BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1403|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1403
Author: Maienschein (R), et. al.
Amended: 6/25/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 11-0, 6/16/15
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Allen, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva,
McGuire, Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
SENATE GOVERNANCE & FIN. COMMITTEE: 7-0, 7/1/15
AYES: Hertzberg, Nguyen, Beall, Hernandez, Lara, Moorlach,
Pavley
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 5/22/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Housing: joint powers agreement
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill, until January 1, 2024, 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:
1)Authorizes, under the Joint Exercise of Powers Act, 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.
AB 1403
Page 2
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.
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, until January 1, 2024, 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
AB 1403
Page 3
by a city or county may include an analysis of the need for
frequent user coordinated care housing services.
5)Defines, for the purposes of Housing Element Law, 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
abuse treatment, employment services, and benefits
advocacy.
Comments
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.
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
AB 1403
Page 4
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
allows supportive housing providers to partner with government
entities in the same way as water agencies and hospitals.
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 prohibits 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.
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
AB 1403
Page 5
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.
This bill requires 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:NoLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified7/1/15)
California Coalition for Youth
California Medical Association
Easter Seals
Housing California
League of California Cities
San Diego Housing Commission
San Diego Regional Chamber
AB 1403
Page 6
OPPOSITION: (Verified7/1/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 74-0, 5/22/15
AYES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla,
Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly,
Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina
Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,
Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Jones, O'Donnell, Olsen, Waldron,
Weber
Prepared by:Alison Dinmore / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
7/2/15 13:31:46
**** END ****