BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2783
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Date of Hearing: May 18, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2783 (Eduardo Garcia) - As Amended April 25, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) to
consider revisions to the guidelines and selection criteria for
affordable housing projects that qualify under the Affordable
Housing and Sustainable Communities Program (AHSC) for the Rural
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Innovation Project Area (RIPA). The bill further requires SGC
to provide a written explanation to the Assembly Committee on
Housing and Community Development by March 1, 2017, if the SGC
determines it will not make revisions.
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)One-time costs to the SGC of approximately $120,000 (GF) for
two staff at 1/3 PY and outreach travel, to determine whether
the guidelines and selection criteria need to be revised, and
to either make the revisions or report to the Assembly
Committee on Housing and Community Development as to why not.
2)Minor and absorbable costs to the Air Resources Board (ARB) to
implement any guideline revisions.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. The California Coalition of Rural Housing asserts,
"AB 2783 will help eliminate barriers faced by rural
communities to access the AHSC program to build safe
affordable housing. Rural communities throughout the state
have been systematically overlooked and as a result have not
received investments from the AHSC program which will help
these communities increase their access to affordable housing
while also achieving greenhouse gas reductions. In 2015,
there were no rural affordable housing projects that received
funding from the AHSC. Despite the RIPA being established by
the SGC to address inequitable distribution of fund[s], there
are still threshold barriers that hinder rural communities in
the state having access to the investments needed to help
combat climate change while also achieving other co-benefits."
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This bill requires the SGC to reexamine the selection criteria
in order to improve access to the RIPA funds for rural
communities.
2)Background. In 2014, the Legislature created the AHSC program
which is funded through cap-and-trade proceeds and
administered by the SGC and the Department of Housing and
Community Development (HCD). SB 862 (Senate Budget and Fiscal
Review Committee) Chaptered 862, Statutes of 2014,
continuously appropriated 35% of the cap-and-trade funds for
investments in transit, affordable housing, and sustainable
communities. Of this, 10% is for transit and inter-city rail
capital programs administered by the Department of
Transportation (Caltrans) and the California Transportation
Commission (CTC); 5% is for low carbon transit operations
through the State Transit Assistance formula; and 20% is for
affordable housing and sustainable communities, with half of
this funding going to affordable housing projects that
demonstrate a reduction in greenhouse gases. In order to meet
this standard, an affordable housing project must combine both
density and proximity to public transportation in order to
result in fewer vehicle miles traveled which will reduce our
overall greenhouse gas production.
3)Recent Guideline Revisions. Recognizing that rural projects
were not able to compete well against urban projects, in the
fall of 2015, the SGC revised the guidelines for the AHSC
program to set-aside 10% of the total funding for AHSC for
rural areas. This change eliminated the competition between
rural and urban projects and allowed rural projects to compete
against each other rather than against urban projects that can
generally show a greater reduction in vehicle miles traveled.
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In January 2016, the SGC released a notice of funding
availability for the AHSC program which included the new RIPA
set aside and guidelines. In response, they received a total
of 130 applications in all categories, 23 of the applications
are for RIPA. HCD is in the process of determining which
applicants will be asked to move to the next phase of the
process and submit full applications.
This bill requires the SGC to consider revising the guidelines
again. The Committee may wish to consider whether another
revision is necessary at this time.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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