BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2536
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Date of Hearing: May 5, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 2536 (John A. Perez) - As Amended: April 27, 2010
Policy Committee: Housing and
Community Development Vote: 8 - 0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill allows Emergency Housing and Assistance Program (EHAP)
funds approved by the voters in the Housing and Emergency
Shelter Trust Fund Acts of 2002 and 2006 to be used for
supportive housing programs.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)$60 million in Proposition 1C and Proposition 46 bond funding
remains for EHAP. In 2006, the Department of Housing and
Community Development (HCD) released a notice of funding
availability (NOFA) for the EHAP funds. HCD received $24.5
million in applications and awarded $7 million. Expanding the
use of those funds to include supportive housing may make it
easier to award the funding.
2)Through July of 2009, $358 million in both Proposition 1C and
Proposition 46 funding had been made available Multifamily
Housing Program - Supportive Housing (MHP-SH). HCD received
$542 million in applications and awarded $326 million in
grants.
3)The costs for HCD to include supportive housing projects in
future NOFAs for Emergency Housing and Assistance Program -
Capital Development (EHAP-CD) projects would be minor and
absorbable within existing resources.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . This legislation allows more flexibility for the
bond funding made available through Proposition 1C and
AB 2536
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Proposition 46 by allowing EHAP - Capitol Development funding
(bricks and mortar funding for emergency housing shelters) to
also be used for permanent multi-family low-income supportive
housing projects. The author argues this flexibility is
necessary because efforts to combat homelessness have taken a
significant shift away from providing temporary emergency
housing toward an effort to find long-term housing that is
coupled with supportive services such as mental health
counseling, workforce training, and alcohol and drug
treatment.
2)Emergency Housing and Assistance Program . The Emergency
Housing and Assistance Program (EHAP), administered by HCD
funds emergency shelters, transitional housing, safe havens,
rental assistance programs, and cold wet weather providers.
The funds are used to assist housing programs with operational
costs and provides for the expansion of bed capacity and/or
supportive services offered to homeless clients. Within the
EHAP program are two different funding programs: EHAP-CD which
funds construction to increase capacity and EHAP Operations
Grants which provide funding for emergency shelters,
transitional housing projects, and supportive services for
homeless individuals and families.
1)Multifamily Housing Program - Supportive Housing Program . MHP
provides funding for construction, rehabilitation or
conversion multi-family housing projects for low- and moderate
income people. Within MHP there is a supportive housing
program which provides funding for projects that provide
supportive services coupled with housing. Target populations
include special needs populations, homeless and homeless
youth. Funding is provided as low-interest loans that
partially fund the cost of construction and require the
housing remain affordable for 55-years.
2)Related Legislation . In the current session, AB 1865
(Strickland) reduces the amount of matching funds an applicant
for a newly formed Local Housing Trust Fund (LHTF) Matching
Grant Program grant must raise, from a minimum of $1 million
to $500,000 in an effort to allow HCD to more easily award
those bond funds. That bill is currently pending on this
committee's Suspense File.
Analysis Prepared by : Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
AB 2536
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