BILL ANALYSIS
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 1865
Author: Audra Strickland (R)
Amended: 6/14/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/22/10
AYES: Lowenthal, Huff, DeSaulnier, Harman, Pavley,
Simitian
NO VOTE RECORDED: Ashburn, Kehoe, Oropeza
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 75-0, 6/2/10 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Local Housing Trust Fund Matching Grant Program
SOURCE : Ventura County Housing Trust Fund
DIGEST : This bill reduces the minimum grant amount under
the Local Housing Trust Fund Matching Grant program to
$500,000 for all new trust funds regardless of county size.
ANALYSIS : In November 2006, California voters approved
Proposition 1C, the $2.85 billion Housing and Emergency
Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006. The bond act included $100
million for the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund and
required that the Legislature program the specific uses and
eligibility requirements for these funds. SB 586 (Dutton),
Chapter 652, Statutes of 2007, allocated these funds to
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four separate programs, including $35 million for the Local
Housing Trust Fund Matching Grant (LHTF) program that the
Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD)
administers.
Under existing law, the LHTF program matches contributions
to local housing trust funds. To be eligible for matching
funds, a local housing trust fund must receive
contributions from private or governmental sources that are
not otherwise restricted for housing programs. The awardee
must also have an HCD-approved housing element and have
submitted its annual housing element progress report, or if
it is a nonprofit entity, it must fund projects located in
jurisdictions with approved housing elements and submitted
progress reports. The local housing trusts may, in turn,
use LHTF program funds to support emergency shelters,
rental housing, and for-sale housing affordable to
households ranging from extremely low-income to
moderate-income. If an awardee fails to continue funding
and operating the local housing trust fund for at least
five years, then the trust fund must repay HCD's award to
the extent the funds have not yet been legally encumbered
to specific projects.
Under SB 586, half of the $35 million allocated to the LHTF
program from Proposition 1C is reserved for newly
established housing trust funds, as defined by HCD. Within
this set-aside for newly established housing trust funds is
an additional 36-month set-aside of an amount to be
determined by HCD for trust funds in counties with a
population of less than 425,000 persons.
As originally established, the LHTF grants matched the
local contributions on a dollar-for-dollar basis at a
minimum of $1 million and up to a maximum of $2 million.
In 2009, the Legislature enacted AB 570 (Arambula), Chapter
455, to reduce the minimum grant amount for new trust funds
in counties of less than 425,000 persons to $500,000.
Proponents of that bill argued that smaller communities
would unlikely be able to meet a $1 million minimum match
requirement and therefore be discouraged from creating a
trust at all.
This bill reduces the minimum grant amount under the LHTF
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program to $500,000 for all new trust funds regardless of
county size.
Comments
Purpose of the bill . This bill seeks to allow newly formed
housing trusts in larger counties to better compete for
state housing trust fund grants by lowering the minimum
grant amount for all such applicants, not just those in
smaller counties. The LHTF program creates a big incentive
for cities and counties to create new housing trusts.
Reducing the match requirement for all newly formed trusts
will encourage more cities and counties to dedicate new
resources to affordable housing, thereby growing the
affordable housing pie, supporting additional affordable
housing production, and resulting in new construction jobs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/2/10)
Ventura County Housing Trust Fund (source)
California Coalition for Rural Housing
California Housing Consortium
Housing California
San Joaquin Valley Housing Trust
Ventura County Board of Supervisors
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Bass, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Blakeslee, Block, Blumenfield, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero, Charles Calderon, Carter,
Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon,
DeVore, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong,
Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani, Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick,
Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Logue, Bonnie
Lowenthal, Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande,
Niello, Nielsen, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino, Ruskin,
Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson,
Torlakson, Torres, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, John
A. Perez
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NO VOTE RECORDED: Tom Berryhill, Lieu, Norby, Audra
Strickland, Vacancy
JJA:mw 8/4/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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