SB179 - Housing.

Amended IN Assembly June 26, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Senate Bill No. 179 Introduced by Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review January 23, 2025 An act relating to the Budget Act of 2025. An act to amend Section 8869.84 of the Government Code, to amend Sections 17929, 18942, 50220, 50220.5, 50220.7, 50220.8, 50223, 50230, 50233, 50235, 50239, 50240, 50241, 50242, 50517.5, 50517.8, 50675, 50675.4, 50675.6, and 50675.15 of, to add Section 50246 to, to add Chapter 3.1 (commencing with Section 50160) to Part 1 of, to add Chapter 6.9 (commencing with Section 51349.1) to Part 3 of, and to add Part 18 (commencing with Section 54920) to, Division 31 of, the Health and Safety Code, to amend Sections 75200.2, 75200.3, 75210, 75212, 75214, 75215, 75216, 75217, 75218, 75218.1, and 75218.2 of, to amend, renumber, and add Section 75200 of, to add Sections 75210.1, 75210.2, 75210.3, and 75212.1 to, and to repeal Section 75200.1 of, the Public Resources Code, and to amend Section 8257 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to housing, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 179, as amended, Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review. Budget Act of 2025. Housing. (1) Existing law establishes the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency consisting of various state entities, including the Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Housing Finance Agency. Pursuant to the Governor’s Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 2025, beginning July 1, 2026, existing law eliminates that agency and establishes the California Housing and Homelessness Agency consisting of various state entities, including the Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Housing Finance Agency. Existing law requires these entities to oversee and administer various state housing programs, including multifamily affordable housing programs. This bill would, to the extent feasible, require a state entity within the California Housing and Homelessness Agency to consider quantifiable in-kind local contributions, defined as a financial or in-kind commitment by a city, county, or city and county, as specified, when awarding competitive multifamily affordable housing funding for new construction projects, as specified. If a city, county, or city and county is a lead applicant for a project in an affordable multifamily rental or ownership housing development administered by a state entity within that agency and has not committed to waiving any development impact fee, as defined, that it would otherwise impose on the project, the bill would require the awarding agency to reduce the total award amount for the project, as specified. The bill would make these provisions applicable to any notice of funding opportunity issued after July 1, 2027. (2) Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program (HHAP) for the purpose of providing jurisdictions with grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges, as specified. Existing law provides for the allocation of funding under the program among continuums of care, cities, counties, and tribes in 6 rounds and establishes round 7 of the program and states the intent of the Legislature to enact future legislation that specifies the parameters, as specified. Existing law provides for certain of those remaining amounts of those program allocation funds that have not been expended by certain dates, including by reverting those funds to the General Fund. This bill would require those remaining amounts to be returned to the department for reallocation in a specified procedure, including via a subsequent notice of funding availability. By modifying existing appropriations, this bill would make an appropriation. (3) Existing law requires applicants for a round 3 or 4 program allocation to establish certain system performance measures to prevent and reduce homelessness. Existing law requires those measures to set definitive metrics for achieving certain goals, including reducing the number of persons experiencing homelessness. This bill would instead require those measures to include, among other things, the number of people experiencing homelessness who are accessing services, and would require applicants to also track demographic data with respect to age, gender, race, and ethnicity for each of those measures. (4) Existing law establishes eligibility requirements for jurisdictions to receive a round 5 or 6 program allocation, including being a signatory to a regionally coordinated homelessness action plan. Existing law requires that plan to include, among other things, the most recent system performance metrics for the region, including the number of people experiencing homelessness. This bill would instead require the most recent system performance measures for each region to include, among other things, the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness on a single night, and would require applicants to also track demographic data with respect to age, gender, race, and ethnicity for each of those system performance measures. (5) Existing law requires applicants to provide certain information for all rounds of program allocations through a data collection, reporting, performance monitoring, and accountability framework, as established by the Department of Housing and Community Development. Existing law requires each recipient that receives a round 6 allocation to submit to the department, no later than April 1, 2030, a final report, as specified. This bill would make changes to those data requirements. The bill would require each recipient that receives a round 7 allocation to submit to the department, no later than April 1, 2034, a final report, as specified. (6) Existing law, through round 6 of HHAP, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to make available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, $1 billion in the 2024–25 fiscal year for the implementation of the program. Existing law, through round 7 of HHAP, beginning July 1, 2026, appropriates $500,000,000, less a certain amount, for the program, to be disbursed in accordance with certain conditions, including the enactment of legislation declaring that it addresses certain issues. This bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to make available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the above-described $900,000,000, for round 7 of HHAP, to be administered as additional disbursements of round 6, as provided. (7) Existing law requires applicants for a round 6 base program allocation to submit an application with certain information within 180 days from the date the department makes the application available. Existing law requires the department to approve the application or return it to the applicant with written detailed comments and request one or more amendments to the application. After approval of the application, existing law requires the department to disburse 50% of the eligible city’s, county’s, or continuum of care’s total allocation, subject to meeting certain conditions. Existing law requires the department to disburse the remaining 50% of the recipient’s total allocation after demonstrative compliance with certain conditions. This bill would similarly require the department to make 2 50% disbursements of a recipient’s total round 7 program allocation, subject to the recipient meeting certain conditions. The bill would also make conforming changes. (8) Existing law, the Governor’s Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 2025, beginning July 1, 2026, eliminates the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and instead establishes the Business and Consumer Services Agency and the California Housing and Homelessness Agency. The plan also, among other things, establishes the California Interagency Council on Homelessness as an independent entity within the California Housing and Homelessness Agency and renames the existing council as the California Interagency Executive Council on Homelessness, which it establishes within the California Interagency Council on Homelessness. Existing law requires the goals of the Interagency Council on Homelessness to include, among other things, creating a statewide data system or warehouse, known as the Homeless Data Integration System. To further the efforts to improve the public health, safety, and welfare of people experiencing homelessness in the state, existing law authorizes council staff to collect certain data from continuums of care. This bill would partially effect the above-described changes made by the plan. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2026, require council staff to adopt and periodically publish system performance measures, including age, racial, and ethnic disparities for each measure, as specified. (9) Existing law authorizes the California Housing Finance Agency to, among other things, make loans to finance affordable housing, including residential structures, housing developments, multifamily rental housing, special needs housing, and other forms of housing, as specified. This bill would require the California Housing Finance Agency to establish the Disaster Rebuilding Assistance Program, to be administered by the agency, for the purpose of supporting construction, reconstruction, and renovation loans for properties damaged or destroyed in a qualified disaster. This bill would create in the State Treasury the Disaster Rebuilding Fund, to be administered by the agency and continuously appropriated for purposes of the program, and would provide that the moneys deposited in the fund may include, among other things, appropriations from the Legislature from the General Fund or other state fund. By creating a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. (10) The Governor’s Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 2025, among other things, establishes the Housing Development and Finance Committee on July 1, 2026, and prescribes its duties. The plan establishes the Housing Development and Finance Executive Committee, with a specified membership, within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and prescribes its duties, and then transfers it to the Housing Development and Finance Committee, on July 1, 2026. The plan defines various terms for these purposes. Existing law requires the Legislative Counsel to prepare for introduction a bill effecting changes made by a Governor’s reorganization plan, as specified, for the purpose of ensuring that statutory law is amended to conform with the changes made by the reorganization plan. This bill would effect the above-described changes made by the plan. The bill, however, would add additional voting and nonvoting members to the executive committee, and would exempt the executive committee from compliance with the procedural requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act in adopting, amending, or repealing rules and regulations reasonably necessary to carry out the provisions related to its establishment and to the allocation of the executive committee’s share of the state ceiling for qualified residential rental projects, as described, except as provided. The bill would require the Housing Development and Finance Committee staff to support the Housing Development and Finance Executive Committee. The bill would specify that certain meetings of the Housing Development and Finance Committee would be subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, but certain other meetings would not be considered “meetings” for the purposes of that act, thereby imposing a limitation on the public’s right of access to the meetings of public bodies. The bill would eliminate a requirement that the Housing Development and Finance Committee submit to the Department of Justice fingerprint images and related information for any employee, prospective employee, contractor, or subcontractor whose duties include, or would include, access to specified confidential or personally identifiable information. The bill would require the executive committee to annually submit supplemental information to specified committee of the Legislature regarding bond utilization, among other information, as provided, and to evaluate certain project monitoring fees, as specified. The bill would also require the executive committee, beginning in 2028, to prepare an annual demand survey to assess demand for the Housing Development and Finance Committee housing bond allocation, as provided. The bill would also make various technical changes. Existing law generally implements the state volume limit established pursuant to specified federal law. Existing law establishes the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee and requires the committee to determine and announce the state ceiling for the calendar year, as specified. Existing law allocates the entire state ceiling for each calendar year to the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee to further allocate to state and local agencies, as specified. This bill would, beginning January 1, 2027, and until January 1, 2037, require the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee to dedicate a minimum of 90% of the entire state ceiling to be used for qualified residential rental projects, as specified. The bill would require the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, until July 1, 2029, to reserve at least one-half of that 90% to qualified residential rental projects, as defined, awarded funding by the Housing Development and Finance Committee. After July 1, 2029, if that reserve amount is not reauthorized by the Legislature, the bill would require the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee to reserve at least 40% of that 90% for those qualified residential rental projects, unless the annual demand survey prepared by the Housing Development and Finance Executive Committee, as described above, demonstrates demand exceeding that amount, in which case, under the bill, the reserve amount would be automatically increased up to 50% of that 90% to meet the demand. This bill, with respect to the reserve described above, would require the Housing Development and Finance Committee, upon approving an application for a multifamily affordable housing program award that has also requested a qualified residential rental project bond allocation, to identify the issuer and transmit the application to the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, and, when applicable, to the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. The bill would require those latter committees, as specified, to make a ministerial allocation of private activity bonds for the project, provided the project meets applicable federal requirements. The bill, until November 1, 2027, would provide a separate process for a private activity bond allocation for projects that received a multifamily [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]