City Council Meeting:
Agenda Item: 8-A
To: Mayor and City Council
From Kathryn
Vernez, Assistant to the City Manager for Community and Government Relations
Subject: Legislative Positions on State Housing
Legislation
Recommended Action
Staff
recommends the City Council take support positions on a variety of State
housing proposals.
Executive Summary
The City
has a long history of legislative advocacy on housing issues that assist in preserving
and providing affordable housing and protecting tenant rights. Several bills
related to these issues have been introduced in the State Legislature. City
Council review and support of these measures is requested. In addition, other
legislative proposals are under review by City staff, the State lobbyists and
the appropriate City Commissions and maybe brought to Council for action in the
future.
Discussion
Background
On April
10, 2007, Councilmember Kevin McKeown requested support for a variety of State
legislative housing measures. This report evaluates the measures through a
coordinated interdepartmental approach.
SB
464 (Kuehl) – Ellis Act: Preventing Speculators from Taking Advantage of
Renters
Through “Ellis Act” rights, property
owners may leave the rental business, in the process evicting tenants from the
property notwithstanding any local rent control laws. SB 464 limits the ability
to exercise these rights to cases where the owner has owned the property for at
least five years. The bill would also extend the time period given to tenants
to vacate the property from 120 days to one year, if there is at least one
senior or disabled person eligible to request that extension.
Staff Comments:
SB 464 is intended to reduce real
property speculation in the rental market and forestall the further loss of the
affordable housing stock. The bill’s sponsor, the Western Center on Law and
Poverty, asserts that SB 464’s five-year holding requirement would have
affected almost 79% of the buyers who withdrew from the rental market Statewide
in the last five years and would have prevented (or delayed) loss of 16,000
affordable housing units. Since 2002,
Staff recommends support for SB 464.
SB
900 (Corbett) –
SB 900 eliminates
removal of rent control on mobile home park conversions by repealing the
existing exemption to the Subdivision Map Act. The bill deletes existing law
that prescribes the process for avoiding the displacement of nonpurchasing
residents when subdividing a mobilehome park into individual, resident-owned lots,
leaving the mitigation of impacts from these conversions on nonpurchasing
residents to individual local governments.
Staff Comments:
This
measure provides local government approval/disapproval, protections and
mitigations to mitigate adverse impacts of any mobilehome park conversion so
that displaced residents will be able to find adequate space in a mobilehome
park.
Staff recommends support for SB 900.
AB 607
(Brownley) – Residential Hotels: Locking Mail Receptacles
AB 607 mandates
lockable mailboxes for each residential unit, including low and very low income
residential hotels.
Staff Comments:
This bill requires
provision of residential hotel units with a locking mailbox acceptable to the
US Post office, enhancing the habitability of residential hotels for all
residents. AB 607 also authorizes local governments to make and enforce
ordinances that provide greater protections with respect to habitability of
residential units, effectively making any residential unit without a locking
mail receptacle uninhabitable.
Staff recommends support for SB 607.
AB 641
(Torrico) - Developer Fees
AB 641 prohibits
local agencies from collecting locally-imposed developer fees prior to the date
of final inspection or the date the certificate of occupancy is issued
(whichever comes first) for units reserved for low income households.
Staff Comments:
AB 641
provides a “time of payment” benefit for the construction of low income housing
produced by non-profit developers such that fees are not required to be paid
until the date of final inspection, or the date the certificate of occupancy is
issued whichever comes first. Therefore the bill gives fee deferral incentives
to low income housing produced by non-profit developers.
Staff recommends support for AB 641.
AB 864 (
AB 864 requires
that any entity acquiring ownership interest in a property with uncorrected
substandard building violations report the change in ownership to the
enforcement agency upon completion of sale or closure of escrow. Failure to comply with reporting requirements
would be considered a misdemeanor subject to fines and/or imprisonment.
Staff Comments:
AB 864 makes
failure to comply with reporting requirements a misdemeanor, thereby ensuring
that building code enforcement agencies are able to continue enforcement
efforts effectively.
Staff recommends support for AB 864.
AB 987 (Jones) – Low & Moderate Income
Housing Fund: Affordability Covenants & Restrictions
AB 987 allows for more strict enforcement of
low income housing covenants on redevelopment projects, such that the covenants
and restrictions be enforceable by a person or family of low or moderate
income.
Staff
Comments:
This bill would apply two additional
requirements upon the Redevelopment Agency (“Agency”) to ensure that units
developed or assisted by moneys from Housing Set-Aside Funds (“Housing Funds”)
remain affordable. The first
requirement, the recording provision, seeks to improve notification of
affordability requirements by requiring, concurrent with the recordation of the
covenants, the recording of a separate and more easily identifiable document
that solely recites the nature and duration of affordability restrictions. The second requirement, preparation of a list
of covenants and restrictions, involves annually compiling and updating an
inventory of existing affordability covenants and restrictions on all parcels
and units that were developed or otherwise assisted with Housing Funds for
public information. In addition to these
requirements, AB 987 includes a legal standing provision, which provides low to
moderate income persons, with a direct interest in the housing, as actual or
potential tenants or owners, the ability to bring an action to enforce the
covenant.
The Western Center on Law and Poverty
(sponsor) and other housing advocates contend these amendments are necessary
because: 1) Under the existing system, affordability covenants are too often
buried in the longer recording instruments; 2) Despite current recording
requirements, subsequent buyers may purchase restricted properties unaware of
affordability restrictions and breach restrictions without penalties; and 3)
Under existing law, only the redevelopment agency or some other public entity
has standing to enforce affordability covenants but some are reluctant or unable
to enforce these covenants.
Currently, the Agency’s existing policies
and procedures concerning affordable housing developments include recording
regulatory agreements, which specifically reference affordability covenants and
restrictions, and monitoring of affordable units and tenant incomes, which are
conducted by the City’s Housing Division.
Since the additional requirements of AB 987 can be implemented without
difficulty and because the Agency desires to support initiatives which seek to
preserve affordable housing, staff recommends a support position on this bill.
Staff recommends support for AB 987.
AB 1542
(Evans) – Mobilehome Parks: Conversions
AB 1542
provides greater protection of displaced tenants in conversions of mobilehome
parks to condominium properties by deleting a provision of an existing law that
exempted this type of conversion from a requirement to find adequate
replacement space for non-purchasing residents.
Staff Comments
AB 1542
ensures that property owners will not be able to circumvent rent control
regulations during conversions of rental mobilehome parks to resident-owned
properties.
Staff recommends support for AB 1542.
Summary
This series
of legislation will work to strengthen tenant rights and preservation of
affordable housing efforts.
Budget/Financial Impact
There is no financial
impact for the City associated in taking these legislative positions.
Prepared by:
Bob Moncrief, Housing & Redevelopment Manager
Kathryn Vernez, Assistant to the City Manager for Community &
Government Relations
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Approved: |
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Forwarded to Council: |
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Kathryn
Vernez Assistant to the City Manager for
Community & Government Relations |
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P. City
Manager |