BILL NUMBER: AB 1580	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Florez
   (Coauthor:  Assembly Member Ducheny)
   (Coauthor:  Senator Costa)

                        FEBRUARY 26, 1999

   An act to add Section 50517.8 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to housing.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1580, as introduced, Florez.  Housing:  farm labor strategy.
   Under existing law, the Department of Housing and Community
Development administers the Farmworker Housing Grant Program.
Existing law establishes the Farmworker Housing Grant Fund and
continuously appropriates this fund to the department to make
specified grants for farmworker housing and to defray the department'
s costs in administering the program.  These grants may be made to
local public entities and nonprofit corporations for the construction
or rehabilitation of housing for agricultural employees, their
families, and related support facilities, among other purposes.
   This bill would require the department to develop a strategy for
the development of farm labor housing and to establish a task force
to assist in the development of the strategy.  The bill would also
require the department to report to the Legislature on its strategy.

   Vote:  majority.  Appropriation:  no.  Fiscal committee:  yes.
State-mandated local program:  no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 50517.8 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
   50517.8.  (a) The Department of Housing and Community Development
shall develop a strategy for the development of farm labor housing
and shall establish a task force to assist in the development of the
strategy.
   (b) The task force shall include representatives of state housing
departments and agencies involved in the planning and production of
housing, infrastructure, and services to farm labor.  The task force
shall also include representatives from agricultural organizations
and organizations serving farm laborers and low-income residents in
rural areas.
   (c) The strategy shall include, but not be limited to, an
identification of impediments to the production of housing affordable
to farm laborers, federal, state, and local sources of financing,
private sources of funding, innovative approaches to financing that
could be used as a model, the current and projected need for
permanent and migrant housing, and a series of measures that need to
be implemented to meet the current and projected need for farm labor
housing.
   (d) The department shall report to the Legislature by July 1,
2000, on its strategy for farm labor housing.