Bills We Are Tracking 2021-2022 Session

Extends the tenant protection provisions on AB 3088 through the end of 2021 and makes some changes, including banning late fees on unpaid rent, limiting collection actions to small claims court, allowing tenants to specify how to apply rent payments, and prohibiting landlords from adding language to the declaration form tenants must submit in order to be protected.

Placeholder bill for long-term solution to unpaid COVID rent.

Requires schools to survey and report on homeless and unaccompanied students.

Eliminates CDLAC and transfers the duties to TCAC.

Revises timelines and notice requirements to challenge fee ordinances and assessments under the Mitigation Fee Act.

Requires HCD to establish a housing appeals committee by which an applicant for a conditional use permit or other discretionary approval for a housing development project could appeal the decision of a city or county to either deny the application or approve the application with conditions in a manner rendering it infeasible.

Creates the Bring California Home fund to provide resources to address homelessness, to be funded by taxing global low-taxed income; requires the Department of Health Care Services to seek federal approval for a Medi-Cal benefit to fund prescribed services, including housing navigation and housing acquisition support services, for beneficiaries experiencing homelessness; authorizes the department to use up to 20% of the county-continuum allocation from the Bring California Home Fund to pay for the state’s federal medical assistance percentage associated with this benefit.

Creates several technical budget items for HCD to implement the $1.5 billion in federal rental assistance funds the state anticipates receiving.

Amends the current year state budget (which ends June 30, 2021) to include provisions for $24M from the General Fund for the Housing the Harvest program to provide housing support to farmworkers that need to isolate due to COVID-19 exposure, and approximately $10M in assistance for UC, CSU, and community college homeless students.

Re-run of AB 3107 from last year making housing with 20% lower-income units an allowable use in commercial zones.

Places the $3.2B Equitable Economic Recovery, Healthy Food Access, Climate Resilient Farms, and Worker Protection Bond Act on the November 2022 ballot. Proceeds would include $450M for farmworker housing and $50M for farmworker housing energy efficiency retrofitting.

Adds SB 330 to the list of laws HCD can enforce under AB 72; requires HCD to monitor progress between housing element revisions; imposes remedial requirements for jurisdictions not meeting specified criteria.

Requires TCAC, HCD, CalHFA, and CDLAC to complete an affordable housing cost study by 2028.

Requires grantees receiving state funding to follow specified low-barrier practices for emergency shelters and transitional housing, to include Housing First practices and allowing pets..

Public Bank

Creates the Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program at HCD to provide grants to cities, counties, and continuums of care for housing interventions to allow people with recent histories of incarceration to exit homelessness and remain stably housed. The program would be funded from the savings created by the upcoming closure of several state prisons.

Requires localities to allow deed-restricted ADUs developed by nonprofits to be sold separately.

Requires HCD to develop an annual summary report by March 15 every year that discloses the amount of state, federal, and private funding spent on the development of affordable housing within the state, each city, and each county in the preceding calendar year

Spot bill related to affordable housing production.

Establishes minimum health and safety standards for homeless shelters including maintenance, interior air quality, sleeping rooms, and laundries; allows for local or state enforcement; requires unannounced inspections at least every six months; provides for denial of funding for violations under specified conditions.

Requires HCD's annual report to include an evaluation of the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program.

Water quality: impaired waters.

Creates a state council to develop "social housing,", i.e. mixed-income rental and limited equity homeownership housing and mixed-use developments.

Requires the state Dept. Education to develop a plan to monitor compliance by schools with homeless student educational requirements.

Places a measure on the June 2022 ballot authorizing the issuance of $600 million in bonds for the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention (VHHP) program.

Extends the Transitional Housing Placement-Plus program for youth ages 18-24 formerly in the foster youth or probation system by allocating additional state funds.

Local government planning.

California Consumer Financial Protection Law: annual report.

Allows bond proceeds of enhanced infrastructure financing districts to be used for facilities in which nonprofit community organizations provide health, youth, homeless, and social services.

Extends authorization for a public housing authority located in the City of San Diego, the County of San Bernardino, or the County of Santa Clara to implement a pilot program to develop and finance a middle-income housing project, if the project receives gap financing, until 2026.

Prohibits developments with assisted units from having a separate entrance for the assisted units.

Allows HOAs of any size to elect board members by acclamation if they number of candidates does not exceed the number of vacancies, under specified conditions.

Requires Caltrans, with certain exceptions, to offer to sell certain unimproved properties along the rescinded 710 freeway corridor at the original acquisition price paid by the department in the middle of the last century to a housing-related entity for affordable housing purposes.

Gives affordable housing nonprofits first option to purchase tax-defaulted properties that are available for sale

Requires the Office of the Treasurer to work with CalHFA and HCD to create a financing product to assist homeowners in the creation of ADUs.

Prohibits affordable housing impact fees, including inclusionary zoning fees, in-lieu fees, and public benefit fees, from being imposed on a housing development’s affordable units.

Expands the types of housing settings for foster youth transitional housing.

Establishes standards for nexus fee studies; requires HCD to develop model standards.

Requires HCD to give bonus points in housing and infrastructure grant programs for projects that would meet or exceed a locality’s RHNA share at one or more income levels.

Allows any jurisdiction the option of paying other jurisdictions to transfer all or a portion of their RHNA.

Provides the local governments may require affordability covenants of 55 years or more on rental density bonus units; allows covenants of greater than 55 years on projects subject to specified other laws.

Involuntary commitment spot bill.

Allows localities to rezone sites used as a golf course to also allow for residential and open space use with specified requirements, inclusing a set-aside of affordable houisng units; exempts the rezoning and related actions from CEQA.

Places various limits on residential development impact fees, including a cap of 12% of the area median home pricw.

Requires cities to allow cohousing projects in areas zoned for multifamily residential.

Expands ability of local governments to hold teleconferenced meetings under the Brown Act.

Makes recorded covenants, conditions, restrictions, or limits on the use of land that restrict the number or size of the residences that may be built on a property, or that restrict the number of people may reside on the property, unenforceable against the owner of an affordable housing development.

Requires state departments and agencies to create a streamlined process for certain local governments to get access to funds related to homelessness

Spot bill on SWRCB drinking water requirements.

Extends tax return check box for contributions to the School Supplies for Homeless Children Fund through 2029.

Appropriates $20M to the Tule River Indian Tribe-City of Porterville joint powers authority for a water treatment facility.

Requires the California Department of Aging to establish a task force to further assess providing legal services for seniors.

Authorizes a school district to render a city or county zoning ordinance inapplicable if the proposed use of property by the school district is to offer school district employee housing under specified conditions.

Authorizes a city or county to meet all or part of its RHNA share for the applicable income category with units in an existing multifamily building that are converted to deed-restricted housing for very low, low-, or moderate-income households, by the acquisition of the unit or the imposition of affordability covenants and restrictions for the unit, if specified conditions are met.

Extends protections in the Consumer Legal Remedies Act to PACE transactions.

Adds additional requirements to HCD's annual reporting requirements and requires the department to do on-site visits for CalHome recipients.

Requires the creation of a statewide plan for addressing homelessness and allows for legal action against jurisdictions who do not make progress towards meeting the plan’s goals.

Transfers all land use related plans and functions of the former City of Los Angeles redevelopment agency to the City of Los Angeles and makes related changes.

Creates a tax credit for property owners renting to tenants receiving housing assistance.

Requires cities and counties to follow up on complaints from tenants about substandard buildings and potential lead hazards.

Requires a owner seeking to withdraw a building from the rental market to own the property for at least 5 years before doing so; prohibits an owner who has withdrawn a property under the Act from using the Act to withdraw a property the owner acquired in the 10-year period following the withdrawal.

Prohibits park management from renting or subleasing a mobilhome if the park rules prohibit renting or subleasing.

Requires the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authorityto develop a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) default mitigation program.

Creates the Affordable Disaster Housing Revolving Development and Acquisition Program to provide funding to CDFIs to fund affordable housing production, preservation, and rehabilitation in the wake of natural disasters.

Capital investment incentive program.

Small and disadvantaged business enterprises.

Reduces the statute of limitations for construction defects from 10 to 5 years for projects that use a skilled and trained workforce.

Expands the definition of “excess surplus” in redevelopment to include, for a housing successor agency that owns and operates affordable housing that transferred from the former redevelopment agency, an unencumbered amount in the housing successor’s Low and Moderate Income Housing Asset Fund that exceeds the greater of $1,000,000 or the aggregate amount deposited into the account during the housing successor’s preceding 8 fiscal years, whichever is greater.

Eliminates the mortgage interest deduction on vacation properties.

Authorizes Caltrans to sell its excess property to cities and counties for affordable housing and exempts these transfers from CEQA.

Requires HCD and the Building Standards Commission to propose building standards for electric vehicle charging infrastructure at existing multifamily dwellings.

Spot bill on wildfire home hardening.

Requires the reporting of health information to the state Homeless Management Information System by various grantees.

Extends AB 1492's limitations on rent increases to mobilehomes.

Creates a state Housing Accountability Commission to provide an alternative to the courts for developers to bring claims that a city or county violated the Housing Accountability Act.

Adds housing status as a prohibited form of discrimination under CalFEHA; prohibits background checks from including information on crimes and violations associated with homelessness.

Requirs a local government to approve a housing development pursuant to a streamlined, ministerial process if it meets certain objective planning standards, including that the development be built or developed by a qualified nonprofit corporation and have 25 or fewer units.

Requires the LAFCOs for the County of Imperial and the County of Riverside to conduct a joint study of voting rights, and options for providing electricity, in the Imperial Irrigation District.

Adds preservation of affordable housing through the extension of project-based rental assistance to the list of policies that HCD may consider as "prohousing policies."

Creates a "deeply low income" designation for households at or below 15% of AMI.

Water corporations: bill payment pilot program.

Requires mobilehome park owners who master meter water service to charge the same water rate to residents as they would pay if they were receiving service directly from the water utility provider.

Requires HCD to create a model plan for the use of alternative forms of developing affordable housing for the purpose of substantially reducing the cost of a unit, including adaptive reuse of existing buildings, modular housing, and cross-subsidization that results in at least 50 percent of all units being affordable to persons who are extremely low and very low income.

Small businesses.

Creates the Legislative Task Force on the California Master Plan on Homeownership to make recommendations on removing policy and regulatory barriers to homeownership.

Requires SGC to treat rental and ownership housing equally in the AHSC program.

Solar energy systems.

Authorizes the state Commissioner of Financial Protection order a PACE solicitor to pay ancillary relief, including damages and restitution, for violations of the law.

Allows local governments to have a policy giving preference to lower-income households at risk of displacement in tax-credit-funded affordable housing.

Extends certain reporting requirements on the Transcript Reimbursement Fund, which provides reimbursement for the cost of providing shorthand reporting services to low-income litigants in civil cases, to July 1, 2023.

Makes numerous changes to SB 35.

Requires the PUC to create the California Connect Program, to ensure that high-speed broadband service is available to every household in the state at affordable rates.

Requires cities to create and maintain a rental registry by 2021 covering all landlords who own or operate five or more units.

Imposes an 25% excise tax on landlords who rent 10 or more single family homes or 25 or more multifamily properties with 5 or more units, to be used to fund a variety of activities to benefit low-income renters.

Allows certain limited equity cooperatives to access the welfare exemption.

Spot bill on the COVID-19 Small Landlord and Homeowner Relief Act of 2020.

Authorizes a water or sewer system corporation to file an application and obtain approval from the commission through an order authorizing the water or sewer system corporation to consolidate with a public water system or state small water system.

Subjects RHNA allocation plans to judicial review.

Creates an expedited judicial review process for CEQA for student housing projects.

Prohibits a city or county from entering into a residential development agreement for property located in a "very high fire risk area," as defined in the bill, and would apply to charter cities.

Allows the state Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to finance certain housing developments.

Makes changes to AB 686 related to the AFFH analysis in Housing Element law.

Exempts all businesses, including landlords, from Covid-19 liability unless grossly negligent or willful.

Bank on California Program.

Would allow a city council or board of supervisors to suspend provisions of a city charter or a local voter measure that the council or board believes conflicts with state housing laws.

Requires the Dept. of Aging to include ADUs in its aging-in-place materails.

Spot bill related to Housing First.

Makes Project Roomkey for homeless persons with Covid permanent; requires localities to ensure that individuals housed pursuant to Project Roomkey or Project Homekey do not return to homelessness

Requires local annual reports to include the number of certificates of occupancy issued, ADUs, and units approved through streamlined processes.

Requires cities and counties to provide temporary shelter to people experiencing homelessness.

Community Right To Purchase.

Water quality: state certification.

Creates a revolving loan fund to assist UC, CSU, and community colleges in producing affordable student housing.

Diversion or use of water: penalties.

Prohibits cities and counties from imposing parking minimum within 1/2 mile of transit or in a low Vehicle Miles Travelled area as determined by OPR.

Prohibits HOAs from restricting rentals by owners, other than short-term rentals.

Allows MHP funds to be used for construction financing or permanent financing.

Removes the ability of a water district that provides primarily agricultural services with only incidental residential uses to self-certify that it is providing water for residential use for drinking water that achieves the equivalent level of public health protection provided by applicable primary drinking water regulations.

Reduces standards for indoor residential water use to 40 gallons per capita daily by 2030.

Requires COGs to take climate change impacts into effect in allocating the RHNA.

Establishes a $1B Rural California Infrastructure Fund.

Requires HCD to have a progress payment option for grantees.

Requires a title insurance company involved in any transfer of real property that provides a copy of a deed or other written instrument relating to title to real property, to identify whether any of the documents contain an unlawfully restrictive covenant, and if identified, requires the title insurance company to record a modification document; makes other changes to facilitate recording of modification documents.

Upon appropriation, creates a grant program at the State Bar Legal Services Trust Fund Commission for legal services organizations for eviction defense and education.

Requires HCD to map high-opportunity areas.

Spot bill on domestic violence survivor tenants.

Puts a $6.7B bond measure on the 2022 ballot, for various purposes including safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, drought preparation, and flood protection.

Require HCD to complete any rezones for jurisidctions in the SCAG region that fail to complete their rezone program within one year of the statutory deadline for completing the rezone program. Includes language about inserting skilled and trained workforce requirements. The author is not moving the bill this year

Spot bill related to affordable housing authorities.

Imposes numerous limits and additional requirements on the state Low Income Housing Tax Credit.

Lowers the voter threshold to 55% for local bonds to fund affordable housing and infrastructure.

Lowers the voter threshold to 55% for local bonds to fund affordable housing and infrastructure.

Extends the provisions of AB 3088 through March 2021.

Places a $6.5B housing bond on the November 2022 ballot; requires projects to use a "skilled" workforce.

Aauthorizes housing on commercial sites that include affordable units and comply with a skilled and trained workforce requirement.

Allows infill housing projects with 15% affordable units to qualify for the AB 900 expedited CEQA process.

Clean-up bill for SB 330. Changes include clarifying that the law applies to both ministerial and discretionary projects.

Makes duplexes and lots splits on ministerial, similar to SB 1120 from 2020.

Allows local governments to rezone a parcel by right in infill or jobs-rich areas.

Reduces RHNA allocation based on amount of land in very high fire risk areas; requires safety element to develop building hardening strategies.

Provides grant to local governments if they rezone underutilized big box or commercial sites to allow lower- and moderate-income housing by right and a project gets built that also employed a skilled and trained workforce.

Establishes a state Office of Racial Equity, with duties to include establishing methodologies, a system of measurement, and data needs for assessing how state statutes, regulations, and practices contribute to, uphold, or exacerbate racial disparities; requires each state agency, including the Business, Consumer Affairs, and Housing Agency, to adopt and implement a Racial Equity Framework and Racial Equity Action Plan.

Requires a cable franchise holder to meet specified milestones to deploy broadband service to rural, unserved, and underserved areas.

Places a $5B bond issue on the November 2022 ballot to finance projects for a wildfire prevention, safe drinking water, drought preparation, and flood protection program.

Establishes some new processes and procedures for the disposal of Caltrans-owned homes along the former 710 freeway extension in the City of Los Angeles.

Prohibits development in very high fire hazard severity zones unless the locality has implemented comprehensive fire mitigation measures; allows an additional density bonus is the project is not located in a fire-risk area.

Provides evictions protections for COVID-impacted residents in mobilehome parks during the pandemic; would take effect immediately and therefore requires a 2/3rds vote.

Creates several technical budget items for HCD to implement the $1.5 billion in federal rental assistance funds the state anticipates receiving.

Extends the moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent due to COVID-19 financial hardship, subject to numerous conditions, from January 31, 2021, to June 30, 2021; Contains an appropriation of federal funds and statutory changes necessary to implement a rental assistance program as part of the current (2020-2021) budget act.

Makes technical and clarifying changes to eviction prevention provisions contained the already-enacted SB 91: Clarifies that local rent repayment plans can have repayment schedules through August 31, 2022; Clarifies the instances where the courts may reduce damages awarded for COVID-19 rental debt; Clarifies that most actions to collect COVID-19 rental debt are stayed until August 1, 2021 unless otherwise provided.

Requires the SWRCB to establish, maintain, and direct an ongoing, dedicated program called the Constituents of Emerging Concern Program to assess recommend areas for further study on CECs in drinking water sources and treated drinking water.

Creates the Transition Aged Youth Housing Program to create housing for youth under 26 who are experiencing homelessness.

Adds "political affiliation" as a protected class for housing and employment under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.

Re-do of last year’s SB 1385. Makes a number of modifications to Density Bonus law, including adding one concession for student housing projects and allowing the use of the moderate-income density bonus in all for-sale developments rather than just in common-interest developments.

Applies the same judicial action procedure and timelines, as in the Mitigation Fee Act, to water or sewer service fees or charges, with exceptions.

Establishes procedures and requirements for housing on community college campuses.

Requires HCD to administer a program to award grants to homeless shelters for the provision of shelter, food, and basic veterinary services for pets owned by people experiencing homelessness.

Water Innovation Act of 2021.

Adds to the categories of litigants eligible for court fee waivers persons: earning under 80% of Area Median Income; receiving unemployment compensation; WIC program patricipants; receiving the EITC.

Revises procedures for disposal of surplus residential properties along the portion of the rescinded 710 Freeway corridor in South Pasadena.

Requires schools to collaborate with other agencies that provide services for homeless children.

Authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board to roder consolidations of water system that fail to supply an adequate amount of safe drinking water; requires the Board to conduct outreach to customers of at-risk water systems.

Deems a loan agreement entered into between a redevelopment agency and the City of Atascadero between 1999 and 2003 to be enforceable obligations for the purposes of redevelopment dissolution.

Makes changes to housing element annual report requirements.

Prohibits cities and counties from imposing certain minimum lot size standards.

Creates the Housing Acquisition and Rehabilitation Technical Assistance program at HCD.

Increases income level to qualify for assistance from legal services projects to 200% of federal poverty level; also makes eligible veterans receiving disability compensation.

Requires a community water system to remove or replace a complete lead user service line, if the community water system disturbs, removes, or replaces a portion of the line.

Establishes several processes to address drought planning for small water systems.

Department of Water Resources: water conveyance systems: Canal Conveyance Capacity Restoration Fund.

Makes substantial revisions to the Second Neighborhood Infill Finance and Transit Improvements Act.

Requires a local planning agency include in its annual report whether the city or county is a party to a court action related to a violation of state housing law, and the disposition of that action.

Permits the establishment of an intergenerational housing development that includes senior citizens along with caregivers and transition age youths, under specified conditions.

Requires that housing developed on school district properties for employee housing be affordable.

Requires larger jurisdictions to implement an online, automated permitting platform that verifies code compliance and instantaneously issues permits for a residential photovoltaic solar energy system and an energy storage system paired with a residential photovoltaic solar energy system, with some exceptions.

Makes hotel and motel conversions to housing a use by right if the project includes 10% affordable units; a locality may impose a larger set-aside..

Creates a state CDFI fund to provide grants and loans to CDFIs for a variety of activities in low-income communities.

Allows local governments to have a policy giving preference to lower-income households at risk of displacement in tax-credit funded affordable housing.

Authorizes a defendant in an unlawful detainer action to file a motion to strike on or before the day fixed for the defendant’s appearance; authorizes a party in an unlawful detainer action to file a motion for summary adjudication in the same manner as a motion for summary judgment.

Establish the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency, to increase affordable housing in Los Angeles County by providing for significantly enhanced funding and technical assistance at a regional level for renter protections, affordable housing preservation, and new affordable housing production.

Triggers reassessment under Prop 13 if if 90% or more of the direct or indirect ownership interests in a legal entity are sold or transferred in a single transaction.

Spot bill on Prop 1, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014.

Allows the Insurance Commissioner to approve investments by insurers in low- and moderate income and underserved communities under the California Organized Investment Network (COIN) program above the statutory limits; extend COIN through 2027..

Establishes conditions for declaring land surplus at the former Marine base in Tustin, including housing for low- and very low-income families.

Makes changes to Density Bonus Law requirements related to for-sale units to ensure ongoing affordability and occupancy by lower- or moderate-income households.

Creates a grant program at the PUC to fund broadband, digital literacy, and computer equipment in affordable housing.

Allows in applicant for an ADU to request alternative rear and side yard setbacks based on topographical conditions if the existing local setback requirements would make an ADU infeasible.

Upon appropriation, establishes the California Surplus Land Authority to facilitate development of housing on state and local surplus property.

Authorizes a city or county to satisfy part of its requirement to identify zones suitable for residential development by adopting and implementing a multijurisdictional regional agreement, which would specify the jurisdiction that is contributing suitable land for residential development and the jurisdiction or jurisdictions that are contributing funding for that development.

Would place the repeal of Article 34 on a future ballot.