BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING
Senator Jim Beall, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 944 Hearing Date: 4/5/2016
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Author: |Committee on Transportation and Housing |
|----------+------------------------------------------------------|
|Version: |3/28/2016 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |No |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant|Sarah Carvill |
|: | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUBJECT: Housing omnibus
DIGEST: This bill makes non-controversial changes to sections
of law relating to housing.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, the cost of
producing a bill in 2001-2002 was $17,890. By combining
multiple matters into one bill, the Legislature can make minor
changes to law in the most cost-effective manner.
Proposals included in this housing omnibus bill must abide by
the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee policy on
omnibus committee bills. The proponent of an item submits
proposed language and provides background materials to the
committee for the item to be described to legislative staff and
stakeholders. Committee staff provides a summary of the items
and the proposed statutory changes to all majority and minority
consultants in both the Senate and Assembly, as well as all
known or presumed interested parties. If an item encounters any
opposition and the proponent cannot work out a solution with the
opposition, the item is omitted from or amended out of the bill.
Proposals in the bill must reflect a consensus and be without
opposition from legislative members, agencies, and other
stakeholders.
SB 944 (Committee on Transportation and Housing) Page 2 of ?
This bill makes non-controversial changes to sections of law
relating to housing. Specifically, the bill includes the
following provisions. The proponent of each provision is noted
in brackets.
1) Mobile home disposal: Minor program changes (Sections 1
and 10). AB 999 (Daly, Chapter 376, Statutes of 2015) passed
last year with no controversy. However, in the
implementation of the new mandate, the Department of Housing
and Community Development (HCD) and interested parties are
finding that the 10-day period given in the statute (Civil
Code Section 798.56(e)) is not enough time for management to
make a decision on whether to dispose of an abandoned
mobilehome. As a result, this new program is not being used.
Additionally, HCD realized after AB 999 was passed that it
needed regulations to create the forms required by the new
law. This bill changes the time in which management must
file a notice of disposal with HCD from 10 days to 30 days
after the date of sale. This bill also gives HCD authority
to draft guidelines for new procedures and forms until final
regulations may be formally adopted. [Western Manufactured
Housing Communities Association]
2) Transitional Housing Misconduct Act: Move to Civil Code
(Sections 2 and 14). The Transitional Housing Misconduct Act
is a special law that allows transitional housing operators
to remove problematic residents with a simple injunction
action, rather than going through the entire landlord-tenant
eviction law. It also allows for interim options, with court
enforcement, rather than only eviction. Unfortunately,
because it is located in the middle of HCD's finance program
laws, it is difficult to find and often isn't even
understood by courts and housing providers. This bill moves
this law to the Civil Code that already deals with
landlord-tenant statutes, where the courts and housing
providers are more likely to look for such a law. [Senate
Transportation and Housing Committee]
3) Definition of "electric vehicle charging station" and
"charging stations": Correct code reference (Section 3).
Legislation passed in 2014 regulating lease terms on
electric vehicle charging stations included inconsistent
definitions of "electric vehicle charging station" and
"charging station." Civil Code Section 1947.6(c) references
the definition in the California Electrical Code, while
SB 944 (Committee on Transportation and Housing) Page 3 of ?
Civil Code Section 1952.7(c)(1) references the definition in
the National Electrical Code. The California Electrical Code
is based on the model National Electrical Code, but contains
amendments made by state agencies with statutory authority.
These amendments were not originally included in the
national model code. This bill corrects the discrepancy by
changing the definition in Section 1952.7 of the Civil Code
to refer to the California Electrical Code. [Lisa Yuki,
Department of General Services]
4) Common interest developments: Resolve conflicts between
code sections relating to declarations (Section 4). There
are conflicts between Civil Code Sections 4270 and 4225,
4230 and 4235 relating to amending declarations. Section
4270 already makes an exception for an alternate amendment
process described in Section 4275. This bill resolves the
conflicts by adding exceptions for the alternate processes
in Sections 4225, 4230, and 4235 to the existing exception
in Section 4270. [Educational Community for Homeowners
(ECHO)]
5) Common interest developments: Renumber a Civil Code
section (Section 5). The California Law Revision Commission
(CLRC) revised the numbering in the Davis-Stirling Act with
the intent to avoid decimals. Accordingly, the CLRC left
ample room between existing whole-numbered sections. Despite
this, Civil Code Section 4750 concerns personal agriculture,
while Civil Code Section 4750.10 addresses clotheslines.
Since clotheslines are not particularly related to personal
agriculture, this bill replaces the statute number
containing a decimal with a whole number. [Educational
Community for Homeowners (ECHO)]
6) Common interest developments: Annual budget reports
(Section 6). Last year, the legislature passed and the
Governor signed AB 596, which requires a homeowners
association (HOA) in a common interest development (CID) to
disclose to the owners if the CID is an approved condominium
project pursuant to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) guidelines. Section
5300(b)(10), which applies only to condominium projects,
specifies the following wording that must be contained in
the disclosure statement: "This common interest development
[is/is not (circle one)] a condominium project." This bill
eliminates the "is/is not a condominium" question from
SB 944 (Committee on Transportation and Housing) Page 4 of ?
Section 5300(b)(10), since the section only applies to
condos. [Community Associations Institute-California
Legislative Action Committee (CAI-CLAC)]
7) Common interest developments: Correct a Civil Code section
reference (Section 7). Civil Code Section 5570(b)(2) defines
the term "major component" to have the same meaning as
specified in Civil Code Section 55530. There is no Civil
Code Section 55530. The reference is intended to be to Civil
Code Section 5550, which does define the term. This bill
corrects an inaccurate Civil Code section reference from
Section 55530 to 5550. [Community Associations
Institute-California Legislative Action Committee
(CAI-CLAC)]
8) Housing discrimination: Update federal law citation
(Section 8). In 1996, an amendment to Civil Code Section
798.76 was made to reflect amendments to a federal law
referenced therein, the Federal Fair Housing Act. A
corresponding change was not made in Government Code Section
12955.9, which cites the same federal law. This bill
corrects the name of the federal law to reflect amendments
thereto. [Western Manufactured Housing Communities
Association]
9) State notice law protections: Clarify reference (Section
9). The state notice law (Government Code Section 65863.10)
applies to a variety of publicly supported affordable
multifamily housing types. SB 1328 (2004) extended state
notice protections to tenants of many types of affordable
housing not previously covered. Among them were properties
with expiring rent restrictions that were financed under
tax-exempt mortgage revenue bond programs in Internal
Revenue Code Section 142(d) and Government Code Section
65863.10(a)(3)(F). Prior to 1986, however, the mortgage
revenue bond authority in Internal Revenue Code Section
142(d) was lodged in a different code section. Consequently,
the specific reference to Section 142 potentially denies
basic state notice protections to tenants in properties that
were financed with mortgage revenue bonds prior to 1986.
Last year, voucher tenants of a 1985 bond-financed property
in Walnut Creek were left unprotected by the state notice
law because of this oversight. This bill clarifies that
these protections apply to properties financed by the
program in Internal Revenue Code Section 142 as well as
SB 944 (Committee on Transportation and Housing) Page 5 of ?
corresponding sections in the prior code. [Housing
Advocates]
10) Building Standards Commission submittals to the Office of
Administrative Law (OAL) (Section 11). Government Code
Section 11356 exempts building standard regulations
(including the Initial Statement of Reasons) from OAL review
and approval. When the California Building Standards
Commission (CBSC) approves an Initial Statement of Reasons
and a Notice of Proposed Action (Notice), only the Notice is
published by OAL in the California Regulatory Notice
Register pursuant to Government Code Section 11344.1.
However, Health and Safety Code Section 18935(a) requires
CBSC to submit both the Initial Statement of Reasons and the
Notice to OAL. This bill eliminates an unnecessary
requirement in order to achieve consistency with existing
law. [Department of General Services]
11) Tribally designated housing entities (Sections 12 and 13).
State Health and Safety Code Section 50074 describes the
types of housing sponsors that are eligible to participate
in housing programs administered by HCD. The federal Native
American Housing Assistance Self Determination Act of 1996
(NAHASDA) establishes a specific category of housing
sponsor, the "tribally designated housing entity," that is
neither enumerated in Section 50074 or defined in existing
language. As such, tribes have never participated in HCD's
programs. This bill defines "tribally designated housing
entity" by reference to federal code and specifies that
tribally designated housing entities are housing sponsors
eligible for assistance from HCD. [Northern Circle Indian
Housing Authority]
12) Mobilehome Park Rehabilitation and Resident Ownership
Program: Clarify intent (Section 15). AB 225 (Chau and
Nestande, Chapter 493, Statutes of 2014) gave HCD greater
flexibility to administer the Mobilehome Park Rehabilitation
and Resident Ownership Program. The bill allowed recipients
of program funds (e.g., resident organizations, local public
entities, nonprofit sponsors) to make loans to lower-income
mobilehome owners to assist them in repairing their
mobilehomes. The bill was intended to allow HCD to operate
this program in a manner similar to the CalHOME program,
such as by providing loans to residents to replace their
mobilehomes. This bill further clarifies the intent of
SB 944 (Committee on Transportation and Housing) Page 6 of ?
legislation. [Assembly Housing and Community Development
Committee]
COMMENTS:
1) Purpose. The purpose of omnibus bills is to combine
technical and non-controversial changes to various
committee-related statutes into one bill. This allows the
legislature to make multiple minor changes to statutes in
one bill in a cost-effective manner. The Senate Committee on
Transportation and Housing insists that its housing omnibus
bill be a consensus measure. If there is no consensus on a
particular item, it cannot be included. There is no known
opposition to any item in this bill.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No Local:
No
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on
Wednesday,
March 30, 2016.)
SUPPORT:
California Coalition for Rural Housing
OPPOSITION:
None received
-- END --