BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 224
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Correa
VERSION: 2/23/09
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: March 31, 2009
SUBJECT:
CalHome program: mobilehomes: fire code upgrades
DESCRIPTION:
This bill clarifies that CalHome funds may be used for the
rehabilitation of mobilehomes to meet new state building code
requirements to install fire resistant exteriors in specified
circumstances.
ANALYSIS:
Under existing law, the CalHome program, administered by the
Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), provides
grants and loans to local public agencies and nonprofit
corporations for projects or programs that enable low and very
low-income to become or remain homeowners. Local public
agencies and nonprofit corporations may use CalHome grants to
assist individual households. HCD may also make loans directly
to developers to assist multiple homeownership development
projects.
Local public agencies and nonprofit corporations may use CalHome
grants to assist individual households specifically with
first-time homebuyers assistance, home rehabilitation, homebuyer
counseling, home acquisition and rehabilitation, self-help
mortgage assistance, or technical assistance for self help and
shared housing.
Last year, HCD adopted emergency regulations to require that
mobilehomes in specified high wildfire hazard zones be
retrofitted with ignition resistant exterior components,
SB 224 (CORREA) Page 2
including roofs and siding, when those homes are moved or are
undergoing renovations that require issuance of a building
permit. Newer mobilehomes already meet this standard.
This bill :
1.Permits local public agencies and nonprofit corporations to
make grants of CalHome funds specifically for the installation
or retrofit of ignition resistant exterior components on
existing mobilehomes as required by the recent amendments to
the state building code.
2.Prohibits local public agencies and nonprofit corporations
from conditioning home rehabilitation funds under CalHome upon
the rehabilitation of additional or unrelated home components
unless also required under this same amendment to the state
building code.
3.Prohibits a local public agency or nonprofit corporation from
denying CalHome funding to a housing program or project solely
on the basis that the home is a mobilehome or that the home is
located in a mobilehome park.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author reports that while the CalHome program
provides rehabilitation assistance to preserve and expand
affordable housing, including assistance for those living in
manufactured homes or mobilehomes in parks, some agencies that
administer CalHome-funded grants and loans do not consider
mobile homes eligible, despite the low-income status of the
homeowner. The author chairs the Senate Select Committee on
Manufactured Housing and Communities. He notes that mobilehome
owners have queried his committee about why local agencies
administering state funds from a program that ostensibly
recognizes mobilehome eligibility can deny them access to
funding because they live in mobilehomes.
The author points out that new requirements in the state
building code require mobilehome owners in parks located in
wildfire-prone zones to upgrade components of their homes.
This makes access to CalHome funds all the more important for
some low-income park residents who do not have the resources
to make these improvements. Although the new requirements are
only imposed at the time that repair or replacement of a
component is required, mobilehome parks could potentially
SB 224 (CORREA) Page 3
impose these requirements as part of their park rules,
violations of which may subject residents unable to comply
with various sanctions, including eviction. Although HCD has
indicated on an informal basis that low-income mobilehome
owners in parks are eligible for CalHome rehabilitation
funding, some homeowners believe there should be greater
clarification of such eligibility. This bill provides that
clarity.
2.Previous legislation . SB 753 (Correa), Chapter 561, Statutes
of 2007, made CalHome funds available to the owners of
manufactured homes and mobilehomes to purchase their homes as
well as the land beneath those homes.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
March 25, 2009)
SUPPORT: American Federation of State, County, and
Municipal Employees
OPPOSED: None received.