BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1403 Hearing Date: 6/16/2015
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|Author: |Maienschein |
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|Version: |4/7/2015 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |No |
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|Consultant|Alison Dinmore |
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SUBJECT: Housing: joint powers agreement
DIGEST: This bill allows one or more private, nonprofit
501(c)(3) corporations that provide services to homeless persons
for the prevention of homelessness to form a joint powers agency
(JPA), or enter into a joint powers agreement with one or more
public agencies.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) The Joint Exercise of Powers Act authorizes two or more
public agencies by agreement to jointly exercise any power
common to the contracting parties, including, but not limited
to, the authority to levy a fee, assessment, or tax, even
though one or more of the contracting agencies may be located
outside the state.
2) Requires every city and county to prepare and adopt a
general plan containing seven mandatory elements, including a
housing element.
3) Requires a jurisdiction's housing element to identify and
analyze existing and projected housing needs, identify
adequate sites with appropriate zoning to meet the housing
needs of all income segments of the community, and ensure that
regulatory systems provide opportunities for, and do not
unduly constrain, housing development.
AB 1403 (Maienschein) Page 2 of ?
4) Requires cities and counties located within the territory of
a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) to revise their
housing elements every eight years following the adoption of
every other regional transportation plan. Cities and counties
in rural non-MPO regions must revise their housing elements
every five years.
This bill:
1) Allows one or more private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporations
that provide services to homeless persons for the prevention
of homelessness to form a JPA, or enter into a joint powers
agreement with one or more public agencies. The JPA shall be
a public entity, but shall not have the power to incur debt.
2) Requires the JPA or agreement created by this bill to
encourage and ease the sharing of information between public
agencies and nonprofit corporations necessary to identify the
most costly, frequent users of publicly funded emergency
services to provide frequent user coordinated care housing
services to homeless persons or to prevent homelessness.
3) Requires the JPA or agreement created by this bill to be
governed by a board of directors. The composition of the
board shall be determined by the participating public agency
or agencies. The representation of nonprofit 501(c)(3)
corporations shall not exceed 50% of the board membership.
4) Provides that a housing element analysis of any special
needs by a city or county may include an analysis of the need
for frequent user coordinated care housing services.
5) For the purposes of Housing Element Law, defines the
following terms:
a) "Frequent user coordinated care housing services" means
housing combined with other supportive services for
homeless persons identified by a city or county as the most
costly, frequent users of publicly funded emergency
services.
b) "Supportive services" include, but are not limited to, a
combination of subsidized, permanent housing, intensive
case management, medical and mental health care, substance
AB 1403 (Maienschein) Page 3 of ?
abuse treatment, employment services, and benefits
advocacy.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose of the bill. According to the author, AB 1403 is
needed to ease the ability of local government agencies and
interested private, nonprofits to share information amongst
each other to identify the most costly homeless individuals
and more easily provide the appropriate services necessary to
reduce or prevent homelessness.
2) Joint Exercise of Powers Act. The Joint Exercise of Powers
Act provides the basic legal authority for public entities to
create and use JPAs. A JPA is a new government entity created
by the member agencies, but is legally independent from them.
Joint powers are exercised when the public officials of two or
more agencies agree through a formal joint powers agreement to
establish a joint approach or create another legal entity to
work on a common problem, fund a project, or act as a
representative body for a specific activity. All manner of
federal, state, and local public agencies can agree to
exercise joint powers. JPAs can exercise only those powers
that are common to their member agencies and outlined in the
joint powers agreement, and all meetings are open and are
subject to the Ralph M. Brown Act. Examples of areas where
JPAs are commonly used include groundwater management, road
construction, habitat conservation, airport expansion, stadium
construction, mental health facilities construction,
educational programs, employee benefit services, insurance
coverage, and regional transportation projects.
Special legislation can authorize certain non-governmental
entities to participate in JPAs, even though they are not
public agencies. For example, to help nonprofit hospitals
keep pace with changes in the health care industry, the
Legislature permitted them to enter into JPAs to provide
health care services in Fresno (AB 1785, Reyes, Chapter 55,
Statutes of 2002); Contra Costa (AB 3097, Campbell, Chapter
148, Statutes of 1996); Tulare, Kings, and San Diego County
(SB 850, Kelley, Chapter 432, Statutes of 1997); and Tuolomne
(AB 2717, House, Chapter 227, Statutes of 2000) counties.
Additionally, AB 2014 (Cortese, Chapter 250, Statutes of 1994)
permitted mutual water companies to enter into JPAs with water
agencies. This bill would allow supportive housing providers
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to partner with government entities in the same way as water
agencies and hospitals.
3) Distinction between other JPAs and this bill. Under
existing law, JPAs can issue debt and member agencies can levy
taxes or assessments and contribute those revenues to the
JPAs' operations. This bill would prohibit these new JPAs
from incurring debt. Unlike other JPAs, this bill also
provides that representation of nonprofit corporations on the
JPA board of directors will not be more than 50% of the board
membership.
4) Housing element provisions. The Planning and Zoning Law
requires cities and counties to prepare and adopt a general
plan, including a housing element, to guide the future growth
of a community. The general plan must contain seven elements,
one of which is the housing element. Following a staggered
schedule, cities and counties located within the territory of
an MPO must revise their housing elements every eight years,
and cities and counties in rural non-MPO regions must revise
their housing elements every five years. These five- and
eight-year cycles are known as the housing element planning
period.
Before each revision, each city and county is allocated its
fair share of housing through the regional housing needs
assessment (RHNA) process. First, the Department of Housing
and Community Development (HCD) works with a council of
governments (COG) to determine the region's housing need. A
COG, or HCD for areas without a COG, then allocates the
region's need to each city and county within the region. The
RHNA allocation includes both an overall housing need number
and a breakdown of this overall need into four income
categories: above moderate-, moderate-, low-, and very
low-income households. The RHNA serves as goals for the
development of all income groups that the jurisdictions are
expected to meet. A housing element must identify adequate
sites with appropriate zoning to meet the city's or county's
share of the RHNA by income category and ensure that
regulatory systems provide opportunities for, and do not
unduly constrain, housing development. A city or county is
required to analyze any special needs for the elderly, persons
with disabilities, large families, farmworkers, female heads
of households, and persons in need of emergency shelter.
AB 1403 (Maienschein) Page 5 of ?
This bill would require the special needs analysis to include
the needs for frequent user coordinated care services, which
means housing combined with supportive services for homeless
persons that the city or county has identified as the most
costly, frequent users of publicly funded services.
Supportive Services could include a combination of subsidized
permanent supportive housing, intensive case management,
medical and mental health care, substance abuse treatment,
employment services, and benefits advocacy.
5) Double-referral. The Senate Rules Committee has referred
this bill to both this committee and the Governance and
Finance Committee. Therefore, if the bill passes this
committee, it will be referred to the Governance and Finance
Committee.
Assembly votes:
Floor:74-0
L Gov: 9-0
H&CD: 6-0
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 10, 2015.)
SUPPORT:
California Coalition for Youth
California Medical Association
Easter Seals
Housing California
League of California Cities
San Diego Housing Commission
San Diego Regional Chamber
OPPOSITION:
None received
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