The first year of the current 2021–22 California legislative session was marked by the passage of several key housing bills designed to tackle the state’s supply challenges in meaningful ways through zoning reforms and historic investments in affordable and supportive housing. The second year of this session offers some promising ideas to help move the needle on the state’s housing challenges, albeit in more incremental ways. The political landscape has changed to some extent, however. The redistricting process that followed the 2020 census has shaken up state Senate and Assembly district lines creating numerous seats that could be reasonably up for grabs. Further compounding the uncertainty of this session is the fair number of resignations by key members of the Legislature. With so much in flux, it isn’t inconceivable to assume we will see less of a policy splash since high-profile bills usually reach the governor’s desk by a one to two vote margin.
So what happens now that the February 18th deadline for introducing new bills has passed? The bills will now be sent to the Rules Committee of their respective house of origin (Assembly/Senate) before being assigned to the appropriate policy committee for initial hearing. While most bills have already advanced to this step, it’s not uncommon for some bills to be delayed in their committee review until as late as the middle of April. If the bill has a fiscal impact or a state cost, it will be heard in either the Senate or Assembly Appropriations Committee. At this point, it’s commonplace for vested stakeholders to inform the Members of the committee the reasons for supporting or opposing the bill based on a fiscal argument. The finance committees are concerned about fiscal impact and not policy considerations. To learn more about the legislative process, click this link for an overview.
Over the next month or so, Generation Housing and our regional partners will be closely monitoring legislation as more information becomes available. It’s often the case that placeholder bills are introduced before the bill introduction deadline. These bills are commonly referred to as spot bills or gut-and-amend bills and they serve as vehicles for legislation to be introduced after the initial deadline for introducing new legislation passes.
Stay tuned for more information – we will begin the process of drafting/signing letters of support or opposition, deliver public statements during the committee hearing process, and look to our community for assistance with building support around our endorsed bills.
CURRENT ENDORSED LEGISLATION
Generation Housing is proud to offer our support for the following legislative proposals as they closely align with the stated principles outlined in our Advocacy Platform 2022-23:
Senate Constitutional Amendment 2 (SCA 2, Allen) – SCA 2 proposes removing a barrier enacted in California that effectively neutered affordable public housing. This bill puts on the ballot the question of whether voters wish to repeal the outdated (1950) Article 34 of the California State Constitution. Article 34 prohibits cities and counties from building or buying low-rent housing projects without voter approval. Passage of SCA-2 will empower local governments to address housing and homelessness by removing obstacles that prevent much needed housing from being built. More importantly, it gives voters the power to increase equity while concurrently helping address California’s severe shortage of available affordable housing.
Assembly Bill 2097 (AB 2097, Friedman) – AB 2097 will eliminate costly parking mandates for homes and commercial buildings near transit, or in neighborhoods with low rates of car use. Eliminating these costly parking mandates will give communities more choices about whether they want to pay for parking, or have lower-cost housing in walkable, transit-accessible neighborhoods. It’s often the case that housing projects are financially infeasible due to the costly nature of creating parking.
Senate Bill 886 (SB 886, Wiener) – Senator Wiener introduced SB 886 in response to UC Berkeley having to cap student admissions this year. It would exempt some residential projects proposed by UC, CSU and California Community College campuses from the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which requires state and local agencies to disclose the environmental implications of their projects. The bill will play an important role in supporting students and creating affordable and equitable housing for students by removing legal obstacles. While it’s not a silver bullet to student homelessness, it will play a critical role in preventing future crises such as the one UC Berkeley recently experienced. For more on this, visit CalMatters.
Assembly Bill 889 (SB 889, Gibson) – AB 889 is a transparency bill that will mandate all corporate and institutional landlords to disclose who is the beneficiary of a limited liability company that rents out property. Evidence from the Federal Reserve indicates that institutional investors often offer higher bids for housing than conventional buyers. The added barrier of this competition only serves to make it more challenging for low- and middle-income people to purchase a home and build intergenerational wealth.
BILLS TO WATCH
The legislation listed below does not indicate Generation Housing’s support or opposition. Rather, it is intended to offer a helpful overview of key legislation we will be tracking over the course of the next year.
- AB 916 (Salas & Quirk-Silva) — would restrict public hearings for certain projects in existing residential units and increases the ADU height limit to 18 ft if located near an existing multifamily and multistory building
- AB 1001 (Garcia) — would require mitigation for environmental impact on air and water quality issues identified in an environmental impact report to be addressed directly in affected disadvantaged communities
- AB 1056 (Grayson) — California’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) and California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank would invest in the building of housing through off-site industrialized construction methods housing to quickly address homelessness, wildfires, COVID-19, or other emergency housing situations
- AB 1206 (Bennett) — would offer a tax break for low-income units included in limited equity housing cooperatives
- AB 1288 (Quirk-Silva) — would allow state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to be used with 4 percent or 9 percent credits
- AB 1445 (Levine) — starting in 2025, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) process would be required to take climate change into consideration, particularly evacuation routes from climate disasters for new homes built
- AB 1602 (McCarty, Cervantes, Medina, Ting) — Also known as the California Student Housing Revolving Loan Fund Act of 2022; would invest $5 billion of the state’s budget to develop student housing on or near public institutions of higher education through agreements with participating nonprofit entities
- AB 1719 (Ward) — would expand the Teacher Housing Act of 2016 to include housing for community college faculty, district employees, and current/former foster youth
- AB 1748 (Seyarto) — would add to the definition of “exempt surplus land,” surplus land that is zoned for a density of up to 30 residential units and is owned by a city or county that is reaching or surpassing RHNA numbers
- AB 1816 (Bryan) — would create a Reentry Housing & Workforce Development Program to house and support formerly incarcerated people by providing housing assistance, supportive services, and workforce development programming
- AB 1910 (Garcia) — would provide grants to local agencies that convert publicly-owned golf courses into affordable housing and publicly accessible open space
- AB 1911 (Gabriel) — would create a new Affordable Housing Preservation Tax Credit to preserve existing affordable apartment properties and mobile home parks, providing a credit against state and federal capital gains when a property owner sells to a nonprofit entity that will operate the property as affordable housing
- AB 1933 (Friedman) — would provide a full property tax exemption for land owned by a nonprofit organization that will be used to build homes for low- to moderate-income, first-time homebuyers
- AB 2006 (Berman) — would streamline the state’s compliance monitoring system to eliminate duplication and reduce costs by directing one entity to manage this activity
- AB 2013 (Quirk-Silva) — would establish the Legislative Task Force on the California Master Plan on Homeownership which would submit a report to the legislature no later than March 31, 2023 offering recommendations and evaluating the barriers to increase homeownership rates across the state
- AB 2049 (Villapudua) — would establish the State Land Affordable Housing Infrastructure, Demolition, Abatement, and Remediation Fund to provide grants for affordable housing development on state land upon appropriation
- AB 2063 (Berman) — would prohibit affordable housing impact fees—including inclusionary zoning fees, public benefit fees, and in-lieu fees—from being imposed on a housing development’s density bonus units
- AB 2094 (Robert Rivas & Quirk-Silva) — would require a city or county Annual Progress Report to include progress in meeting the housing needs of Extremely Low-Income households
- AB 2166 (Mayes) — HCD would prioritize 30 percent of the federal funding provided under the Community Development Block Grant Program to promote low or moderate income homeownership. At least 10 percent of program funds would go towards down payment assistance
- AB 2170 (Grayson) — would give owner-occupants and public entities a “First Look” at purchasing bank-owned properties and would prohibit “bulk sales” of foreclosed homes
- AB 2233 (Quirk-Silva) — would establish the Public Housing Loan Fund which would make loans to localities to build public housing on public land
- AB 2305 (Grayson) — would establish the Coordinated Affordable Housing Finance Committee and require HCD, California’s Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), and California’s Tax Allocation Committee (TCAC) to allocate funding through a single process
- AB 2357 (Ting) — would require HCD to maintain a website listing of all entities, including housing sponsors, that have notified the department of their interest in surplus land for the purpose of developing low- and moderate-income housing
- AB 2386 (Bloom) — would specify that any multifamily property held under tenancy in common is subject to an exclusive occupancy agreement
- AB 2439 (Bloom) — would allow the DMV to lease lands owned by the entity to develop affordable housing
- AB 2445 (Gallagher) — would require a person filing a CEQA lawsuit against an affordable housing project to post a $500k bond to cover the damages in case they lose the case;the judge can adjust or waive the bond requirement upon good cause
- AB 2446 (Holden) — would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to produce a framework to reduce the carbon intensity in new building construction with a goal of 80 percent reduction by 2045
- AB 2483 (Maienschein) — would award points through the Multifamily Housing Program to project applicants that agree to set aside at least 25 units for individuals that are either experiencing homelessness or in need of all-inclusive elderly care
- AB 2513 (Grayson) — would task the Department of Insurance with the creation of a state program to reduce the cost of construction defect liability insurance
- AB 2531 (Grayson) — would require local jurisdictions to create a website landing page that lists the fees, exactions, affordability requirements, etc. related to a development
- AB 2619 (Patterson) — would lift the six-person capacity limit for elderly residential care facilities if there is sufficient square footage on the property
- SB 490 (Caballero) — would establish the Housing Acquisition and Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Program to provide technical assistance for acquisition-rehabilitation projects
- SB 649 (Cortese) — would allow jurisdictions to create local preference policies for affordable housing developments to local residents at risk of displacement
- SB 1067 (Portantino) — would eliminate parking minimums near public transit if 75 percent of the units are occupied by low- and very low-income households, older adults, or people with disabilities if the developer shows the development will not negatively impact traffic
- SB 1176 (Limon) — would establish a California Community Reinvestment Act and expands regulations to nonbanks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders to lend in low- to moderate-income communities
- SB 1292 (Stern) — would remove state-mandated 4 foot setbacks for ADUs and allows local discretion on approval
SCA 2 (Allen & Wiener) — would place a 2024 ballot measure to repeal Article 34—which requires voter approval for increasing affordable housing production at the local level—of the California Constitution