Hello  Housing California Supporter,

End of Session Legislative Updates

As is the norm for the end of legislative session, much is happening quickly with only two days remaining before the 2011-12 session adjourns for good. The following are point-in-time updates for some of the major bills Housing California is working on.

AB 345 (Torres) passed the Assembly this morning with strong bi-partisan support and is on its way to Governor Brown. This late-blooming measure contains the provisions of last year's SB 450 (Lowenthal) to reform the rules governing local agencies' spending of housing dollars under the new version of redevelopment created by SB 1156 (Steinberg). Our position: Support

AB 1585 (Pérez) has been amended to remove a provision giving priority for Infill Infrastructure Grant Program funding to projects that previously received an award. Nehemiah Corporation sought this provision to assist its Township 9 development in Sacramento. The bill is on the Senate floor. Our position: Our Board will consider next week

Today, the Senate passed AB 1699 (Torres) on a 22-9 vote. The bill would set uniform rules for the state Department of Housing and Community Development to restructure old loans for developments needing significant rehabilitation. The Assembly will vote to concur in the Senate amendments this week. Our position: Support

AB 1951 (Atkins), which will allocate $30 million for the Multifamily Housing Program, passed the Legislature on August 27th and is heading to the governor's desk. AB 1951 would transfer monies from unutilized programs in the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund to provide a much-needed infusion for affordable multifamily development.

• Take Action: With so few resources out there for affordable-home development, we need your support to convince Governor Brown to sign AB 1951 into law. Please take a moment to support AB 1951 using this support letter.

Unfortunately, AB 2266 (Mitchell), which would have required the state to apply for an Affordable Care Act option to fund supportive housing and housing location services for homeless, frequent emergency-room users, was ultimately held upon the author's request and will not come up for a final vote in the Legislature.

A number of factors entered into Assemblymember Mitchell's decision, not the least of which was the state Department of Health Care Services' final decision yesterday to oppose the bill, despite the author's close work with the department to address each of their concerns. While the bill would likely have passed the Legislature, the department's opposition would have likely resulted in a veto of a bill that already included many compromises. Mitchell continues to be committed to addressing the needs of the most vulnerable Medi-Cal beneficiaries, and we hope the bill will be revived next year.

In a late addition, Senator Leno amended his SB 77 to allow the state Department of Housing and Community Development to reduce the interest rate on loans for rental developments to 0 percent if the sponsor can prove it has no other debt payments and the interest-rate reduction is needed to allow the project to qualify for Low Income Housing Tax Credits. The bill will benefit small projects with very low rents -- typically urban, special-needs developments or rural developments with market rents. The bill passed the Assembly on August 24th and awaits a vote on the Senate floor. Our position: Our Board will consider next week

Yesterday, the Assembly passed SB 1156 (Steinberg), on a 50-27 vote, to authorize local governments to use tax-increment financing for a variety of community development purposes, including affordable-home development. Our position: Board will consider next week

Additional information on all bills can be found on the legislative counsel's website.

Contact: Zack Olmstead, 916.447.0503 x108 or zolmstead@housingca.org or Julie Snyder, 916.447.0503 x102 or jsnyder@housingca.org.

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