(c) For the purposes of this section “affordable housing” means any multifamily deed-restricted rental housing accommodation which was constructed with financing from one or more of the following sources:
(1) State or federal low-income housing tax credits awarded pursuant to Section 50199.14, Section 12206, 17058, or 23610.5 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, or Section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code.
(2) Project-based housing choice vouchers.
(3) Funding awarded by the department.
(4) Financing for a multifamily development from the California Housing Finance Agency.
(5) Local government funding.
(d) The department shall make the database accessible no later than 24 months after the appropriation of funds pursuant to subdivision (b).
(e) The department may contract with one or more vendors to carry out the activities required by this section and shall prioritize vendors able to provide open-source platforms.
(1) A vendor selected to create and maintain the
database shall demonstrate sufficient capacity and experience to administer a program of this scope and scale, including all of the following capabilities:
(A) The technological capacity to develop and implement a central technology-driven application portal and system that serves managers of affordable housing units and prospective tenants, has mobile and multilanguage capabilities, and allows an applicant to track the status of their application. The application system shall have the capacity to handle the volume of expected use without disruption.
(B) User testing with a diverse range of potential tenant applicants and managers of affordable housing to ensure that the database is designed for ease of use and that all user-facing content is easy to comprehend.
(C) Once the database begins accepting applications it
shall be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with 99 percent planned uptime rating and all of the following capacities:
(i) Support for at least 2,000,000 application records.
(ii) Support for at least 50,000 concurrent full-access users, allowing users to create, read, update, and delete transactions based upon their user role.
(iii) Support for, at a minimum, applications and affordable housing units to be viewed in English and the languages specified in Section 1632 of the Civil Code.
(iv) Support for hosting user guides, instructional resources, and step-by-step overviews of the application process on the database website.
(D) Compliance with all state protections related to
the use of personally identifiable information, including providing any necessary disclosures and assuring the secure storage of any personally identifiable information generated, as part of the application process.
(E) Compliance with all state and federal fair housing laws and regulations.
(2) In carrying out or contracting to carry out promotion, education, and outreach activities related to the requirements of this section, the department shall ensure capacity to reach non-English-speaking and hard-to-reach households, with considerations for racial equity and traditionally underserved populations.