BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2176
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
2176 (Campos)
As Amended April 28, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Housing |7-0 |Chiu, Steinorth, | |
| | |Burke, Chau, Beth | |
| | |Gaines, Lopez, Mullin | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Authorizes the City of San Jose to operate an
emergency bridge housing community for homeless persons during a
declared shelter crisis. Specifically, this bill:
1)Defines "emergency bridge housing community" to mean any new
or existing facilities reserved for homeless persons and
families that are located on property leased or owned by a
political subdivision, including, but not limited to,
temporary housing structures, such as camping cabins or
recreational vehicles.
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2)Requires an emergency bridge housing community to:
a) Include supportive and self-sufficiency development
services;
b) Have the ultimate goal of moving homeless persons to
permanent housing as quickly as reasonably possible; and
c) Limit rents and service fees to an ability-to-pay
formula reasonably consistent with the United States
Department of Housing and Urban Development's requirements
for subsidized housing for low-income persons.
3)Provides that the following apply during a shelter crisis
declared by the City of San Jose:
a) Emergency housing may include an emergency bridge
housing community for the homeless located or constructed
on any city-owned or city-leased land, including land
acquired with low- and moderate-income redevelopment
housing funds.
b) The city may, in lieu of state and local building,
housing, health, habitability, or safety standards and
laws, enact local standards for emergency bridge housing
communities to be operative during the shelter crisis
consistent with ensuring minimal public health and safety.
c) During the shelter crisis, provisions of any state or
local regulatory statute, regulation, or ordinance
prescribing standards of building, housing, health,
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habitability, or safety shall be suspended for the
emergency bridge housing communities provided that the City
has adopted health and safety standards for emergency
bridge housing communities and those standards are complied
with.
d) Landlord tenant laws codified in Civil Code Sections
1941 to 1942.5, inclusive, providing a cause of action for
habitability or tenantability, shall be suspended for the
emergency bridge housing communities provided that the city
has adopted health and safety standards for emergency
bridge housing communities and those standards are complied
with.
e) Provisions b) through-d) above, apply only to a public
facility or an emergency bridge housing community reserved
for the homeless pursuant to this chapter.
4)Exempts an emergency bridge housing community, as defined,
from the Special Occupancy Parks Act (Part 2.3 (commencing
with Section 18860) of Division 13 of the Health and Safety
Code), the Mobilehome Parks Act (Part 2.1 (commencing with
Section 18200) of Division 13 of the Health and Safety Code),
and the Mobilehome Residency Law (Chapter 2.5 (commencing with
Section 798) of Title 2 of Part 2 of Division 2 of the Civil
Code).
5)Exempts an emergency bridge housing community that complies
with the applicable requirements of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (Public Law 101-336), as
amended by ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-325),
from Part 2.5 (commencing with Section 54) of Division 1 of
the Civil Code and actions thereunder for the duration of the
shelter crisis.
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6)Requires the City to match each resident of an emergency
bridge housing community to an affordable housing unit
identified in the City's housing plan that will be available
to live in on or before January 1, 2022.
7)Requires the City to develop a plan for every emergency bridge
housing community to include on-site supportive services by
July 1, 2017.
8)Requires the City to report annually to the Legislature on the
number of residents in every emergency bridge housing
community, the number of residents who have moved from an
emergency bridge housing community into permanent affordable
housing, the average time required for a resident to receive a
permanent affordable housing unit, and the actual and
projected number of permanent affordable housing units
available through January 1, 2022.
9)Provides that these provisions remain in effect only until
January 1, 2022.
FISCAL EFFECT: None.
COMMENTS:
Shelter Crisis Act: The Shelter Crisis Act allows a
jurisdiction to declare a shelter crisis and provides that upon
such declaration, the jurisdiction's liability for the provision
of emergency housing is limited. It also provides that the
jurisdiction may allow homeless persons to occupy designated
public facilities for the duration of the crisis. Further, the
Act suspends state and local housing, health, and safety
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standards for public facilities to the extent full compliance
would hamper mitigation of the effects of the shelter crisis.
Emergency housing is typically provided as shelter beds allowing
for an overnight stay. There are concerns that because Shelter
Crisis Act does not address protection from habitability rules
and their impact on landlord tenant law, a jurisdiction would
potentially incur liability in providing anything beyond
transient shelter beds in facilities designated under the Act.
Tiny homes: Tiny homes are typically less than 400 square feet,
with some as small as 80 square feet. These units often do not
have running water, electricity or sewer connections. Instead,
communal facilities provide for these and other basic services
typically required by state and local building standards. The
minimalist design of these structures has been reported to
provide significant time and cost savings. Opportunity Village,
a tiny home community housing homeless persons in Eugene,
Oregon, reports that whereas a traditional federally funded
housing unit may cost $200,000 to construct, they were able to
build a total of 30 tiny homes for less than half that amount.
Need for the bill: The City of San Jose's Affordable Housing
Investment Plan states that since the 1980's, the city has
created 18,000 units of affordable rental units. The City
currently manages a $750 million multifamily loan portfolio
which provides $6.5 million in residual receipts annually that
is available for additional affordable housing investments. The
City's Affordable Housing Investment Plan identifies several
additional funding streams and a variety of affordable housing
projects in various stages of development. However, there are
still nearly 4,000 homeless individuals currently in need of
housing within the city. According to the author: "AB 2176
would authorize the City of San Jose to prepare local building,
housing, health, habitability, or safety standards, in lieu of
such state laws, for the development of an emergency bridge
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housing community. In doing so, AB 2176 would provide the City
of San Jose the necessary tools for it to try new and innovative
ways to provide housing now, while new permanent supportive
housing, which can be years in the making, can be financed and
constructed."
This bill authorizes a pilot program for the City of San Jose to
address its shelter crisis through the construction and
operation of emergency bridge housing community for homeless
persons. This bill would allow the City to enact local
standards for the community in lieu of state and local laws and
standards.
Analysis Prepared by:
Ken Spence / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085 FN:
0002850