BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 2176 Hearing Date: 6/14/2016
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|Author: |Campos |
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|Version: |4/28/2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |No |
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|Consultant|Alison Dinmore |
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SUBJECT: Shelter crisis: emergency bridge housing communities
DIGEST: This bill authorizes the City of San Jose to operate an
emergency bridge housing community for homeless persons during a
declared shelter crisis.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Authorizes a governing body to declare a shelter crisis.
"Declaration of a shelter crisis" is defined as the duly
proclaimed existence of a situation in which a significant
number of persons are without the ability to obtain shelter,
resulting in a threat to their health and safety. "Governing
body" is defined as the Governor for the state; legislative
body for a city or a city and county; the board of supervisors
for a county; the governing board or board of trustees for a
district or other public agency; or an official designated by
ordinance or resolution by a governing body.
2) Authorizes a public agency, upon declaration of a shelter
crisis, to allow persons unable to obtain housing to occupy
designated public facilities during the duration of the state
of emergency. "Public facility" means any facility of a
political subdivision, including parks, schools, and vacant or
underutilized facilities which are owned, operated, leased, or
maintained by the political subdivision through money derived
by taxation or assessment.
AB 2176 (Campos) Page 2 of ?
3) States that upon the declaration of a shelter crisis, the
political subdivision shall be immune from liability for
ordinary negligence in the provision of emergency housing.
This limitation of liability shall apply only to conditions,
acts, or omissions directly related to, and which would not
occur but for, the provision of emergency housing.
4) Suspends the provisions of any state or local statute,
regulation, or ordinance prescribing standards of housing,
health, or safety to the extent that strict compliance would
in any way prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the
effects of the shelter crisis. Political subdivisions may, in
place of such standards, enact municipal health and safety
standards to be operative during the housing emergency,
consistent with ensuring minimal public health and safety.
This bill:
1) Defines "emergency bridge housing community" as any new or
existing facilities, including but not limited to housing in
temporary structures, such as camping cabins or recreational
vehicles, that are reserved for homeless persons and families
and located on property leased or owned by a political
subdivision.
2) Requires emergency bridge housing communities 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 (the city):
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
AB 2176 (Campos) Page 3 of ?
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 statute, regulation, or ordinance prescribing
standards of building housing, health, habitability, or
safety shall be suspended for the transitional 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 providing for 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.
4) Exempts an emergency bridge housing community from the
Special Occupancy Parks Act, the Mobilehome Parks Act, and the
Mobilehome Residency Law.
5) Exempts an emergency bridge housing community that complies
with the applicable requirements of the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) from actions under that law for the
duration of the shelter crisis.
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 shall be available
to the resident to live in on or before January 1, 2022.
7) Requires the city, on or before January 1, 2017, to develop
a plan for every emergency bridge housing community to include
on-site supportive services. The city shall make this report
AB 2176 (Campos) Page 4 of ?
publicly available.
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 supportive housing unit, and the actual and
projected number of permanent supportive housing units
available through January 1, 2022.
9) Provides that this bill shall remain in effect only until
January 1, 2022.
COMMENTS:
1) Purpose of the bill. According to the author, of the 4,063
homeless individuals living in San Jose in 2015, 69% were
living on the street, in abandoned warehouses or storage
structures, vehicles, or encampments. According to the City
of San Jose, sponsor of this bill, over the last few years,
the city and its partners have pursued several innovative
homeless housing initiatives, including creating a pipeline of
over 400 permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing
units; repurposing hotels and motels for the purpose of bridge
housing, utilizing manufactured homes to accelerate
traditional development and construction timelines, and even
declaring a shelter crisis under the current law.
The City also asserts that with thousands living on the
streets, immediate action is needed to ensure the continued
health and well-being of San Jose's citizens. The city is
currently developing short- and long-term strategies to combat
its homelessness crisis, including $103 million in the
development of over 850 new housing units. The City argues
that while it has a robust pipeline of projects that will be
available in the next several years, there is an immediate
need to address the crisis through the construction and
operation of emergency bridge housing communities for homeless
persons. This bill will authorize the City of San Jose to
prepare local building, housing, health, habitability, or
safety standards for the development of emergency bridge
housing communities to address the short-term housing needs of
the homeless community while new permanent supportive housing
is being financed and constructed.
AB 2176 (Campos) Page 5 of ?
2) Emergency bridge housing communities. The existing Shelter
Crisis Act permits a local jurisdiction to declare a shelter
crisis with limited liability to provide emergency housing.
It also permits the jurisdiction to allow homeless persons to
occupy designated public facilities for the duration of the
crisis. Further, the Act suspends local housing, health, and
safety 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. According to the City of San
Jose, because the Shelter Crisis Act does not protect from
habitability rules and the impact on landlord tenant law, a
jurisdiction would potentially incur liability in providing
anything beyond transient shelter beds in facilities designed
under the Act.
3) Technically speaking. The committee recommends the
following amendment to correct a reference from a prior
version of the bill: On Page 3, lines 33-34, strike
"transitional housing communities" and replace with "emergency
bridge housing communities."
4) Double-referral. This bill has been double-referred to this
committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Assembly votes:
Floor: 77-0
H&CD: 7-0
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 8, 2016.)
SUPPORT:
City of San Jose (sponsor)
Non-profit Housing Association of Northern California
AB 2176 (Campos) Page 6 of ?
SV@Home
OPPOSITION:
None received
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