Gov. Code § 65583

Gov. Code § 65583

Required contents of the housing elementTITLE 7. PLANNING AND LAND USE › DIVISION 1. PLANNING AND ZONING › CHAPTER 3. Local Planning › ARTICLE 10.6. Housing Elements

Amendments not yet in effect. SB 457 (Ch. 802, Stats. 2026) amended this section, effective January 1, 2027. The text below is the current Code text (current law). Open the History tab and choose a bill to see the section as that bill leaves it. Not legal advice.

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Sets out the required contents of a housing element: an assessment of needs, resources, and constraints; goals and quantified objectives; and a program of scheduled actions, including rezoning, fair housing, and emergency shelter requirements, with enforcement provisions.

  • Overall content. The element must identify and analyze existing and projected needs, state goals, policies, quantified objectives, financial resources, and scheduled programs, identify adequate sites (including for rental housing, factory-built housing, mobilehomes, and emergency shelters), and provide for all economic segments. Intro
  • Needs assessment. Requires analysis of population and employment trends and quantified needs for all income levels including the RHNA share, household and housing characteristics (overpayment, overcrowding, stock condition), and an inventory of suitable land with analysis of zoning, public facilities, and the duty to affirmatively further fair housing. (a)(1)–(3)
  • Emergency shelters. Must identify zones where emergency shelters (including navigation centers, bridge housing, and respite care) are permitted without discretionary permits, with sufficient sites and capacity (calculated at a minimum of 200 square feet per person) for the identified need and at least one year-round shelter; otherwise rezone within one year. Shelters may be subject only to listed written, objective standards (e.g., beds, staff parking, intake areas, management, spacing no more than 300 feet, length of stay, lighting, security). (a)(4)(A)–(J)
  • Constraints analysis. Requires analysis of governmental constraints (land use controls, codes, fees, exactions, permit procedures, historic preservation and designations, local ordinances) and nongovernmental constraints (financing, land and construction costs, requests for lower densities, delays to building permit application), and local efforts to remove them. (a)(5)–(6)
  • Constraints disclosure. For the seventh and later revisions, the analysis must include a disclosure statement identifying new or more stringent constraints adopted since the prior element’s due date and those the local government can “anticipate adopting” (as agendized) during the first three years of the planning period; this does not prohibit adopting constraints. (a)(5)(B)
  • Special needs and other analyses. Requires analysis of special housing needs (elderly, disabilities, extremely low income, large families, farmworkers, female-headed households, emergency shelter, and, for the seventh revision on, acutely low income), energy conservation opportunities, and at-risk “assisted housing developments” over 10 years, including replacement and preservation costs, qualified entities, and available funding. (a)(7)–(9)
  • Goals and objectives. Requires goals, quantified objectives, and policies on fair housing and housing maintenance, preservation, improvement, and development; quantified objectives may be less than total need and set the maximum units by income category over five years. (b)
  • Housing program. Requires a scheduled program with timelines to make sites available, assist housing for extremely low through moderate income (and acutely low income for the seventh revision on), remove constraints and provide reasonable accommodation, treat transitional and supportive housing as residential uses, conserve existing affordable stock, preserve assisted developments, promote affordable ADUs, identify responsible agencies, and achieve public participation. (c), (c)(2)–(c)(9)
  • Rezoning deadlines. Where the inventory falls short, rezoning must be completed within three years for the sixth cycle (one year if not found compliant within 120 days of the deadline) and within one year of the statutory deadline for the seventh and later cycles, or three years and 90 days if the draft is submitted 90 days early, found compliant by the deadline, and adopted within 120 days. Shortfall sites must meet § 65583.2(h), and farmworker housing sites must allow by-right use. (c)(1)(A)–(C)
  • Fair housing. The program must affirmatively further fair housing, including an assessment of fair housing issues, segregation and opportunity patterns, contributing factors, prioritized goals with metrics, and strategies; it applies to elements due on or after January 1, 2021, must precede the first public draft, may incorporate federal assessments, and uses an HCD standardized reporting format for the seventh revision on. (c)(5), (c)(10)
  • Multijurisdictional shelters. A local government may meet shelter zoning requirements through an agreement with up to two adjacent communities to develop at least one year-round shelter within two years, describing allocated capacity, contributions, and funding; claimed capacity may not exceed actual capacity. (d)
  • Application of amendments. Amendments altering required content apply to drafts submitted more than 90 days after the amendment’s effective date, or when the first draft is not submitted by the due date. (e)
  • Rezoning extension. The rezoning deadline is extended one year if at least 75% of lower income units have been rezoned and the legislative body finds, after a hearing, delays caused by other agencies, infrastructure deficiencies, or a major general plan revision for an SCS; findings, budget, and schedule go to HCD. (f)
  • Failure to rezone. If rezoning is not completed by the deadline, the local government may not disapprove, require discretionary permits for, or impose infeasible conditions on a “housing development project” (at least 49% of units for very low, low-, and moderate-income households) on a site to be rezoned that meets objective standards, unless it finds a specific, adverse health or safety impact with no feasible mitigation; enforcement actions place the burden of proof on the jurisdiction. (g)
  • Other provisions. Program enforcement actions are brought under CCP § 1085; tribal consultation response periods were extended by 30 days for applications complete between March 4, 2020 and December 31, 2021; and from January 1, 2024, HCD may allow constraints analysis for Civil Code § 51(b) characteristics, subject to appropriation. (h)–(j)

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§ 6558310 subdivisions

The housing element shall consist of an identification and analysis of existing and projected housing needs and a statement of goals, policies, quantified objectives, financial resources, and scheduled programs for the preservation, improvement, and development of housing. The housing element shall identify adequate sites for housing, including rental housing, factory-built housing, mobilehomes, and emergency shelters, and shall make adequate provision for the existing and projected needs of all economic segments of the community. The housing element shall contain all of the following:

Source. California Code text from the Legislature's bulk download (the same data as leginfo), reproduced character for character (spacing normalized). Current page on leginfo ↗

History. (Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 514, Sec. 1.1. (SB 340) Effective January 1, 2026.)

Cites, in this navigator. Gov. Code § 65583.2, Gov. Code § 65584, Gov. Code § 65584.09, Gov. Code § 65585, Gov. Code § 65585.03, Gov. Code § 65588, Gov. Code § 65300, Gov. Code § 65863.10, Gov. Code § 65916, Gov. Code § 66313, Gov. Code § 65650, Gov. Code § 8899.50, Gov. Code § 65080, Health & Saf. Code § 50052.5, Health & Saf. Code § 50053, Pub. Resources Code § 21080.3.1, Pub. Resources Code § 21082.3

Cited by, in this navigator. Gov. Code § 65583.05, Gov. Code § 65583.1, Gov. Code § 65583.2, Gov. Code § 65583.3, Gov. Code § 65583.4, Gov. Code § 65584, Gov. Code § 65584.04, Gov. Code § 65584.09, Gov. Code § 65584.3, Gov. Code § 65584.6, Gov. Code § 65585, Gov. Code § 65585.02, Gov. Code § 65587, Gov. Code § 65588, Gov. Code § 65589.4, Gov. Code § 65589.9, Gov. Code § 65400, Gov. Code § 65589.5, Gov. Code § 65912.124, Gov. Code § 65863, Gov. Code § 65863.2, Gov. Code § 65913, Health & Saf. Code § 17021.8, Gov. Code § 66499.40, Gov. Code § 65912.161, Pub. Resources Code § 21080.085

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Other sections cited. 13 sections outside this navigator are underlined in the text; hover one for its leginfo link; the References tab lists them all.

Statute text comes from the California Legislative Information page saved for this section; spacing and line breaks are normalized and every other character is reproduced as published. Check leginfo for any amendment made after the page was saved. Not legal advice.