Bill Text: CA SB555 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Stable Affordable Housing Act of 2023.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2023-10-07 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 402, Statutes of 2023. [SB555 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB555-Amended.html
Bill Title: Stable Affordable Housing Act of 2023.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2023-10-07 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 402, Statutes of 2023. [SB555 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB555-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Senate
May 22, 2023 |
|
Amended
IN
Senate
April 17, 2023 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 555
| Introduced by Senator Wahab |
February 15, 2023 |
An act to add Chapter 5.6 (commencing with Section 50610) to Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to housing.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 555, as amended, Wahab.
Social Stable Affordable Housing Act of 2023.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development and sets forth its powers and duties. Existing law establishes various programs providing assistance for, among other things, emergency housing, multifamily housing, farmworker housing, homeownership for very low and low-income households, and downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
This bill, the Stable Affordable Housing Act of 2023, would declare a 10-year goal of creating 1.2 million units of social housing through a mix of acquisition and new production and a 5-year goal of creating 600,000 units of social housing through a mix of acquisition and new production, of which no less than 200,000 units are affordable to extremely low and very low income households, as defined. This bill would require the department, no later than January 1, 2025, to
develop, adopt, and submit to the Legislature a California Social Housing Plan for achieving the aforementioned goals, as specified. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Chapter 5.6 (commencing with Section 50610) is added to Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:CHAPTER 5.6. Stable Affordable Housing Act of 2023
50610.
This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the Stable Affordable Housing Act of 2023.50611.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) The private housing market has failed to meet the needs of the vast majority of California residents, who are unable to afford market rents. Increasingly, housing speculation and financialization in the rental market is driving rents higher, even as new market-rate housing is produced. Today, more than one-quarter of California renters are severely rent burdened, meaning they spend over one-half of their income on rent alone, and the unaffordability of rents is a major driver of homelessness.
(2) Affordable housing produced through the
federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program is an essential part of California’s housing stock, but is not sufficient to meet the need for housing affordable to those who cannot afford market rents. Moreover, the expiration of affordability covenants each year threatens to revert affordable units to market rents.
(3) The solution to the intertwined crises of rental unaffordability and homelessness must include a robust sector of social housing, that offers below-market rents affordable to households of all income levels who are unable to afford market rents and that is permanently shielded from the speculative market.
(4) California has a growing social housing sector, comprised of housing acquired, produced, and managed by public entities, public housing
authorities, community land trusts, community development corporations, and nonprofit affordable housing developers. This bill will set California on a course to scale up its nascent social housing sector to meet the scale of the need, now and for future generations.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this chapter to define social housing, to set an ambitious goal for creating social housing through both new production and preservation of existing units, and to establish the means for achieving that goal.
50612.
(a) The state hereby declares a 10-year goal of creating 1.2 million units of social housing through a mix of acquisition and new production.(b) The state declares a five-year goal of creating 600,000 units of social housing through a mix of acquisition and new production, of which no less than 200,000 units are affordable to extremely low and very low income households.
50613.
For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply:(a) “Afford” and “affordable” mean that a household pays no more than 30 percent of its household income on rent. A household is unable to afford market rent if median rents in the area exceed 30 percent of its income.
(b) “Extremely low income” has the same meaning as the term “extremely low income households” is defined in Section 50106 of the Health and Safety Code. 50106.
(c) “Limited-equity housing cooperative” has the same meaning as the term is defined in Section 817 of the Civil Code.
(d) “Low-income” has the same meaning as the term “lower income households” is defined in Section 50079.5 of the Health and Safety Code. 50079.5.
(e) “Mission-driven nonprofit entity”
includes both of the following:
(1) “Eligible nonprofit corporation” as defined in subparagraph (D) of paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 2924m of the Civil Code.
(2) “Community land trust” as defined in Section 402.1 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(f) “Moderate income” has the same meaning as the term “persons and families of moderate income” is defined in Section 50093 of the Health and Safety Code. 50093.
(g) “Public agency” means the state, any county,
city, city and county, district, redevelopment agency, housing authority, or any other political subdivision of the state.
(h) “Social housing” means housing that meets all of the following requirements:
(1) The housing units are owned and managed by a public agency, a local authority, a limited-equity housing cooperative, or a mission-driven nonprofit entity solely for the benefit of residents and households unable to afford market rent.
(2) Each social housing development contains housing units that accommodate a mix of household income ranges, including extremely low, very low, low-, and moderate-income households unable to afford market rent, and all housing units are permanently deed-restricted affordable to
households at each of those income levels.
(3) Residents of the housing units enjoy full protection against termination without just cause or for any discriminatory, retaliatory, or other arbitrary reason, and shall be afforded due process prior to being subject to eviction procedures.
(4) The housing units are protected for the duration of their useful life, and the land associated with the housing units is protected permanently, from being sold or transferred to any private person or for-profit entity or a public-private partnership.
(5) Residents have the right to participate directly and meaningfully in decisionmaking affecting the operation and management of the housing units in which they reside.
(i) “Social housing development” includes both newly constructed units of social housing and market units or other housing units preserved or rehabilitated as social housing.
(j) “Very low income” has the same meaning as the term “very low income households” is defined in Section 50105 of the Health and Safety Code. 50105.
50614.
(a) No later than January 1, 2025, the department shall develop, adopt, and submit to the Legislature a California Social Housing Plan for achieving the goals set forth in Section 50612. The department shall enlist broad participation of residents unable to afford market rents and public agencies and mission-driven nonprofit entities with the capacity to provide social housing in the development of the plan. The plan shall include all of the following:(1) An analysis of all of the following:
(A) Funding, public lands, and other resources and opportunities that are, or can be made, available to achieve the
goals.
(B) The capacity and capacity building needs of public agencies and mission-driven nonprofit entities to achieve the goals.
(C) Constraints and obstacles to achieving the goals, including capital financing and long-term operations and maintenance needs.
(D) The range of models for creating social housing that are currently in practice, or that public agencies or mission-driven nonprofit entities plan to put into practice, in California, including the opportunities, needs, and potential for creating social housing at various income levels specific to each model.
(E) The benefits to job creation and local economies that could be achieved
by using locally based, union-represented workforces for construction and maintenance of social housing.
(2) A plan for all of the following:
(A) Utilizing the funding, public lands, and other resources and opportunities to achieve the goals, in collaboration between public agencies and mission-driven nonprofit entities, with a portion of the goal allocated to each model for creating social housing analyzed pursuant to subparagraph (D) of paragraph (1).
(B) Removing constraints and obstacles to achieving the goals, including constraints on the use of public land and public funding that do not require legislative action.
(3) Recommendations to the Legislature
for all of the following:
(A) Making additional resources available, including potential revenue sources for a social housing fund.
(B) Removing constraints and obstacles to the goals.
(C) Creating new housing development and property management capacity at the state level, including a state Social Housing Authority.
(4) A schedule of specific implementing actions and programs to achieve the goals, including actions needed to prevent the expiration of affordability covenants attached to existing affordable housing.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding Section 10231.5 of the Government Code,
the department shall submit an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature, beginning January 1, 2026, on the state’s progress toward achieving the goals of this chapter, the implementation status and outcomes of all programs and actions, and recommendations for executive and legislative action.
(2) A report to be submitted pursuant to this subdivision shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
