Bill Text: CA AB2734 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Local Control Affordable Housing Act.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From committee without further action. [AB2734 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB2734-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 2734	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Atkins

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2016

   An act to add Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 34191.10) to
Part 1.85 of Division 24 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to
housing.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2734, as introduced, Atkins. Local Control Affordable Housing
Act.
   Existing law, effective February 1, 2012, dissolved all
redevelopment agencies and community development agencies and
provides for the designation of successor agencies, as specified.
Existing law requires successor agencies to service the enforceable
obligations of the dissolved agencies and otherwise wind down the
affairs of the dissolved agencies.
   This bill would establish the Local Control Affordable Housing Act
to require the Department of Finance, on or before ____ and on or
before the same date each year thereafter, to determine the state
General Fund savings for the fiscal year as a result of the
dissolution of redevelopment agencies. The bill would provide that,
upon appropriation, 50% of that amount be allocated to the Department
of Housing and Community Development to provide funding to local
agencies for housing purposes. The bill would require the Department
of Housing and Community Development to create an equitable funding
formula, which shall be geographically balanced and shall take into
account factors of need including, but not limited to, poverty rates
and lack of supply of affordable housing for persons of low and
moderate incomes in local jurisdictions. The bill would also specify
the housing purposes for which those funds may be used.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares that having a
healthy housing market that provides an adequate supply of homes
affordable to Californians at all income levels is critical to the
economic prosperity and quality of life in the state.
   (b) The Legislature further finds and declares all of the
following:
   (1) Funding approved by the state's voters in 2002 and 2006, as of
June 2014, has financed the construction, rehabilitation, and
preservation of over 14,000 shelter spaces and 149,000 affordable
homes. These numbers include thousands of supportive homes for people
experiencing homelessness. In addition, these funds have helped tens
of thousands of families become or remain homeowners. Nearly all of
the voter-approved funding for affordable housing was awarded by the
beginning of 2016.
   (2) The requirement in the Community Redevelopment Law that
redevelopment agencies set aside 20 percent of tax increment for
affordable housing generated roughly $1 billion per year. With the
elimination of redevelopment agencies, this funding stream has
disappeared.
   (3) In 2014, the Legislature committed 10 percent of ongoing
cap-and-trade funds for affordable housing that reduces greenhouse
gas emissions and dedicated $100 million in one-time funding for
affordable multifamily and permanent supportive housing. In addition,
the people of California thoughtfully approved the repurposing of
$600 million in already committed bond funds for the creation of
affordable rental and permanent supportive housing for veterans
through the passage of Proposition 41.
   (4) Despite these investments, the need in the State of California
greatly exceeds the available resources, with recent data showing
36.2 percent of mortgaged homeowners and 47.7 percent of all renters
are spending more than 35 percent of their household incomes on
housing.
   (5) California has 12 percent of the United States population, but
20 percent of its homeless population. California has the highest
percentage of unsheltered homeless in the nation, with 63 percent of
homeless Californians not having shelter. California has 24 percent
of the nation's homeless veteran's population and one-third of the
nations' chronically homeless population. California also has the
largest populations of unaccompanied homeless children and youth,
with 30 percent of the national total.
   (6) Furthermore, four of the top 10 metropolitan areas in the
country with the highest rate of homelessness are in the following
metropolitan areas in California: San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Los
Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Fresno, and Stockton.
   (7) California continues to have the second lowest homeownership
rate in the nation, and the Los Angeles metropolitan area is now a
majority renter area. In fact, five of the eight lowest homeownership
rates are in metropolitan areas in California.
   (8) Los Angeles and Orange Counties have been identified as the
epicenter of overcrowded housing, and numerous studies have shown
that children in crowded homes have poorer health, worse scores on
mathematics and reading tests, and higher rates of depression and
behavioral problems--even when poverty is taken into account.
   (9) Millions of Californians are affected by the state's chronic
housing shortage, including seniors, veterans, people experiencing
chronic homelessness, working families, people with mental, physical,
or developmental disabilities, agricultural workers, people exiting
jails, prisons, and other state institutions, survivors of domestic
violence, and former foster and transition-aged youth.
   (10) Eight of the top 10 hardest hit cities by the foreclosure
crisis in the nation were in California. They include the Cities of
Stockton, Modesto, Vallejo, Riverside, San Bernardino, Merced,
Bakersfield, and Sacramento.
   (11) California's workforce continues to experience longer commute
times as persons in the workforce seek affordable housing outside
the areas in which they work. If California is unable to support the
construction of affordable housing in these areas, congestion
problems will strain the state's transportation system and exacerbate
greenhouse gas emissions.
   (12) Many economists agree that the state's higher than average
unemployment rate is due in large part to massive shrinkage in the
construction industry from 2005 to 2009, inclusive, including losses
of nearly 700,000 construction-related jobs, a 60-percent decline in
construction spending, and an 83-percent reduction in residential
permits. Restoration of a healthy construction sector will
significantly reduce the state's unemployment rate.
   (13) The lack of sufficient housing impedes economic growth and
development by making it difficult for California employers to
attract and retain employees.
  SEC. 2.  Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 34191.10) is added to
Part 1.85 of Division 24 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:
      CHAPTER 10.  LOCAL CONTROL AFFORDABLE HOUSING ACT


   34191.10.  (a) On or before ____, and on or before the same date
each year thereafter, the Department of Finance shall determine the
amount of General Fund savings for the fiscal year as a result of the
dissolution of redevelopment agencies pursuant to this part.
   (b) Upon appropriation, 50 percent of the savings computed
pursuant to subdivision (a) in each fiscal year shall be allocated to
the Department of Housing and Community Development to provide
funding to local agencies for housing purposes pursuant to
subdivision (c).
   (c) The Department of Housing and Community Development shall
create an equitable funding formula, which shall be geographically
balanced and shall take into account factors of need including, but
not limited to, poverty rates and lack of supply of affordable
housing for persons of low and moderate incomes in local
jurisdictions.
   (d) (1) A local agency that has received funds pursuant to this
chapter shall only use the funds for any of the following purposes:
   (A) The development, acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation
or provision of rental housing and homeownership opportunities that
are affordable to extremely low, very low, low-, and moderate-income
households, including necessary capitalized reserves for operating
and rental subsidies and resident services.
   (B) Capitalized reserves for capitalized operating costs, rental
subsidies, and resident services connected to the creation of new
permanent supportive housing, including, but not limited to,
developments funded through the Veterans Housing and Homelessness
Prevention Program.
   (C) Modifications to homes to increase accessibility and
visitability, in conjunction with the construction, acquisition, and
rehabilitation or preservation of homes affordable to lower income
households.
   (D) The acquisition and rehabilitation and reuse of foreclosed and
vacant homes.
   (E) Infrastructure related to affordable infill housing
development and other related infill development infrastructure.
   (F) The acquisition of land necessary for the development of
affordable housing as part of an overall development strategy.
   (2) At least 25 percent of the expenditures shall be directed
towards housing for persons of extremely low income and at least 50
percent of the expenditures shall be directed towards housing for
persons of very low income.
   (3) Any housing built with funds received pursuant to this chapter
shall require, by recorded covenants or restrictions, that housing
units built shall remain available at affordable housing costs to,
and occupied by, persons and families of very low, low-, or
moderate-income households for the longest feasible time, but for not
less than 55 years for rental units and 45 years for owner-occupied
units.
   (4) Any local agency that will receive funds pursuant to this
chapter shall provide the Department of Housing and Community
Development a plan for a no net loss of housing as a result of
destruction of any affordable housing units.
   (5) No more than 5 percent of funds received pursuant to these
provisions may be used for administrative costs.
   (6) Any local agency that receives funds pursuant to these
provisions shall provide an annual report to the Department of
Housing and Community Development on the expenditures of the funds.
   (e) If a local agency that receives funds does not expend those
funds in full within five years, the local agency shall return those
funds to the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the
department may award those funds to another qualifying local agency.

   (f) For the purposes of this chapter the following terms have the
following meanings:
   (1) "Extremely low income households" has the same meaning as used
in Section 50106.
   (2) "Low-income households" has the same meaning as the term
"lower income households" as defined in Section 50079.5.
   (3) "Moderate income households" has the same meaning as the term
"persons and families of moderate income" as defined in Section
50093.
   (4) "Very low income households" has the same meaning as used in
Section 50105.