BILL NUMBER: AB 702 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 348
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 27, 2010
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 25, 2010
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 19, 2010
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 26, 2010
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 9, 2010
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 2, 2010
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 22, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 20, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Salas
FEBRUARY 26, 2009
An act to amend Section 50517.5 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to housing and community development, and declaring the
urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 702, Salas. Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Program:
agricultural employees.
Existing law establishes the Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing
Grant Program, administered by the Department of Housing and
Community Development, under which, subject to the availability of
funds, grants or loans, or both, are made available for the
construction or rehabilitation of housing for agricultural employees,
as defined, and their families or for the acquisition of
manufactured housing to remedy the impacts of the displacement of
farmworker families.
This bill would modify the definition for the term "agricultural
employees."
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 50517.5 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:
50517.5. (a) (1) The department shall establish the Joe Serna,
Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Program under which, subject to the
availability of funds therefor, grants or loans, or both, shall be
made to local public entities, nonprofit corporations, limited
liability companies, and limited partnerships, for the construction
or rehabilitation of housing for agricultural employees and their
families or for the acquisition of manufactured housing as part of a
program to address and remedy the impacts of current and potential
displacement of farmworker families from existing labor camps,
mobilehome parks, or other housing. Under this program, grants or
loans, or both, may also be made for the cost of acquiring the land
and any building thereon in connection with housing assisted pursuant
to this section and for the construction and rehabilitation of
related support facilities necessary to the housing. In its
administration of this program, the department shall disburse grants
or loans, or both, to the local public entities, nonprofit
corporations, limited liability companies, or limited partnerships or
may, at the request of the local public entity, nonprofit
corporation, limited liability company, or limited partnership that
sponsors and supervises the rehabilitation or construction program,
disburse grant funds to agricultural employees who are participants
in a rehabilitation or construction program sponsored and supervised
by the local public entity, nonprofit corporation, limited liability
company, or limited partnership. No part of a grant or loan made
pursuant to this section may be used for project organization or
planning.
(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, upon the
request of a grantee the program also may loan funds to a grantee at
no more than 3 percent simple interest. Principal and accumulated
interest is due and payable upon completion of the term of the loan.
For any loan made pursuant to this subdivision, the performance
requirements of the lien shall remain in effect for a period of no
less than the original term of the loan.
(3) The program shall be administered by the Director of Housing
and Community Development and officers and employees of the
department as he or she may designate.
(b) (1) The Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Fund is hereby
created in the State Treasury. Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the
Government Code, all money in the fund is continuously appropriated
to the department for making grants or loans, or both, pursuant to
this section and Section 50517.10, for purposes of Chapter 8.5
(commencing with Section 50710), and for costs incurred by the
department in administering these programs.
(2) There shall be paid into the fund the following:
(A) Any moneys appropriated and made available by the Legislature
for purposes of the fund.
(B) Any moneys that the department receives in repayment or return
of grants or loans from the fund, including any interest therefrom.
(C) Any other moneys that may be made available to the department
for the purposes of this chapter from any other source or sources.
(D) All moneys appropriated to the department for the purposes of
Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 50710) and any moneys received
by the department from the occupants of housing or shelter provided
pursuant to Chapter 8.5 (commencing with Section 50710). These moneys
shall be separately accounted for from the other moneys deposited in
the fund.
(c) (1) Grants and loans made pursuant to this section shall be
matched by grantees with at least equal amounts of federal moneys,
other cash investments, or in-kind contributions.
(2) For grant or loan requests of not more than five hundred
thousand dollars ($500,000), the department may waive a part of the
matching fund requirement in this subdivision if the grantee
demonstrates an inability, as may be established by the department in
"Notices of Funding Availability," to secure adequate financing from
other sources. Not more than 5 percent of the total amount
appropriated to the department for the purposes of this section may
be used to meet grant or loan requests in which a part of the
matching fund requirement has been waived pursuant to this paragraph.
(d) With respect to the supervision of grantees, the department
shall do the following:
(1) Establish minimum capital reserves to be maintained by
grantees.
(2) Fix and alter from time to time a schedule of rents that may
be necessary to provide residents of housing assisted pursuant to
this section with affordable rents to the extent consistent with the
maintenance of the financial integrity of the housing project. No
grantee shall increase the rent on any unit constructed or
rehabilitated with the assistance of funds provided pursuant to this
section without the prior permission of the department, which shall
be given only if the grantee affirmatively demonstrates that the
increase is required to defray necessary operating costs or avoid
jeopardizing the fiscal integrity of the housing project.
(3) Determine standards for, and control selection by grantees of,
tenants and subsequent purchasers of housing constructed or
rehabilitated with the assistance of funds provided pursuant to this
section.
(4) (A) Require as a condition precedent to a grant or loan, or
both, of funds that the applicant have site control that is
satisfactory to the department; that the grantee be record owner in
fee of the assisted real property or provide other security including
a lien on the manufactured home that is satisfactory to the
department to ensure compliance with the construction, financial, and
program obligations; and that the grantee shall have entered into a
written agreement with the department binding upon the grantee and
successors in interest to the grantee. The agreement shall include
the conditions under which the funds advanced may be repaid. The
agreement shall include provisions for a lien on the assisted real
property or manufactured home in favor of the State of California for
the purpose of securing performance of the agreement. The agreement
shall also provide that the lien shall endure until released by the
Director of Housing and Community Development.
(B) If funds granted or loaned pursuant to this section constitute
less than 25 percent of the total development cost or value,
whichever is applicable, of a project assisted under this section,
the department may adopt, by regulation, criteria for determining the
number of units in a project to which the restrictions on occupancy
contained in the agreement apply. In no event may these regulations
provide for the application of the agreement to a percentage of units
in a project that is less than the percentage of total development
costs that funds granted or loaned pursuant to this section
represent.
(C) Contemporaneously with the disbursement of the initial funds
to a grantee, the department shall cause to be recorded, in the
office of the county recorder of the county in which the assisted
real property is located, a notice of lien executed by the Director
of Housing and Community Development. The notice of lien shall refer
to the agreement required by this paragraph for which it secures and
it shall include a legal description of the assisted real property
that is subject to the lien. The notice of lien shall be indexed by
the recorder in the Grantor Index to the name of the grantee and in
the Grantee Index to the name of the State of California, Department
of Housing and Community Development. For manufactured housing, the
liens shall be recorded by the department in the same manner as other
manufactured housing liens are recorded. The department shall adopt
by regulation criteria for the determination of the lien period. This
regulation shall take into account whether the property is held by
multifamily rental, single-family ownership, or cooperative ownership
and whether it is new construction or rehabilitative construction.
The lien period for manufactured housing liens for manufactured homes
shall not exceed 10 years.
(D) Pursuant to regulations adopted by the department, the
department may execute and cause to be recorded in the office of the
recorder of the county in which a notice of lien has been recorded,
or the department, as appropriate, a subordination of the lien. The
regulations adopted by the department shall provide that any
subordination of the lien shall not jeopardize the security interest
of the state and shall further the interest of farmworker housing.
The recitals contained in the subordination shall be conclusive in
favor of any bona fide purchaser or lender relying thereon.
(E) Prior to funds granted pursuant to this section being used to
finance the acquisition of a manufactured home, the grantee shall
ensure that the home either is already installed in a location where
it will be occupied by the eligible household or that a location has
been leased or otherwise made available for the manufactured home to
be occupied by the eligible household.
(5) Regulate the terms of occupancy agreements or resale controls,
to be used in housing assisted pursuant to this section.
(6) Provide linguistically appropriate services and publications,
or require grantees to do so, as necessary to implement the purposes
of this section.
(7) The agreement between the department and the grantee shall
provide, among other things, that both of the following occur:
(A) Upon the sale or conveyance of the real property, or any part
thereof, for use other than for agricultural employee occupancy, the
grantee or its successors shall, as a condition for the release of
the lien provided pursuant to paragraph (4), repay to the fund the
department's grant and loan funds.
(B) Upon the sale or conveyance of the real property or any part
thereof for continued agricultural employee occupancy, the transferee
shall assume the obligation of the transferor and the real property
shall be transferred to the new owner; provided that the transferee
agrees to abide by the agreement entered into between the transferor
and the department and that the new owner takes the property subject
to the lien provided pursuant to paragraph (4), except that this lien
shall, at the time of the transfer of the property to the new owner,
be extended for an additional lien period determined by the
department pursuant to paragraph (4), and the new owner shall not be
credited with the lien period that had run from the time the
transferor had acquired the property to the time of transfer to the
new owner, unless the department determines that it is in the best
interest of the state and consistent with the intent of this section
to so credit the lien period to the new owner. However, the lien
shall have priority as of the recording date of the lien for the
original grantee, pursuant to paragraph (4).
(e) The department may do any of the following with respect to
grantees:
(1) Through its agents or employees enter upon and inspect the
lands, buildings, and equipment of a grantee, including books and
records, at any time before, during, or after construction or
rehabilitation of units assisted pursuant to this section. However,
there shall be no entry or inspection of any unit that is occupied,
whether or not any occupant is actually present, without the consent
of the occupant.
(2) Supervise the operation and maintenance of any housing
assisted pursuant to this section and order repairs as may be
necessary to protect the public interest or the health, safety, or
welfare of occupants of the housing.
(f) The department shall include in its annual report required by
Section 50408, a current report of the Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker
Housing Grant Program. The report shall include, but need not be
limited to, (1) the number of households assisted, (2) the average
income of households assisted and the distribution of annual incomes
among assisted households, (3) the rents paid by households assisted,
(4) the number and amount of grants or loans, or both, made to each
grantee in the preceding year, (5) the dollar value of funding
derived from sources other than the state for each project receiving
a grant or loan, or both, under this section, and an identification
of each source, (6) recommendations, as needed, to improve operations
of the program and respecting the desirability of extending its
application to other groups in rural areas identified by the
department as having special need for state housing assistance, and
(7) the number of manufactured housing units assisted under this
section.
(g) As used in this section:
(1) "Agricultural employee" has the same meaning as specified in
subdivision (b) of Section 1140.4 of the Labor Code, but also
includes any person who works on or off the farm in the processing of
any agricultural commodity until it is shipped for distribution,
whether or not this person is encompassed within the definition
specified in subdivision (b) of Section 1140.4 of the Labor Code.
(2) "Grantee" means the local public entity, nonprofit
corporation, limited liability company, or limited partnership that
is awarded the grant or loan, or both, under this section, and, at
the request thereof, may include an agricultural employee receiving
direct payment of a grant for rehabilitation under this section who
occupies the assisted housing both before and after the
rehabilitation and may include an agricultural employee receiving
direct payment of a grant for construction under this section who
will occupy the assisted housing and who is a participant in a
rehabilitation or construction program sponsored and supervised by a
local public entity, nonprofit corporation, limited liability
company, or limited partnership.
(3) "Housing" may include, but is not necessarily limited to,
conventionally constructed units and manufactured housing installed
pursuant to either Section 18551 or 18613.
(4) "Limited liability company" means a limited liability company
where all the members are nonprofit public benefit corporations.
(5) "Limited partnership" means a limited partnership where all of
the general partners are either nonprofit public benefit
corporations, limited liability companies, or a combination of
nonprofit public benefit corporations and limited liability
companies.
(h) The department may provide the assistance offered pursuant to
this chapter in any area where there is a substantial unmet need for
farmworker housing.
SEC. 2. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to increase the number of agricultural employees eligible
for housing assistance, and to help address those individuals'
urgent housing needs, it is necessary that this act take immediate
effect.