Bill Text: CA AB653 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Public housing authorities: reports.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8)
Status: (Passed) 2024-09-27 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 672, Statutes of 2024. [AB653 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB653-Chaptered.html
Assembly Bill
No. 653
CHAPTER 672
An act to add Chapter 2.9 (commencing with Section 50495) to Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to housing.
[
Approved by
Governor
September 27, 2024.
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 27, 2024.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 653, Reyes.
Public housing authorities: reports.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. Under existing law, the department is responsible for administering various housing programs throughout the state, including, among others, the California Emergency Solutions and Housing Program, which, among other things, provides rental assistance and housing relocation and stabilization services to ensure housing affordability for people who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness.
Existing law, the Housing Authorities Law, creates a housing authority in each county and each city, which is authorized to transact business and exercise specified powers upon adoption of a resolution by the governing body of the county or city declaring that there is a need for the authority to function.
Among other things, existing law authorizes a housing authority to provide leased housing to persons of low income.
This bill would require all public housing authorities to report specified data, including their monthly success rates as of the first of each month, to the department beginning on July 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, as specified. Because the bill would require local housing authorities to perform additional duties, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the department to make the data publicly available, beginning on January 1, 2026, and each year thereafter. The bill would require the department, beginning on July 1, 2025, and bi-annually thereafter until June 30, 2027, to convene a group of public housing authorities to discuss factors that impact success rates and recommendations for state and local intervention. The bill would also require the department, in consultation with participants in the Housing Choice
Voucher program and other stakeholders, to publish a report, which shall be made publicly available, with recommendations for state and local interventions to improve success rates, on or before July 1, 2026.
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.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Chapter 2.9 (commencing with Section 50495) is added to Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:CHAPTER 2.9. Housing Vouchers
50495.
For purposes of this chapter:(a) “Department” means the Department of Housing and Community Development.
(b) “Housing authority” has the same meaning as in the Housing Authorities Law (Chapter 1 (commencing with Section 34200) of Part 2 of Division 24 of the Health and Safety Code).
(c) “Housing navigation services” means services that assist program participants with locating, applying for, and moving into permanent housing.
(d) “Inspection wait time” means the period of time between the tenancy approval by the housing authority and the completion of the housing quality
standard, or another similar, inspection.
(e) “Payment standard” means the maximum monthly assistance payment for a family assisted in the voucher program before deducting the total tenant payment by the family, as defined by Section 982.4 of Title 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(f) “Search time” means the initial period of time during which the public housing authority allows a family to find housing with a voucher.
(g) “Success rate” means the percentage of new voucher families that successfully leased a qualifying unit.
50496.
(a) (1) (A) Beginning July 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, all public housing authorities shall report each of the following United States Department of Housing and Urban Development reported data to the department:(i) Its monthly success rate as of the first of each month.
(ii) Its current payment standards.
(iii) The average inspection wait times for initial lease-up.
(iv) Search times.
(B) The success rate reporting requirements described
in subparagraph (A) shall become inoperative when the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development makes the success rate data described in subparagraph (A) for all public housing authorities publicly available on the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Voucher Data Dashboard.
(2) Beginning on January 1, 2026, and each year thereafter, the department shall make the data reported pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) publicly available.
(b) Beginning on July 1, 2025, and bi-annually thereafter until June 30, 2027, the department shall convene a group of public housing authorities that are diverse with respect to geography and size to discuss the factors that impact success rates and recommendations for state and local intervention.
(c) On or before July 1, 2026, the
department, in consultation with participants in the Housing Choice Voucher program and other stakeholders, shall publish a report with recommendations for state and local interventions to improve success rates. This report shall be made publicly available.
(d) Notwithstanding Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, the department shall report to the Legislature annually an evaluation of the statewide success rate and changes made to increase efficiencies in placements. The report shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
