The California Housing Consortium released a list of housing-related bills to watch:
- Recognizing the extremely high cost of developing housing in California, the state Housing Credit augments the federal Housing Credit, enabling low-income housing developers to raise project equity by providing tax benefits to private investors. AB 35 (Chiu) increases the amount of credit available by $300 million, thereby leveraging an additional $600 million in federal funds.
- The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA)authorized the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to allow transfers to fund the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) to support of activities to preserve and grow the affordable housing supply for extremely low- and very low-income households. Money will begin flowing to the fund in 2016. AB 90 (Atkins) creates a framework for how California will spend the funds it receives.
- AB 1056 (Atkins) allocates a portion of the Proposition 47 funds to reduce recidivism through investment in rapid rehousing and housing supports for formerly incarcerated Californians.
- AB 1335 (Atkins) – the Building Homes and Jobs Act – establishes a dedicated source of funding for affordable housing by placing a small fee on real estate documents, excluding home sales. These funds would be used for the development, acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of housing, including transitional and permanent rental housing, workforce housing, supportive services, foreclosure mitigation, and homeownership programs.
- Amendments to AB 72 (Bonta) and SB 36 (Hernandez) are currently being worked on, which could allow certain housing and housing-related services to be funded through health plan savings. These bills are directing the Medicaid Waiver Renewal and, once approved, will need approval from the federal government.
- AB 744 (Chau), currently in spot bill form, will create additional incentives within density bonus law to encourage affordable housing development.
