2022 Policy Agenda
Housing California’s 2022 Policy Agenda focuses on community members most in need of an affordable place to call home.
Read more...
Our 2022 legislative priorities are listed below. As the legislative session progresses, please check this page for updates.
Bills Moving Forward
Sponsor
AB 2094 (R. Rivas)
General plan: Annual report: Extremely low income Housing
AB 2094 adds a ELI category to the reporting matrix that local jurisdictions are already familiar with so they may distinctly count units that serve ELI and VLI populations.
AB 2334 (Wicks)
Density Bonus in Low- VMT Areas
AB 2334 builds on the improvements in density bonus law provided under AB 1763 by creating another opportunity for 100% affordable housing developments to earn enhanced density bonus in location-efficient areas, defined by low vehicle miles traveled.
Fact Sheet
Download Support Letter
Submit Support Letter Here
SB 948 (Becker)
Transition Reserves Pool
SB 948 allows HCD to establish a pool of transition reserves, rather than requiring each affordable housing development to hold transition reserves for their tenants with vouchers. This would provide cost-savings for developments ranging from $200,000 to $3 million.
Support
SCA 2 (Allen)
Public Housing Projects
Repeals Article 34 of the constitution which requires voter approval of the development or acquisition of affordable housing that is financed by public subsidy.
SCA 2 aligns with Policy Solution D7 in the Roadmap Home 2030
AB 1837 (Bonta)
Homes in Community Hands Act
This bill resolves implementation gaps in the existing foreclosure intervention law, ensuring foreclosed homes be prioritized for renters and the community, not corporations. Specifically, the bill revises the definition of an eligible nonprofit buyer and expands affidavit and declaration requirements for eligible bidders and restricts evictions in homes, among other provisions.
AB 1991 (Gabriel)
Motels and hotels: publicly funded shelter programs
This bill prevents those experiencing homelessness who participate in shelter programs from needlessly moving from motel to motel every 30 days. The bill also creates processes and protections for individuals participating in these programs to ensure they are not withdrawn from shelter programs without fair due process..
AB 2011 (Wicks)
Affordable Housing and High Road Jobs Act of 2022.
This bill pairs the ability to build affordable housing by right on underutilized commercial sites with strong labor standards that ensure all construction workers earn prevailing wages and receive health benefits.
AB 2234 (R. Rivas)
Planning and zoning: housing: post entitlement phase permits.
This bill will create a framework for local governments to process residential building permits more efficiently and cost-effectively across the state. AB 2234 will apply only to the building permit process, not plan and entitlement approval.
AB 2483 (Mainschein)
Aligning Medical services with affordable housing development
This bill would incentivize alignment to link state-funded affordable housing development with Medi-cal funded services through PACE, Assisted Living Waiver, and Home and Community Based Services Waiver.
SB 872 (Dodd)
Pharmacies: mobile units
This bill would authorize a county or a city and county to operate a licensed mobile unit to provide prescription medication within its jurisdiction to specified individuals, including those individuals without fixed addresses.
SB 903 (Hertzberg)
Prisons: California Rehabilitation Oversight Board.
This bill would require the California Prison Oversight Board to examine CDCR’s efforts to address the housing needs of persons recently released from custody, including those who are identified with serious mental health needs.
SB 914 (Rubio)
Homeless domestic violence survivors and data systems: local and state support and guidelines
This bill would require the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to set and measure progress toward goals to prevent and end homelessness among domestic violence survivors and their children and among unaccompanied women in California.
SB 1017 (Eggman)
Leases: Termination of Tenancy: Abuse or Violence
This bill strengthens rental housing-related protections for survivors of domestic violence, abuse, and other serious crimes.
Oppose
SB 679 (Kamlager)
Los Angeles County: affordable housing.
This bill would establish the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA), and authorize LACAHSA to utilize specified local financing tools to fund renter protections and the preservation and production of housing units affordable to households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). Housing California has opposed the measure unless amended to remove language that requires affordable housing developers to solely utilize a “skilled and trained” workforce, which artificially constricts an already strained labor market.
SB 1338 (Umberg/Eggman)
Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Program
This bill would establish CARE Courts, which would create a mechanism to enforce court-ordered treatment for people with psychotic spectrum disorders.
Bills Not Moving Forward
Sponsor
AB 1685 (Bryan)
Vehicles: Parking Violations
This bill would establish a state-wide program that requires all local jurisdictions to create ticket relief programs that allows people experiencing homelessness to waive their parking ticket balances.
AB 1816 (Bryan)
Reentry Housing
AB 1816 would create a competitive Reentry Housing & Workforce Development Grant Program to fund evidence-based housing, support services, and workforce development programs for people who were formerly incarcerated in state prisons and who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
AB 1816 aligns with Policy Solution A8 in the Roadmap Home 2030.
RUN Priority*
AB 1961 (Gabriel)
Statewide Affordable Housing Database
AB 1961 would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to create a statewide database of affordable housing listings, information, and applications, in coordination with state and local partners.
AB 1961 aligns with Policy Solution E10 in the Roadmap Home 2030
AB 2325 (Rivas)
California Coordinated Homelessness Response Act
This bill would requires the California Prison Oversight Board to examine CDCR’s efforts to address the housing needs of persons recently released from custody, including those who are identified with serious mental health needs.
AB 2325 aligns with Policy Solution E2 in the Roadmap Home 2030.
AB 2710 (Kalra)
This bill would provide a right-of-first-offer and a right-of-first-refusal for tenants and mission-driven nonprofit organizations, when purchasing rental properties to preserve them as permanently affordable.
The COPA bill aligns with Policy Solution A14 in the Roadmap Home 2030
AB 2817 (Reyes)
Homelessness
This bill establishes the Housing California Challenge Program, which would authorize the Health and Human Services agency to provide rental assistance to people experiencing homelessness, and grants to local jurisdictions and service providers to connect people to housing and rental assistance.
SB 490 (Caballero)
Technical Assistance Program
This bill would create a technical assistance program to provide capacity and expertise to local governments and mission-driven organizations to engage in the acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation (acq-rehab) of unsubsidized affordable housing.
Support
ACA 14 (Wicks)
Housing Opportunities for Everyone (HOPE) Act
The Constitutional amendment would require California to spend at least 5% of the State’s budget annually (for 10 years) for housing and homelessness.
AB 411 (Irwin)
Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act of 2022
This bill would authorize the issuing of $600 million in bonds to provide additional funding for provisions within the Veterans Housing and Homelessness Prevention Bond Act of 2022. VHHP finances the development of affordable rental and transitional housing for veterans with an emphasis on housing for homeless and extremely low-income veterans.
AB 411 aligns with Policy Solution A2 in the Roadmap Home 2030 to scale state housing programs.
AB 1615 (Ting)
Former Foster Youth Housing
AB 1615 would lengthen the duration of the Transitional Housing Program-Plus (THP-Plus) from 24 months to 36 months and increase the upper age limit from 23 to 24 for all youth in the program. The bill would also align California’s Housing Navigators Program (HNP) with federal Housing Choice Voucher programs to ensure youth with vouchers can secure housing by increasing the upper age limit for HNP from 21 to 24, broadening the priority population from foster youth to also include former foster youth.
AB 1771 (Ward)
The California Housing Speculation Act: income taxes: capital gains: sale or exchange of qualified asset: housing.
This bill would implement a 25% capital gains tax when residential properties are sold within 3 years of their purchase. After 3 years from the date of purchase, the capital gains tax would decrease by 20%, and will decrease 20% each following year until the tax is 0% at 7 years from the date of purchase. Revenue from this tax would be distributed as follows: 30% to counties for affordable housing; 40% to cities or counties for general infrastructure; 20% to school districts; and 10% to the Franchise Tax Board.
AB 1850 (Ward)
Public housing: unrestricted multifamily housing.
This bill sets minimum standards when private investors use local governments to acquire luxury housing developments that will be rented to middle income households, ensuring commensurate public benefits. AB 1850 accounts for lost tax revenue from these transactions by requiring each acquisition to be subject to a 55-year deed restriction and calculating housing affordability as 30 percent of a household’s income, among other provisions.
AB 1945 (Aguiar-Curry)
Affordable Disaster Housing Revolving Development and Acquisition Program
This bill would create the Affordable Disaster Housing Revolving Development and Acquisition Program to fund emergency bridge loans for housing recovery in areas devastated by natural disasters like wildfires. The program would help needy communities by providing funds to mission-driven place-based financial institutions that would make loans in advance of federal funds being approved.
AB 2050 (Lee)
Affordable Residential Real Property: Withdrawal of Accommodations.
This bill would prohibit property owners from using an Ellis Act eviction, unless all owners of the property have been owners for 5 continuous years. This applies to both natural and corporate persons. Exemptions are provided for: persons who are sole owners of the property and own 4 or less residential units, not including principal residence.
AB 2050 aligns with Policy Solution D6 in the Roadmap Home 2030.
AB 2203 (Rivas)
Fair employment and housing protections: credit reports
This bill would prohibit requiring a consumer credit report, as defined, as part of the application process for a rental housing accommodation in instances where there is a government rent subsidy.
Fact Sheet
Download Support Letter
Submit Support Letter Here
AB 2357 (Ting)
Surplus land.
This bill makes improvements to existing provisions of the Surplus Lands Act (SLA) by strengthening public notice requirements and other clarifications to improve implementation of the SLA.
AB 2547 (Nazarian)
Housing Stabilization to Prevent and End Homelessness Among Older Adults and People with Disabilities Act
This bill would require the California Department of Aging to create and administer the Housing Stabilization to Prevent and End Homelessness Among Older Adults and People with Disabilities Program. The bill would require the department, in administering the program, to offer competitive grants to nonprofit community-based organizations, continuums of care, and public housing authorities to administer a housing subsidy program for older adults and persons with a disability that are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
SB 57 (Wiener) – 2 year bill
Controlled substances: overdose prevention program
This bill would, until January 1, 2027, authorize the City and County of San Francisco, the County of Los Angeles, and the City of Oakland to approve overdose protection programs for safe, hygienic use of controlled substances under staff supervision.
SB 513 (Hertzberg)
Homeless Shelter Grants
This bill creates a permanent grant program for homeless shelters providing shelter, food, and basic veterinary services for pets of the homeless and establishes certain requirements, such as rules of conduct and responsibility regarding pets and their owners. The shelter would also need to have access to the services of a veterinarian, including spay and neutering services.
SB 1335 (Eggman)
Discrimination: housing: credit history of persons receiving housing subsidies.
This bill prohibits housing-related discrimination against any person on the basis of that person’s credit history if the person receives federal, state, or local housing subsidies. The bill also prevents the use of a person’s credit history as part of the application process for a rental accommodation where there is a government subsidy.
Oppose
AB 1748 (Seyarto)
Exempt surplus land: regional housing needs
This bill creates an exemption from the Surplus Lands Act for surplus property meeting certain arbitrary conditions, including residential land zoned up to 30 du/ac in a jurisdiction that is currently meeting or exceeding annual progress towards its regional housing need.
AB 2633 (Cooley)
Protection of Parklands: Removal of unpermitted campers and campsites
This bill allows local elected officials and park agencies to order the removal of unpermitted campers or clearing of unpermitted campsites from its special parklands, which would expand the criminalization of people who are experiencing homelessness.
SB 1284 (Bates)
Homelessness: state programs: Housing First
This bill removes the requirement for state agencies and programs to adopt Housing First guidelines and regulations into their programs, opening state funding to programs that do not follow Housing First. Housing First is the only evidence-based model to end homelessness.
