing element or amendment under the above-described provisions, to include the specific analysis or text in its draft element or amendment. (6) This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65583 of the Government Code proposed by SB 340 and AB 610 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65584.01 of the Government Code proposed by SB 486 to be operative only if this bill and SB 486 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65584.03 of the Government Code proposed by AB 1275 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1275 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65584.04 of the Government Code proposed by SB 486 and AB 1275 to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 65585 of the Government Code proposed by AB 507 to be operative only if this bill and AB 507 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. (7) By imposing additional duties on local governments, this bill would create 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 no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
