BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 224|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 224
Author: Correa (D)
Amended: 4/21/09
Vote: 21
SEN. TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 11-0, 3/31/09
AYES: Lowenthal, Huff, Ashburn, DeSaulnier, Harman,
Hollingsworth, Kehoe, Oropeza, Pavley, Simitian, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Vacancy, Vacancy
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : CalHome Program: mobilehomes: fire code
upgrades
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill clarifies that the 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 (HC), 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
CONTINUED
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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,
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. However, the
local public agency or nonprofit corporation may consider
the age and condition of the manufactured home or
mobilehome, including whether the home was constructed on
or after January 1, 1976, in accordance with federal
standards and whether the funds could be more effectively
used to replace the manufactured home or mobilehome.
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.
Prior Legislation
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SB 753 (Correa), Chapter 561, Statutes of 2007, made
CalHome funds available to the owners of manufactured homes
and mobilehomes to purchase their home as well as the land
beneath those homes.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/21/09)
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, AFL-CIO
Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office 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
Cal-Home-funded grants and loans do not consider mobile
homes eligible, despite the low-income status of the
homeowner. The author chairs the Senate Selection
Committee on Manufactured Housing. His office 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's office points out that new requirements in the
state building code require mobilehome owners in parks
located in wildfire-prone zones to upgrade components for
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,
mobile home parks could potentially 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.
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JJA:cm 4/21/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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