AB 599 (Maienschein) Affordable Owner-Occupied Workforce Housing: Definition – Currently, there is no uniformly used definition in state law for “affordable owner-occupied workforce housing” or “affordable workforce housing”. The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) developed a Permanent Local Housing Allocation Program Framing Paper in preparation for the SB 2 (Atkins, Statutes 2017) Permanent Local Housing Allocation (PLHA) Program Guidelines, which are expected to be released in April of 2019. The Framing Paper defines “affordable owner-occupied workforce housing in the same manner as prescribed by this bill. Because affordable housing is an important issue at all levels of government, C.A.R. is sponsoring legislation in 2019 to, essentially, statutorily codify DHCD’s definition “affordable owner-occupied workforce housing” and “affordable workforce housing” as housing for households earning up to 120% AMI and will allow for consideration of a higher AMI for “high cost areas”. A uniform definition will help the state to establish new programs in order to bridge the state’s housing supply and affordability gaps. Status: Pending Committee Assignment
AB 892 (Holden) Clarifications to Real Estate Law Update – In 2015, C.A.R. began its multi-year effort to update and clarify the real estate law with the enactment of AB 685 (Irwin). Subsequently, in 2017-18 C.A.R. successfully sponsored two measures, AB 1289 (Arambula) and AB 2884 (Irwin), both of which enacted various, more extensive changes to both the Civil Code (AB 1289) and to the Business and Profession Code (AB 2884). C.A.R. will sponsor legislation to continue to further update and clarify the real estate law. Status: Pending Committee Assignment
AB 1020 (Irwin) State Housing Agency: Cabinet Level Secretary – C.A.R. is sponsoring legislation to create a state Housing Agency, with a Cabinet-level Secretary, charged with overseeing activities related to housing. A new Housing Agency would help to focus the state’s efforts to solve the state’s housing supply crisis, while the Secretary of Housing would provide the Governor with a resource to oversee and to interact with professional entities, both governmental and non-governmental, that play a role in the housing market. Status: Pending Committee Assignment
AB 1074 (Diep) Bonds for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) – ADUs provide for an additional solution to increasing the supply of affordable housing especially in tight real estate markets within the state. Unfortunately, funding to build ADUs is not readily available. C.A.R. will sponsor legislation that will allow bonds to provide loans to homeowners to construct ADUs that will help to address California’s housing crisis. Status: Pending Committee Assignment
AB 1551 (Arambula) Enhancing PACE Assessment Disclosures – In recent years, the Legislature has sought to enhance consumer protections for Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs. However, there is still need for more clear and straightforward disclosures of the key terms of PACE and the consequences of such financing to consumers. C.A.R. will sponsor legislation to further enhance disclosures for PACE program assessments. Status: Pending Committee Assignment
AB 1568 (McCarty) Housing Element Implementation and Accountability – Similar to C.A.R. co-sponsored, AB 1759 (McCarty, 2018), this measure requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to verify a local government’s housing production (based on the regional housing needs assessment) prior to a jurisdiction being eligible to apply for NEW local transportation project funding created by SB 1 (Beall, Statutes 2017). Status: Pending Committee Assignment
AB 1590 (Blanca Rubio) First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit – The opportunities for homeownership are dwindling in California due to a lack of supply and, in turn, increasing costs, especially for individuals and families of low or moderate income in disadvantaged communities. This C.A.R.-sponsored bill allows certain first-time homebuyer to receive a tax credit for purchasing a principal residence under specified conditions. Status: Pending Committee Assignment
SB 50 (Wiener) Housing Development – Existing law requires local governments to adopt ordinances which comply with implementation of housing development projects and to provide the developer with a density bonus and other incentives or concessions to produce lower income housing units. C.A.R. will be co-sponsoring SB 50 which seeks to authorize the implementation of transit-rich housing project bonuses for new urban developments, like the Los Angeles City ordinance that was enacted in 2016. SB 50 also alleviates many of the concerns expressed by opposition in 2018 to a similar measure. Status: Senate Housing Committee
SB 509 (Portantino) Expansion of “Permanent Source” Funding – Affordable Housing License Plate Program – Under current law, a state agency may sponsor a specialized license plates when they are sponsored by a state agency. Prior to program implementation, the agency must receive at least 7,500 paid license applications. While bills directing a state agency to sponsor a specialized license plate have been largely unsuccessful in the past due to “start-up” costs, C.A.R. could authorize an affordable housing license plate program but permit a third party to pay for initial startup costs to offset the costs to the state, DMV, or the department authorized to create the license plate program. Status: Pending Committee Assignment
SCA 1 (Allen & Wiener) Public Housing Projects – Enacted by voters in 1950, Article 34 of the California Constitution requires that any development comprised of “low-rent” dwellings, financed in whole or in part by federal, state or local government be approved by a vote of the people in the city or county where the project is located, singling out one type of housing for voter approval. Article 34 does not just apply to “public housing”, but also affects mixed income developments which often contain units partially “subsidized” by local government. Since 1992, C.A.R. has established clear policy supporting affordable workforce housing and has sought to advance policies seeking to increase the state’s housing supply. C.A.R. will co-sponsor SCA 1 which seeks to repeal Article 34 in its entirety. Status: Senate Rules Committee
SCA 4 (Galgiani) Property Tax Basis Portability/Intergenerational Transfer Reforms – This is a re-introduction of SCA 24 (Galgiani, 2018), which was introduced in the closing days of the 2017-18 Legislative Session. This measure includes the property tax basis portability provisions of Proposition 5 (generally, allowing senior homeowners to transfer their property tax basis to a new home regardless of location, price, or the number of previous transfers). The measure offsets that tax expenditure through reforms to the intergenerational transfer laws; namely, eliminating the transfer of real property without reassessment other than for the primary residence, requiring the heir to reside in the inherited residence, and capping the value of the exclusion on the inherited residence at $1 million. Status: Pending Committee Assignment