BILL NUMBER: AB 725 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 13, 2008
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 15, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 11, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 5, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 7, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 17, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 28, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 13, 2008
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 4, 2008
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 24, 2008
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 24, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Lieber and DeVore
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Beall, Hancock, and Hayashi)
FEBRUARY 22, 2007
An act to add Section 50455.7 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to housing.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 725, Lieber. Housing: uniform rental housing application.
Existing law requires the California State Housing Plan to include
a housing strategy that coordinates housing assistance and
activities of state and local agencies.
This bill, on or before April 1, 2009, would require the
Department of Housing and Community Development to convene a first
meeting of a working group consisting of specified private
associations to draft a uniform subsidized affordable housing
application, and would require the department to take other specified
actions upon the development of a uniform application.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. It is the intent of the Legislature to create a uniform
affordable housing rental application, including two formats
accessible to people with disabilities, to benefit both of the
following:
(a) Low- and moderate-income housing applicants, by allowing them
to fill out and copy a single application that they can use to apply
for multiple affordable housing opportunities.
(b) Subsidized housing providers, by allowing them to collect all
the information that they typically request, including all the
information that state and federal funding agencies require them to
gather, on a single application.
SEC. 2. Section 50455.7 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
50455.7. (a) (1) On or before April 1, 2009, the department shall
convene a first meeting of a working group to draft a uniform
subsidized affordable housing application. The department shall
invite organizations representing subsidized affordable housing
providers, including, but not limited to, the Affordable Housing
Management Association of Northern California; the Affordable Housing
Management Association-Pacific Southwest; the Aging Services of
California; the Apartment Association, Southern California Cities;
the California Apartment Association; the California Association of
Realtors; the California Housing Consortium; Housing California; the
Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California; and the
Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing.
(2) The working group may organize itself as it chooses and
schedule future meetings.
(3) Nothing in this section shall require the department to
participate in the working group or to pay the travel or other
expenses of any person attending any meeting of the working group.
(b) If the working group develops a draft uniform application, the
department shall do each of the following:
(1) Review the draft for compliance with department policy and, if
the draft does not comply, return it to the working group to make
the necessary changes.
(2) Provide the draft to the Department of Fair Employment and
Housing, which shall review the draft for compliance with the fair
housing statutes that it enforces, make any necessary changes to the
draft, and return the draft to the department.
(3) Add the following statement to the application:
"This uniform application is available in a downloadable text file
format and in formats accessible to people with disabilities at
(insert the URL of the page on the department's Internet Web site
where the application is posted)."
(4) Provide the completed uniform application to the State Council
on Developmental Disabilities, which shall do all of the following:
(A) Select a contractor, to be paid an amount not to exceed four
thousand dollars ($4,000), to develop two accessible formats of the
uniform application as follows:
(i) One application in plain English, with a large font.
(ii) One application in plain English, with a large font and color
illustrations.
(B) Require the contractor to conduct at least one test with a
focus group of persons with diverse disabilities.
(C) Review and approve the accessible formats developed by the
contractor and provide them to the department.
(5) Post the application in a downloadable text file format,
including, but not limited to, in the formats accessible to people
with disabilities, on the department's Internet Web site.
(6) Reconvene the working group in the future as necessary to
draft revisions in the uniform application to comply with changes in
law or in the requirements of federal or state funding agencies.
(c) After the department completes all the requirements of
subdivision (b), the department, the California Tax Credit Allocation
Committee, and the California Housing Finance Agency shall do each
of the following:
(1) Inform current and future recipients of state affordable
housing subsidies of the existence of the uniform application,
including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) The accessible formats of the uniform application.
(B) Where the application is located on the Internet Web site.
(C) The goals of the uniform application, as declared in Section 1
of the act that enacts this section.
(2) Award additional points to future funding applicants who agree
to distribute and accept the uniform application.
(d) Nothing in this section shall require a housing provider to
use the uniform application or shall prevent a housing provider from
requesting additional information from rental applicants.
(e) Any requirement of this section relating to the accessible
formats shall be inapplicable if the State Council on Developmental
Disabilities does not produce the accessible formats because of the
financial limitation of subparagraph (A) of paragraph (3) of
subdivision (b).
(f) The department's adoption of the uniform rental housing
application and compliance with the other requirements of this
section shall not be subject to Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section
11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
Nothing in this section shall authorize the department to adopt or
amend any regulation.