SB 944: Housing omnibus.

(1)Existing law, the Contractors State License Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of contractors by the Contractors State License Board. Existing law imposes specified requirements on home improvement contracts and service and repair contracts. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for a person to engage in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor without a license and provides certain exemptions from that licensure requirement, including exemptions for owner-builders, as specified.

This bill would provide an additional exemption for a nonprofit corporation providing assistance to an owner-builder who is participating in a mutual self-help housing program, as specified.

(2)The Mobilehome Residency Law governs tenancies in mobilehome parks and, among other things, authorizes the management of a mobilehome park, under specified circumstances, to either remove the mobilehome from the premises and place it in storage or store the mobilehome on its site. Existing law provides the management with a warehouse lien for these costs and imposes various duties on the management to enforce this lien, including requiring the management to file a notice with the county tax collector of the managements intent to apply to have the mobilehome designated for disposal after a warehouse lien sale and a notice of disposal with the Department of Housing and Community Development no less than 10 days after the date of sale to enforce the lien against the mobilehome in order to dispose of a mobilehome after a warehouse lien sale, as specified.

This bill would instead require the management to file a notice of intent to apply to have a mobilehome designated for disposal with the tax collector and a notice of disposal with the department no less than 30 days after the date of sale to enforce the lien against the mobilehome.

Existing law also establishes procedures by which the management may dispose of an abandoned mobilehome, including requiring that the management file a notice of disposal with the department, and to post and mail a notice of intent to dispose of the abandoned mobilehome, as specified. The Manufactured Housing Act of 1980 requires the department to enforce various laws pertaining to manufactured housing, mobilehomes, park trailers, commercial coaches, special purpose commercial coaches, and recreational vehicles.

This bill would require the management to post and mail the notice of intent to dispose of the abandoned mobilehome within 10 days following a judgment of abandonment and would require the management to file a notice of disposal with the department within 30 days following a judgment of abandonment, as specified. This bill would authorize the department to adopt guidelines related to procedures and forms to implement the above-described disposal procedures for mobilehomes after a warehouse lien sale and for abandoned mobilehomes until regulations are adopted by the department to replace those guidelines.

(3)Existing law specifies cause for eviction of participants in transitional housing programs, as defined, and establishes a procedure for evicting program participants for specified serious violations of the programs requirements, rules, or regulations. Existing law authorizes a program operator to seek, on his or her own behalf or on behalf of other participants or persons residing within 100 feet of the program site, a temporary restraining order and an injunction prohibiting abuse or misconduct by the participant, the violation of which is a misdemeanor. Existing law provides procedures for the program operator to exclude the participant from the program site and recover the dwelling unit.

This bill would recast these provisions and repeal identical provisions regarding eviction of participants in transitional housing programs in the Health and Safety Code.

(4)Existing law voids any term in a lease renewed or extended on or after January 1, 2015, that conveys any possessory interest in commercial property that either prohibits or unreasonably restricts, as defined, the installation or use of an electric vehicle charging station in a parking space associated with the commercial property. Existing law defines electric vehicle charging station or charging station for these purposes as a station designed in compliance with specified provisions of the National Electrical Code that delivers electricity from a source outside an electric vehicle into one or more electric vehicles.

This bill would instead define the term electric vehicle charging station or charging station by reference to specified provisions of the California Electrical Code.

(5)The Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, among other things, requires that the declaration, as defined, of a common interest development include certain specified information and allows for amendments to the declaration pursuant to either the declaration or the provisions of the act. Under existing law, an amendment to a declaration is generally effective after certain specified requirements are met, except as provided.

This bill would clarify that the exception from those requirements includes alternative procedures established in other specified provisions of the act for approving, certifying, or recording an amendment.

Existing law also provides that any provision, except for a reasonable restriction, as defined, of a governing document, as defined, of a common interest development is void and unenforceable if it effectively prohibits or unreasonably restricts the use of a clothesline or a drying rack, as defined, in an owners backyard.

This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to this provision.

Existing law also requires the association of a common interest development to distribute to its members an Assessment and Reserve Funding Disclosure Summary form containing specified information, including whether currently projected reserve account balances will be sufficient at the end of each year to meet the associations obligation for repair or replacement of major components during the next 30 years and that all major components are included in the reserve study and its calculations. Existing law defines major component for these purposes by reference to a specified statute.

This bill would correct an erroneous reference to the statutory definition of major component for these purposes.

(6)Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, the owner of a housing accommodation is prohibited from discriminating against or harassing any person on the basis of certain personal characteristics, including familial status. The act provides that its provisions relating to discrimination based on familial status do not apply to housing for older persons, defined to include, among others, mobilehome parks that meet the standards for housing for older persons contained in the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988.

This bill would instead require, for this purpose, mobilehome parks to meet the standards for housing for older persons contained in the federal Fair Housing Act, as amended by Public Law 10476.

(7)The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to prepare and adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan and requires the general plan to include certain mandatory elements, including a housing element. That law also requires the housing element, in turn, to include, among other things, an assessment of housing needs and an inventory of resources and constraints relevant to the meeting of those needs. That law further requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, for specified revisions of the housing element, to determine the existing and projected need for housing for each region, as specified.

This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to this provision.

(8)A provision of the Planning and Zoning Law requires an owner of an assisted housing development proposing the termination of a subsidy contract or prepayment of governmental assistance or of an assisted housing development in which there will be the expiration of rental restrictions to provide a notice of the proposed change to each affected tenant household residing in the assisted housing development, as specified. For the purposes of this requirement, existing law defines assisted housing development to mean a multifamily rental housing development that receives governmental assistance under specified programs, including tax-exempt private activity mortgage revenue bonds pursuant to a specified federal statute.

This bill would provide that assisted housing development includes a development receiving assistance from tax-exempt private activity mortgage revenue bonds pursuant to the predecessors of that specified federal statute.

(9)The California Building Standards Law provides for the adoption of building standards by state agencies by requiring all state agencies that adopt or propose adoption of any building standard to submit the building standard to the California Building Standards Commission for approval and adoption. Existing law requires an adopting agency to submit the notice and initial statement of reasons for proposed building standards to the commission. If, after review, the commission determines that the notice and initial statement of reasons comply with the Administrative Procedure Act, existing law requires that the commission submit those documents to the Office of Administrative Law for the sole purpose of inclusion in the California Regulatory Notice Register.

This bill would instead require that the commission submit only the notice to the Office of Administrative Law.

(10)Existing law defines the term housing sponsor for the purpose of various housing and home finance programs administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development to include various entities, including the duly constituted governing body of an Indian reservation or rancheria, certified by the California Housing Finance Agency as qualified to either own, construct, acquire, or rehabilitate a housing development and subject to the regulatory powers of the agency, as specified.

This bill would expand the definition of housing sponsor to include a tribally designated housing entity. The bill would define tribally designated housing entity by reference to a specified provision of the federal Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996.

(11)The State Housing Law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to notify specified entities of the dates that each of the uniform codes published by specified organizations are approved by the California Building Standards Commission. Existing law also requires the building regulations and rules adopted by the department to impose substantially the same requirements as are contained in the more recent editions of various uniform industry codes, as specified.

This bill would additionally require the department to notify those entities of the dates that each of the international codes published by specified organizations are approved by the California Building Standards Commission. The bill would additionally require the building regulations and rules adopted by the department to impose substantially the same requirements as are contained in the most recent editions of various international industry codes, as specified, and would make conforming changes.

(12)Existing law requires all water closets and urinals installed or sold in this state to meet specified requirements. Under existing law, these provisions are operative until January 1, 2014, or until the date on which the California Building Standards Commission includes standards in the California Building Standards Code that conform to these requirements.

This bill would repeal this provision.

(13)Existing law, until January 1, 1998, authorized the use of Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) piping in building construction in California, as specified.

This bill would repeal this provision.

(14)Existing law prohibits a residential structure that is moved into, or within, the jurisdiction of a local agency or the department from being treated as a new building structure, as specified.

This bill would make a technical change to this provision.

(15)Existing law requires a city or county to administratively approve applications to install solar energy systems through the issuance of a building permit or similar nondiscretionary permit, as specified.

This bill would make a technical change to this provision.

(16)Existing law authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to make loans from the Mobilehome Park Rehabilitation and Purchase Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, to, among other things, make loans to resident organizations or qualified nonprofit sponsors for the purpose of assisting lower income households in making needed repairs or accessibility-related upgrades to their mobilehomes, if specified criteria are met.

This bill would additionally authorize loans to these entities to assist lower income households in replacing their mobilehomes. By authorizing the expenditure of moneys in a continuously appropriated fund for a new purpose, this bill would make an appropriation.

(17)Existing law requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to administer the Emergency Housing and Assistance Program. Under the program, moneys from the continuously appropriated Emergency Housing and Assistance Fund are available for the purposes of providing shelter, as specified, to homeless persons at as low of a cost and as quickly as possible, without compromising the health and safety of shelter occupants, to encourage the move of homeless persons from shelters to a self-supporting environment as soon as possible, to encourage provision of services for as many persons at risk of homelessness as possible, to encourage compatible and effective funding of homeless services, and to encourage coordination among public agencies that fund or provide services to homeless individuals, as well as agencies that discharge people from their institutions.

The Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Acts of 2002 and 2006, enacted as Proposition 46 at the November 5, 2002, statewide general election and Proposition 1C at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, respectively, authorized the issuance of bonds pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to fund various housing programs administered by the department, including the Multifamily Housing Program. Under the acts, specified amounts of funds are transferred to the Emergency Housing and Assistance Fund to be distributed in the form of capital development grants under the Emergency Housing and Assistance Program and for supportive housing.

This bill would authorize the department to transfer any unobligated Proposition 46 and Proposition 1C bond funds in the Emergency Housing and Assistance Fund to the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Fund, less any funds needed for state operations to support outstanding awards as determined by the Department of Housing and Community Development, to be expended for the Multifamily Housing Program for supportive housing for a specified target population.

By authorizing additional moneys to be transferred to a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation.