“DEAD” Legislation Concerning Homelessness
The following legislation was introduced to the Legislature by this year’s deadline, which was February 18. These bills were not heard and/or enacted by other legislative process deadlines and are now noted as “Dead” and will not be passed.
AB 328 Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program
Summary: Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and makes the department responsible for administering various housing programs throughout the state, including, among others, the Multifamily Housing Program, the Housing for a Healthy California Program, and the California Emergency Solutions Grants Program. This bill would establish the Reentry Housing and Workforce Development Program. The bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2022, to take specified actions to, upon appropriation by the Legislature, provide grants to applicants, as defined, for innovative or evidence-based housing, housing-based services, and employment interventions to allow people with recent histories of incarceration to exit homelessness and remain stably housed. The bill would require the department to establish a process, in collaboration with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and with counties in which recipients are operating, for referral of participants, in accordance with certain guidelines and procedures.
AB 1943 Housing: The Tiny Homes of California Act
Summary: Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to administer various housing programs, including programs intended to fund the acquisition of property to develop or preserve affordable housing. Existing law establishes various programs intended to address homelessness in this state. This bill would enact the Tiny Homes of California Act and would require the Department of Housing and Community Development, in consultation with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to develop and administer a pilot program, within 5 counties selected by the department, for the construction of tiny homes from lumber harvested from public utilities, landowners, cities, counties, cities and counties, or other local governing bodies. By requiring select counties to participate in the pilot program, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would define various terms for these purposes and would repeal the Tiny Homes of California Act on January 1, 2028.
AB 1967 Housing Accountability Act: Transitional and Supportive Housing
Summary: Existing law, the Housing Accountability Act, among other things, prohibits a local agency from disapproving a housing development project that complies with applicable, objective general plan, zoning, and subdivision standards and criteria, or from imposing a condition that it be developed at a lower density, unless the local agency bases its decision on written findings supported by the preponderance of the evidence on the record that specified conditions exist, as provided. That act also prohibits a local agency from disapproving, or from conditioning approval in a manner that renders infeasible, a housing development project for very low, low-, or moderate-income households or an emergency shelter unless the local agency makes written findings, based on the preponderance of the evidence, that one or more specified conditions exist. The act defines the term “housing development project” for these purposes to mean a use consisting of, among other things, transitional housing or supportive housing. This bill would authorize a local agency to require a conditional use permit for transitional or supportive housing that would have 7 or more residents. This bill would also authorize a local agency to require a distance of ____ feet between two or more housing development projects for transitional or supportive housing, or between housing development projects for transitional or supportive housing and a residential care facility or sober living home.
AB 2569 Department of Homelessness Prevention, Outreach, and Support
Summary: Existing law establishes various programs to provide assistance to homeless persons, including, among others, the Emergency Housing and Assistance Program and homeless youth emergency service pilot projects. Existing law also establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to oversee the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations, and, among other things, identify resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. This bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to convene a working group that includes representatives from all departments and agencies that currently receive funding relating to services for homeless individuals. The bill would require the working group to determine the best approach to creating a Department of Homelessness Prevention, Outreach, and Support and to submit its findings and recommendations to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2024. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2024.
AB 2623 Housing First: Sober Housing
Summary: Existing law establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to oversee the implementation of Housing First guidelines and regulations, and, among other things, identify resources, benefits, and services that can be accessed to prevent and end homelessness in California. Existing law requires a state agency or department that funds, implements, or administers a state program that provides housing or housing-related services to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness to revise or adopt guidelines and regulations to include enumerated Housing First policies. Existing law specifies the core components of Housing First, including prohibiting the use of alcohol or drugs, in and of itself, without other lease violations, from constituting a reason for eviction. This bill would provide an exception to that prohibition, to allow a housing provider to adopt a written policy prohibiting the use of alcohol or drugs and authorizing a tenant’s eviction based upon more than one violation of the policy when children are housed in the same location, and a court order prohibits use of alcohol or drugs by the tenant to promote substance abuse recovery as a condition for reunification of tenant with their child.
SB 1006 Law Enforcement: Homeless Outreach Teams
Summary: Existing law authorizes a county to establish a homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel team, as defined, with the goal of facilitating the expedited identification, assessment, and linkage of homeless individuals to housing and supportive services within that county and to allow provider agencies to share confidential information for the purpose of coordinating housing and supportive services to ensure continuity of care. Existing law authorizes the team to include, among others, housing or homeless services provider agencies, medical personnel, and legal counsel, as specified. This bill would require the Department of Justice, to the extent funding is provided for these purposes, to administer a competitive grant program to enable local law enforcement agencies to establish and operate homeless outreach teams. The bill would require a homeless outreach team funded with a grant to be composed of specified individuals.
Summary: Existing law vests the Department of Transportation with possession and control of the state highway system and associated property and requires the department to improve and maintain state highways. Under existing law, the department administers the Clean California Local Grant Program of 2021 to provide funding for grants to specified local entities for purposes of beautifying and cleaning up local streets and roads, tribal lands, parks, pathways, transit centers, and other public spaces, and administers the Clean California State Beautification Program of 2021 to provide funding for purposes of beautifying and cleaning up state highways. This bill would authorize local governments to use funding received under those programs to clean up homeless encampments on or around highway rights-of-way, within one mile of the freeway or flood channels under and surrounding the highways. The bill would apply that provision only to appropriations made by the Legislature on or after January 1, 2023, for purposes of those programs.