BILL NUMBER: AB 1382 CHAPTERED 09/26/00 CHAPTER 664 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 26, 2000 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 24, 2000 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 29, 2000 PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 28, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 25, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 9, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 14, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 6, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 6, 1999 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Lowenthal FEBRUARY 26, 1999 An act to add Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 17998) to Part 1.5 of Division 13 of, and to repeal Section 17998.2 of, the Health and Safety Code, relating to housing. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1382, Lowenthal. Housing: code enforcement incentive program. Existing law contains various provisions relating to building standards and code enforcement. This bill would establish the Code Enforcement Incentive Program pursuant to which the Department of Housing and Community Development, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would make funds available as matching grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties through December 31, 2003, to increase staffing dedicated to local building code enforcement efforts. The bill would require the department to award the grants on a competitive basis, as specified, and would exempt the grant program from provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill would also require that grant recipients submit a report, on or before June 30, 2004, to their local legislative bodies and to the department regarding the results of the expanded code enforcement efforts, and would require the department to summarize the results and transmit the reports to the Legislature by December 31, 2004. This bill would also establish the Community Code Enforcement Pilot Program pursuant to which the Department of Housing and Community Development would award grants to communities that develop a code enforcement pilot program meeting specified criteria that would operate until December 31, 2003. The bill would require the pilot program administrators to evaluate the pilot programs and report that information to the department by June 30, 2004, and would require the department to report to the Legislature by December 31, 2004. These provisions would be repealed on January 1, 2005, unless extended by a later enacted statute. This bill would require that $2,250,000 appropriated in a specified item of the Budget Act of 2000 be used by the Department of Housing and Community Development for the Community Code Enforcement Pilot Program, and would authorize the department to use any funds not awarded pursuant to that program by December 31, 2001, for the matching grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties for local code enforcement efforts as described above. This bill would provide that these provisions supersede Chapter 82 of the Statutes of 2000. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 17998) is added to Part 1.5 of Division 13 of the Health and Safety Code, to read: CHAPTER 8. CODE ENFORCEMENT INCENTIVE PROGRAM 17998. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) The Department of Housing and Community Development reports that one in every eight dwelling units in the state is substandard and that unless health and safety problems are corrected, habitability conditions generally deteriorate until the units become life threatening and uninhabitable and must be removed from the housing stock through closure or demolition. (b) California is experiencing a housing shortage of significant proportions, particularly in the affordable housing sector. The state and many local governments are funding affordable housing from a variety of sources at substantial costs. It is ill advised to neglect timely code enforcement responsibilities and, as a result, to lose housing that could have been retained. (c) The lack of code enforcement on a single dwelling unit can lead to the deterioration of an entire neighborhood as the substandard or abandoned unit becomes a magnet for crime, vandalism, fires, and other activities that rapidly infect the surrounding homes and neighborhood. (d) Many local governments endeavor to fulfill their statutory responsibility for code enforcement. However, local governments with a higher percentage of lower income households with families, living in older, overcrowded housing stock, exacerbated by the neglect of absentee slumlords, bear a disproportionate code enforcement cost and responsibility compared with more affluent communities. (e) Existing law provides building standards to assure decent, safe, and sanitary housing for all Californians. (f) Resources for code enforcement at the local level are frequently allocated to construction-related code enforcement activities, which generate fees to pay for regulatory services, including building and permit inspections, rather than housing maintenance activities that prevent or abate substandard conditions. (g) The enforcement of housing maintenance codes for existing housing is frequently performed only on a complaint-by-complaint basis and frequently there is insufficient funding for the abatement of existing violations through timely and effective administrative or judicial proceedings. 17998.1. The Department of Housing and Community Development, upon appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, shall make funds available as matching grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties to increase staffing dedicated to local building code enforcement efforts. The funds shall be subject to all of the following provisions: (a) Grants shall be made to grantees through December 31, 2003. (b) The city, county, or city and county shall provide a cash or in-kind local match of at least 25 percent in the first year, at least 50 percent in the second year, and at least 75 percent in the third year. (c) The maximum grant to a single recipient shall not exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000). The department may establish minimum grant levels. (d) Funds may be used to supplement, but shall not supplant, existing local funding for code enforcement related to housing code maintenance. The applicants shall demonstrate an intent to ensure cooperative and effective working relationships between code enforcement officials and local prosecutorial agencies, the local health department, and local government housing rehabilitation financing agencies. (e) On or before June 30, 2004, grant recipients shall submit a report to their local legislative bodies and to the department regarding the results of the expanded housing maintenance code enforcement efforts and recommendations for changes in state or local laws and regulations related to code enforcement. The department shall summarize the results and transmit the reports to the Legislature by December 31, 2004. The department may require submission of interim progress reports. (f) The department may use up to 5 percent of the funds appropriated by the Legislature for administering the programs authorized by this chapter. (g) The department shall award the grants on a competitive basis with criteria to be established and specified in a "Notice of Funding Availability." The criteria shall be weighted for local government applicants with neighborhoods populated by high percentages of lower income households, with significant numbers of deteriorating housing stock containing reported or suspected housing code violations and often owned by absentee owners. The criteria shall also be weighted for applications that propose to identify and prosecute owners with habitual, repeated, multiple code violations that have remained unabated beyond the period required for abatement. Eligibility criteria, applications, awards, and other program requirements implementing this chapter shall not be subject to the requirements of Chapter 2.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code. 17998.2. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature in the enactment of this section to do all of the following: (1) Initiate a coordinated active community approach to code enforcement. (2) Create a pilot program in which the department awards grants to communities that develop a code enforcement program pursuant to the criteria established by this section. (3) Substantially reduce the incidence of substandard housing through the use of creative and coordinated techniques of code enforcement involving an interdepartmental approach at the local government level. (b) The grant program established pursuant to this section shall be known as the Community Code Enforcement Pilot Program. The Department of Housing and Community Development shall administer the Community Code Enforcement Pilot Program. (1) The department need not adopt regulations for the program. The department shall publish and distribute a Notice of Funding Availability that contains application forms and instructions, eligibility criteria, criteria for the rating and ranking of applications, outcome evaluation criteria, interim or final reporting requirements, and other information that the department considers necessary or useful for implementation of the program. (2) The department shall review, rate, and rank applications based on its evaluation of the information provided pursuant to subdivision (e), and their projected program performance as measured by all of the following criteria, considering the size of the applicant community: (A) The minimum number of housing units affordable to lower income households that will be rehabilitated or otherwise brought into compliance with applicable building and housing codes. (B) The estimated amount of grants and low interest rehabilitation loan funds, from sources other than this program, that will be made available to the owners of housing units affordable to lower income households that are determined to need rehabilitation or repair pursuant to the program. (C) The incidence of poverty and deteriorating housing or housing code violations in each target area. (3) The department shall attempt to award community code enforcement pilot program grants to cities, counties, and cities and counties with a wide range of population sizes and compositions and geographical distribution. (c) The department shall award community code enforcement pilot program grants for programs that shall operate until December 31, 2003. The grants shall not exceed four hundred fifty thousand dollars ($450,000), which shall pay for costs incurred over the life of the program. The department may establish minimum grant levels. (d) Each city, county, or city and county receiving a grant shall develop a code enforcement team consisting of a least one full-time code enforcement officer and a part-time city planner, health officer, or comparable specialist. Each grantee shall provide, and fund at its own expense, at least one city planner, health officer, or comparable specialist for the duration of the pilot program, for a minimum of 20 hours per week. The grant funds shall be used for the code enforcement officer and related program costs, which may include full-time or part-time personnel, in addition to the grantee' s contributions. (e) Grant proposals shall include all of the following: (1) Demonstration of serious, current housing code enforcement deficiencies within each target area, whether those code deficiencies are in violation of locally enacted ordinances or state codes. (2) A plan to have high visibility of code enforcement staff and to create close and frequent communication and interaction with residents and property owners of the target area, including in the evenings and on weekends. (3) A plan to convene community meetings to inform residents of the pilot program. (4) A plan to conduct ongoing frequent informal and formal community meetings with the code enforcement team and residents of the community involved in the pilot program. (5) A plan demonstrating an intent to ensure cooperative and effective working relationships between code enforcement officials, local health department officials, local prosecutorial agencies, and officials operating local programs providing public funds to finance affordable rental housing rehabilitation and repairs. (6) A plan for timely and effective administrative and judicial enforcement of code violations. (f) The administrator of each grantee's pilot program shall evaluate the pilot program and report the findings and other criteria requested by the department indicating the effectiveness of the pilot program to the department by June 30, 2004. The administrator shall evaluate the pilot program based on criteria including, but not limited to, the following: (1) Results of a participant survey, including owners, residents, and active community leaders. (2) Comparison of each targeted area with similar neighborhoods with respect to repeat calls for service and other criteria testing the effectiveness of the pilot program. (3) The extent of any perceived or actual property value change between the commencement and the completion of the pilot program. (4) The number of cases opened and the number of cases closed, identifying the nature of code violations, the necessity of formal proceedings, the cost and nature of abatement violations, or other factors influencing the effectiveness of the pilot program. (g) The department shall review and report to the Legislature by December 31, 2004, on the findings of the pilot program administrators. (h) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2005, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2005, deletes or extends that date. 17998.3. In implementing the programs governed by this chapter, the department has all the general powers granted to it by Division 31 (commencing with Section 50000). SEC. 2. (a) Of the amount appropriated in Item 2240-112-0001 of Section 2.00 of the Budget Act of 2000, two million two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($2,250,000) shall be used by the Department of Housing and Community Development to implement Section 17998.2 of the Health and Safety Code as enacted by Section 1 of this act. (b) Any funds not awarded by December 31, 2001, for the purposes of the program authorized by Section 17998.2 of the Health and Safety Code as enacted by Section 1 of this act shall be utilized by the Department of Housing and Community Development for the program authorized by Section 17998.1 of the Health and Safety Code as enacted by Section 1 of this act. SEC. 3. If this act becomes operative on or before January 1, 2001, then Chapter 8 (commencing with Section 17998) of Part 1.5 of Division 13 of the Health and Safety Code, as added by Chapter 82 of the Statutes of 2000, shall not become operative.