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AB-309 The Social Housing Act.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 09/18/2023 09:00 PM
AB309:v94#DOCUMENT

Enrolled  September 18, 2023
Passed  IN  Senate  September 14, 2023
Passed  IN  Assembly  September 14, 2023
Amended  IN  Senate  September 01, 2023
Amended  IN  Senate  July 13, 2023
Amended  IN  Assembly  May 01, 2023
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 03, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 309

Introduced by Assembly Members Lee, Wendy Carrillo, and Kalra
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bennett, Haney, Jackson, McCarty, Ting, Ward, and Rendon)
(Coauthors: Senators Allen, Menjivar, Smallwood-Cuevas, and Wiener)

January 26, 2023

An act to add Title 6.91 (commencing with Section 64900) to the Government Code, relating to housing.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 309, Lee. The Social Housing Act.
Existing law establishes the Department of General Services to provide centralized services, including, but not limited to, planning, acquisition, construction and maintenance of state buildings and property. Existing law authorizes the Director of General Services, with the consent of the state agency concerned, to lease state-owned real property when the Director of General Services deems that leasing serves a beneficial public purpose limited to the development of housing.
This bill would enact the Social Housing Act and would create, in the Department of General Services, the Social Housing Program, the mission of which would be to ensure that qualified social housing developments are produced on leased state property to help address the housing crisis, as specified. The bill would authorize the program to identify and develop up to 3 qualified social housing projects, as specified, with the intent to use the results to inform public policy related to developing an independent public entity to develop statewide qualified social housing. The bill would require the program to solicit bids to develop qualified social housing units, and prioritize bids that demonstrate long-term revenue neutrality or a cost rent model, as those terms are defined. The bill would require the program to employ 2 different leasing models, the rental model and the ownership model, as specified, in creating social housing. The bill would prohibit a city or county from denying a social housing development authorized under the program. The bill would authorize a city or county to propose objective design review standards, as specified, and authorize a city or county to propose modifications to mitigate any specific, adverse impacts on public health or safety, as specified.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The housing crisis has reached unprecedented and unacceptable proportions in the State of California, where more than two in five households spend greater than 30 percent of their income on housing and more than one in five households spend greater than 50 percent of their income on housing.
(b) The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development defines cost-burdened families as those who pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing and may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation, and medical care. Severe rent burden is defined as paying more than 50 percent of one’s income on rent.
(c) Housing burden creates severe financial, physical, and emotional impacts on households.
(d) The affordable housing crisis has imposed a significant toll on the California economy, as overpriced rents depress the California gross domestic product by approximately 2 percent and more than 600,000 people leave the state annually in search of lower rent.
(e) Current efforts, while laudable, have proven insufficient in resolving the state’s affordable housing crisis, since 97 percent of cities and counties have been unable to meet the regional housing needs assessment targets for very low income, low-income, and moderate-income housing.
(f) With such a great failure to meet the housing needs of California residents, the state has a duty to act and help localities by financing publicly owned, affordable housing built sustainably, based on the widely successful Vienna and Singapore models and many other successful models of mixed-income rental and ownership housing.
(g) It is the intent of the Legislature to establish the Social Housing Program to offer the necessary social housing to increase housing production and acquisition in all jurisdictions throughout the state, which will inform the future establishment of an independent public entity to develop, own, and maintain social housing in California. The Legislature intends the program to be the first step in creating social housing in California. Social housing is publicly owned, mixed-income housing, removed from market forces and speculation, and built with the express aim of housing people equitably and affordably. Under public control and oversight, social housing is sustainable and remains affordable in perpetuity.
(h) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this title 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.
(i) It is further the intent of the Legislature for the Social Housing Program to ensure that no Californian pays more than 30 percent of their income on housing by the year 2050.

SEC. 2.

 Title 6.91 (commencing with Section 64900) is added to the Government Code, to read:

TITLE 6.91. THE SOCIAL HOUSING ACT

PART 1. General Provisions

CHAPTER  1. Title

64900.
 This title shall be known, and may be cited, as the Social Housing Act.

CHAPTER  2. Definitions

64901.
 Unless the context demands otherwise, the definitions provided by this chapter shall apply to this title.

64902.
 “Cost rent” means a system in which the rent of a dwelling is calculated on the cost of providing for and maintaining the dwelling, only allowing for limited or no proceeds.

64903.
 “Revenue neutrality” means a system in which all monetary expenditures that result from the development and operation of social housing owned are returned through rents, payments on leasehold mortgages, or other subsidies, to further the maintenance and development of more social housing units.

64904.
 “Social housing” means housing with the following characteristics:
(a) (1) The housing units or the land on which housing units are built is owned by a government entity.
(2) Housing developed or authorized by a public entity that may be owned by the public entity.
(b) If the housing unit is in a social housing development, the development contains housing units that accommodate a mix of household income ranges that may include extremely low income, very low income, low income, moderate income, and above moderate income.
(c) Residents of housing units are afforded, at a minimum, all protections granted to tenants with tenancies in private property under Section 1946.2 of the Civil Code, including 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, in addition to other protections provided by this title.
(d) The housing units or the land on which housing units are built that are owned by a public entity shall be protected for the duration of their useful life from being sold or transferred to a private entity to prevent the privatization of social housing.
(e) Residents of the housing units have the right to participate directly and meaningfully in decisionmaking affecting the operation and management of their housing units.

PART 2. Social Housing Program

CHAPTER  1. Definitions

64910.
 Unless the context demands otherwise, the definitions provided by this chapter shall apply to this part.

64911.
 “Social Housing Program” or “program” means the program under the Department of General Services that facilitates the creation of social housing pursuant to this part.

64912.
 “Cost rent” means a system in which the rent of a dwelling is calculated on the cost of providing for and maintaining the dwelling, only allowing for limited or no proceeds.

64913.
 “Qualified social housing” means social housing with the following characteristics:
(a) The housing units are on state property leased pursuant to Section 14671.2.
(b) The land on which the social housing is developed or authorized by the program is owned by the Department of General Services and managed by a private entity.

64914.
 “Revenue neutrality” means a system in which all monetary expenditures that result from the development and operation of social housing owned by the program are returned to the program through rents, payments on leasehold mortgages, or other subsidies, to further the maintenance and development of more social housing units.

CHAPTER  2. Creation

64915.
 (a) The Social Housing Program is hereby created in the Department of General Services.
(b) The core mission of the program shall be to ensure that social housing developments are produced on state property leased pursuant to Section 14671.2, to help address the housing crisis.
(c) The program is authorized to identify and develop up to three qualified social housing projects on land declared excess by a state department and deemed suitable for housing pursuant to Executive Order No. N-06-19, with the intent to use the results to inform public policy related to developing an independent public entity to manage and develop statewide qualified social housing.

CHAPTER  3. Program Design

64916.
 (a) In all of its operations, the program shall comply with subdivisions (a) to (e), inclusive, of Section 14671.2.
(b) Priority consideration for the use of the program’s proceeds shall be given to the creation, development, and subsidization of qualified social housing units.
(c) The program will act as a land bank for state properties in which to develop qualified social housing, by maintaining ownership of the land through ground leases.

64917.
 (a) The program shall solicit bids to develop qualified social housing units, and prioritize bids that demonstrate long-term revenue neutrality or a cost rent model.
(b) In creating qualified social housing, the program shall employ both a rental model and an ownership model.
(1) (A) In the rental model, the program shall extend a lease for a qualified social housing unit to eligible individuals.
(B) The program shall strive to ensure that residents do not pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.
(2) In the ownership model, the housing units may only be sold after meeting the following conditions:
(A) A minimum of five years of owner-occupancy.
(B) The program shall have the right of first refusal to buy back a property.
(C) If the program does not exercise its right to purchase the unit, the unit may be sold by the owner to an eligible buyer subject to requirements established by the program.
(D) Properties shall be sold at a price that allows the owner to have a reasonable return on investment, which may include documented capital improvements and adjustments for inflation.
(E) Upon the death of the owner of the social housing unit, the unit may be transferred to the deceased’s heir by devise or as any other real property may pass. The heir shall be subject to the requirements of this paragraph.

64918.
 (a) (1) A city or county shall not deny a qualified social housing development authorized under the program.
(2) The Department of General Services shall notify a city, or county if the development occurs in an unincorporated area, of a qualified social housing development occurring within its jurisdiction.
(b) (1) The Department of General Services shall send a city, or county if the development occurs in an unincorporated area, any conceptual plans for a qualified social housing development occurring within its jurisdiction.
(2) (A) Within 90 days of receiving the conceptual plans, the city or county may propose objective design review standards, as defined in paragraph (7) of subdivision (a) of Section 66300, for a qualified social housing development authorized under this chapter, which the Department of General Services shall accept.
(B) The proposed objective design review standards shall not differ from the city or county’s existing objective design review standards for comparable developments in effect one year before the date the Department of General Services notifies a city or county as required by this subdivision.
(C) The Department of General Services may, but is not required to, accept design review standard proposals made by a city or county 90 days after a city or county receives the conceptual plans.
(3) Notwithstanding paragraph (2), any design review standards proposed by a city or county on a qualified social housing development shall not include floor area ratios, height limitations, or density requirements.
(c) (1) The Department of General Services shall send completed plans to the city, or county if the development occurs in an unincorporated area, of a qualified social housing development occurring within its jurisdiction.
(2) If the city or county makes written findings based on substantial evidence in the record that the qualified social housing development might have a specific, adverse impact on public health or safety, the city or county shall notify the Department of General Services of those impacts within 90 days of receiving the completed plans.
(3) The city or county may propose modifications to the qualified social housing development to mitigate those specific, adverse impacts, which the Department of General Services shall accept if received within the 90-day period described in paragraph (2). The Department of General Services may, but is not required to, accept modifications made 90 days after a city or county receives the completed plans.
(4) For the purposes of this subdivision, “specific, adverse impact” means a significant, quantifiable, direct, and unavoidable impact, based on objective, identified, and written public health or safety standards, policies, or conditions as they existed on the date the Department of General Services sent its completed plans.