BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2176|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2176
Author: Campos (D)
Amended: 8/19/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANS. & HOUSING COMMITTEE: 10-0, 6/14/16
AYES: Beall, Cannella, Bates, Gaines, Galgiani, Leyva,
McGuire, Mendoza, Roth, Wieckowski
NO VOTE RECORDED: Allen
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 6/28/16
AYES: Jackson, Moorlach, Anderson, Hertzberg, Leno, Monning,
Wieckowski
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/12/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Shelter crisis: emergency bridge housing
communities
SOURCE: City of San Jose
DIGEST: This bill authorizes the City of San Jose to operate an
emergency bridge housing community for homeless persons during a
declared shelter crisis.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/19/16 clarify that "emergency
bridge housing communities" include "emergency sleeping cabins"
that are reserved for homeless persons and families, including
but not limited to showers and bathrooms, and shall include
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supportive and self-sufficiency development services.
"Emergency sleeping cabin" is defined as a relocatable
hard-sided structure that may be used for occupancy only for the
purposes of use in an emergency bridge housing community. These
amendments also suspend the requirement for emergency bridge
housing projects to be consistent with the local land use plans,
including the general plan.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/3/16 require the City of San Jose
to submit a draft ordinance governing these emergency bridge
housing communities to the Department of Housing and Community
Development for review, to ensure the draft ordinance addresses
minimum health and safety standards. Those findings shall be
provided to the Senate and Assembly Housing committees and the
Senate Judiciary Committee within 30 calendar days of receiving
the draft ordinance. These amendments also make other technical
changes.
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.
3) States that upon the declaration of a shelter crisis, the
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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, including but not limited to emergency
sleeping cabins that are reserved for homeless persons and
families, together with community support facilities,
including but not limited to showers and bathrooms adequate
to serve the anticipated number of residents, all of which
may be located on property leased or owned by a political
subdivision. An emergency bridge housing community shall
include supportive and self-sufficiency development services
and have the ultimate goal of moving homeless persons to
permanent housing as quickly as possible.
2) Defines "emergency sleeping cabin" as a relocatable
hard-sided structure that may be used for occupancy only for
the purposes of use in an emergency bridge housing community,
and shall meet specified size requirements.
3) 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
c) Limit rents and service fees to an ability-to-pay
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formula reasonably consistent with the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development's requirements for
subsidized housing for low-income persons
4) 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 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 if
both the following requirements are met:
i) The local standards for emergency bridge housing
communities are consistent with ensuring minimal public
health and safety
ii) The city determines at the time of the enactment
that strict compliance with state and local standards or
laws in existence at the time of the enactment would in
any way prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the
shelter crisis.
c) During the shelter crisis, provisions of any state or
local building, housing, health, habitability, or safety
standards or laws shall be suspended for the transitional
housing communities, provided that the city has adopted
health and safety standards for emergency bridge housing
communities consistent with ensuring minimal public health
and safety 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
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public facility or an emergency bridge housing community
reserved for the homeless.
5) Exempts an emergency bridge housing community from the
Special Occupancy Parks Act, the Mobilehome Parks Act, and
the Mobilehome Residency Law.
6) Exempts an emergency bridge housing community that complies
with the applicable requirements of the Americans with
Disabilities Act from actions under that law for the duration
of the shelter crisis.
7) Exempts an emergency bridge housing community from complying
with local land use plans, including the general plan, during
a shelter crisis.
8) 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.
9) 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 publicly available.
10)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.
11)Provides that this bill shall remain in effect only until
January 1, 2022.
Comments
1) Purpose. According to the author, of the 4,063 homeless
individuals living in San Jose in 2015, 69% were living on
the street, or in abandoned warehouses, storage structures,
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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.
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
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under the Act.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
SUPPORT: (Verified8/19/16)
City of San Jose (source)
Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Santa Clara Valley Water District
SV@Home
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/19/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 77-0, 5/12/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, 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, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Irwin, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark
Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams,
Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Burke, Harper, Jones-Sawyer
Prepared by:Alison Dinmore / T. & H. / (916) 651-4121
8/22/16 23:01:09
**** END ****
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