AB 101 · Housing Laws Navigator
Bills · 2019-2020 Session

AB 101

Housing development and financing.Ch. 159, Stats. 2019 · chaptered 2019-07-31 · Current law

Key provisions · Claude summary of the digest, not bill text

This 2019 housing budget trailer bill created new housing element enforcement tools, made Low Barrier Navigation Centers a use by right, and funded major housing and homelessness programs, including $250,000,000 in Local Government Planning Support Grants and $650,000,000 in homelessness grants. It took effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.

  • Housing element enforcement. In Attorney General actions over housing element violations, required courts to order compliance, retain jurisdiction, hold status conferences, and impose escalating fines (deposited in the Building Homes and Jobs Trust Fund) and potentially appoint an agent to bring the element into substantial compliance. Starting July 1, 2019, required HCD to offer 2 meetings and written findings before suing a jurisdiction.
  • Prohousing and noncompliance lists. For award cycles after July 1, 2021, gave additional points in housing and infrastructure program scoring to compliant jurisdictions designated prohousing by HCD. Required DOF to list programs a noncompliant jurisdiction is ineligible for and HCD to post a list of jurisdictions without a compliant housing element.
  • Low Barrier Navigation Centers. Made Low Barrier Navigation Center developments (Housing First, low-barrier, service-enriched shelters) a use by right in mixed-use and nonresidential zones permitting multifamily uses, exempted related land, funding and approval actions from CEQA, and set application review timelines. These provisions sunset January 1, 2027.
  • SB 35 streamlining changes. Required density bonus units, floor area and concessions to count in the 2/3 residential square footage test, and allowed hazardous waste sites cleared by the State Department of Public Health or State Water Resources Control Board, as well as DTSC, to qualify.
  • Planning grants and RHNA reform. Created the Local Government Planning Support Grants Program, allocating $250,000,000 to councils of governments and jurisdictions for planning and process improvements tied to the 6th cycle RHNA. Required HCD, by December 31, 2022, to develop a recommended improved RHNA process and methodology and report to the Legislature.
  • Homelessness grants. Established the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, distributing $650,000,000 in one-time grants to cities, counties, and continuums of care, with applications due February 15, 2020, and a final report due by January 1, 2026.
  • Infill grants and tax credits. Created the Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019, authorizing $500,000,000 for infill-supporting capital projects. Provided an additional $500,000,000 in state low-income housing tax credits starting in 2020, made credit allocation and sale provisions permanent, and added the HCD Director and CalHFA Executive Director to CTCAC.
  • Other housing programs. Revised the Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker, CalHome, and Local Housing Trust Fund programs (adding ADU/JADU and disaster grants, tribal eligibility, and a 60-month encumbrance period), continuously appropriated $500,000,000 for CalHFA to finance low and moderate income housing, and delayed Housing First requirements for recovery housing to July 1, 2020.

Paraphrased from the Legislative Counsel’s Digest. Check the bill text before relying on it.

ClaudeGreen text is a summary heading written by Claude to help navigate. It is not statute text; the statute text is in black.

Preamble

SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) The gap between available and needed housing is increasing the cost of living in our state and negatively impacting middle class Californians.

(b) Addressing the housing cost crisis will require action by the state, local governments, and the private sector to increase housing production and preserve available affordable housing.

(c) The 2019–20 Budget Act provides approximately $8 billion in funding to address California’s housing and homelessness crisis.

(d) A key element of increasing housing production is to ensure that local governments are implementing state law, particularly their planning and zoning obligations. To that end, this act establishes incentives, due process requirements, and penalties. Specifically, this act expands judicial remedies that may be imposed by the court when a city, county, or a city and county is found to be out of substantial compliance with housing element law, is provided by the act more than one year to come into substantial compliance, and continues not following the law.

(e) The additional judicial remedies in this act are intended to be used only as a last resort where a jurisdiction has continued to not fulfill its responsibilities under housing element law and disregards the direction of the court.

SEC. 2

Section 30035.7 of the Government Code is amended to read:

SEC. 3In the navigator:§ 65400changes

Section 65400 of the Government Code is amended to read:

SEC. 4In the navigator:§ 65585changes

Section 65585 of the Government Code is amended to read:

SEC. 5In the navigator:§ 65589.9changes

Section 65589.9 is added to the Government Code, to read:

SEC. 6In the navigator:§ 65589.11changes

Section 65589.11 is added to the Government Code, to read:

Article 12 (commencing with Section 65660) is added to Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code, to read:

SEC. 8In the navigator:§ 65913.4changes

Section 65913.4 of the Government Code is amended to read:

SEC. 9

Section 50199.8 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 10

Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 50216) is added to Part 1 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:

SEC. 11

Chapter 3.1 (commencing with Section 50515) is added to Part 2 of Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:

SEC. 12

Section 50517.5 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 13

Section 50517.6 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 14

Section 50517.7 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 15

Section 50650 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 16

Section 50650.3 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 17

Section 50650.4 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 18

Section 50843.5 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 19

Section 53545.13 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

SEC. 20

Part 12.5 (commencing with Section 53559) is added to Division 31 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:

SEC. 21

Section 75218.1 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

SEC. 22

Section 75244 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

SEC. 23

Section 12206 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is amended to read:

SEC. 24

Section 17058 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is amended to read:

SEC. 25

Section 17561 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is amended to read:

SEC. 26

Section 23610.5 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is amended to read:

SEC. 27

Section 24692 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is amended to read:

SEC. 28

Section 8256 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:

SEC. 29

(a) Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, there is hereby continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal years, the sum of five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) from the General Fund to the Department of Housing and Community Development. The moneys appropriated pursuant to this section shall be transferred to the Self-Help Housing Fund established pursuant to Section 50697.1 of the Health and Safety Code, based on the following schedule:

(1) For the 2019–20 fiscal year, two hundred million dollars ($200,000,000).

(2) For the 2020–21 fiscal year, ninety-five million dollars ($95,000,000).

(3) For the 2021–22 fiscal year, one hundred twenty million dollars ($120,000,000).

(4) For the 2022–23 fiscal year, eighty-five million dollars ($85,000,000).

(b) Notwithstanding Section 50697.1 of the Health and Safety Code, the Department of Housing and Community Development shall transfer the moneys appropriated pursuant to subdivision (a) to the California Housing Finance Agency, to be used to finance low and moderate income housing.

(c) The Director of Finance may change the release of funds scheduled in subparagraphs (1) through (4), inclusive, of subdivision (a), if deemed necessary. The director shall notify the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, or the chairpersons’s designee, of the director’s intent to notify the Controller of the necessity to change the release of funds scheduled in paragraphs (1) through (4), inclusive, of subdivision (a). The total amount appropriated shall not be greater or lesser than the amount appropriated in subdivision (a). The Controller shall make the funds available to the department not sooner than five days after receipt of this notification.

SEC. 30

The Legislature finds and declares that Section 4 of this act, amending Section 65585 of, and Sections 5 and 6 of this act, adding Sections 65589.9 and 65589.11 to, the Government Code, address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, Sections 4, 5, and 6 of this act apply to all cities, including charter cities.

SEC. 31. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.

SEC. 32

This act is a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill within the meaning of subdivision (e) of Section 12 of Article IV of the California Constitution, has been identified as related to the budget in the Budget Bill, and shall take effect immediately.

Source: LegiScan API, chaptered text of AB 101 (2019-2020 Session).

Bill text is the chaptered version from LegiScan (California Legislature); spacing is normalized. Code section text in a bill is the text that bill chaptered, not necessarily the law in effect today. Not legal advice.