Bill Text: CA SB18 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Housing programs: Tribal Housing Reconstitution and Resiliency Act.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2024-01-25 - Veto sustained. [SB18 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB18-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Housing programs: Tribal Housing Reconstitution and Resiliency Act.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2024-01-25 - Veto sustained. [SB18 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB18-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 18
| Introduced by Senator McGuire (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry) (Coauthors: Senators Dodd and Wiener) |
December 05, 2022 |
An act relating to housing.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 18, as introduced, McGuire.
Housing programs: tribal housing program.
Existing law sets forth the general responsibilities and roles of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the California Housing Finance Agency in carrying out state housing policies and programs. Existing law, the G. David Singleton California Indian Assistance Program, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide comprehensive technical assistance to tribal housing authorities, housing sponsors, and governmental agencies on reservations, rancherias, and on public domain to facilitate the planning and orderly development of suitable, decent, safe, and sanitary housing for American Indians residing in these areas.
Existing law authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to modify or waive various requirements of any state financing
being provided to a housing development by the department in specified situations, if tribal law, tribal governance, tribal charter, or difference in tribal entity or agency legal structure would cause a violation or not satisfy the requirements for the financing.
This bill would express the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation to create and fund a tribal housing program that promotes construction and rehabilitation of homes for rent and sale, specifically for tribal communities, to direct state agencies with housing funding to create alternative criteria for tribal nations that are tailored to tribal laws and practices in order to meet newly established threshold and compliance requirements for applications, and to provide technical assistance on grant writing and applications on a need basis.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) There are currently 109 federally recognized tribes in California and about 45 tribal communities of formerly recognized tribes that were terminated or were never recognized by the federal government. They vary greatly in terms of land, resources, and capacity.
(b) Passage of AB 1010 in 2019 made tribes eligible for most state housing programs and recreated the California Indian Assistance Program (CIAP) at the Department of Housing and Community Development. Unfortunately, existing state programs are often tailored to city and county governments, and do not take into consideration the unique characteristics of
tribes, and therefore are challenged to meet threshold and compliance requirements or mismatched to the opportunities that exist on tribal trust and fee land.
(c) State housing program requirements conflict with tribal sovereignty and the concept of sovereign immunity. As a result, tribes must often appeal for time-consuming program waivers, which depend on the goodwill and understanding of nontribal staff about tribal laws, culture, and practices.
(d) Tribes often do not have the same grant writing capacity as other units of local government, and many have insufficient financial resources to attract and retain long-term housing program and project staff with experience accessing the state’s system of housing finance and cannot afford external consultants.
(e) Many tribal households live in single-family homes or
mobilehomes, with more than one-third of families living in overcrowded conditions. Over 60 percent of these homes were built more than three decades ago, and nearly one-fifth need major physical improvements.
(f) Therefore, it is incumbent upon the State of California to authorize and fund dedicated, flexible, comprehensive housing and housing-related activities designed by and for tribes to enable tribes to rebuild and reconstitute their communities on tribal lands.
