Partners, Allies, Friends,

Saturday, August 31st, marked the final day for the Legislature to pass bills and send them to the Governor for his signature. Despite a challenging budget year, Housing California, the Residents United Network (RUN), and our coalition members advanced impactful legislation, including evidence-based solutions from the Roadmap Home 2030 policy agenda. These legislative wins show that when we work together, we can find powerful solutions to the state’s toughest problems.

Two of Housing California’s sponsored bills passed the Senate and Assembly and are on the Governor’s desk, AB 653 (Reyes) and AB 2430 (Alvarez). AB 653 (Reyes) will improve the Housing Choice Voucher Program by requiring new reporting and accountability measures for public housing authorities to make it easier for voucher holders to find housing. AB 2430 (Alvarez) will lower development costs by prohibiting local agencies from charging duplicative monitoring fees on 100% affordable density bonus developments.

Take Action: Please send in letters to the Governor requesting his signature on our two sponsored bills (email letter on your letterhead to leg.unit@gov.ca.gov):

• AB 653 (Reyes) Housing Voucher Utilization
• AB 2430 (Alvarez) Duplicative Monitoring Fees

Additionally, some priority bills that Housing California supported this year that have reached the Governor’s desk include:

• AB 1053 (Gabriel): Allows affordable housing developers to use HCD funds for construction financing and permanent financing.
• AB 1789 (Quirk-Silva): Helps preserve affordable housing by expanding access to rehabilitation dollars through HCD Portfolio Reinvestment Program to all developments at risk of losing their affordability covenant, while prioritizing at-risk HCD projects.
• AB 1820 (Schiavo): Will provide developers additional financial certainty and predictability by allowing a developer to request a preliminary fee and exaction estimate upon submitting a preliminary application for a housing development project and by requiring a city or county, upon final approval of a project, to provide an itemized list and estimate of all fees and exactions.
• AB 2023 (Quirk-Silva): Encourages compliance with State housing laws by creating a rebuttable presumption of invalidity for housing elements deemed non-compliant by HCD, raising the standard for jurisdictions to dispute or dismiss HCD’s determination of non-compliance.
• AB 2926 (Kalra): Helps preserve affordable housing by requiring owners who receive a bona fide purchase offer from a preservation buyer to accept the offer or re-restrict the property as affordable housing, among other to State Preservation Notice Law
• AB 3160 (Gabriel): Would increase affordable housing production by making a 5-year, $500m/year allocation to the enhanced state Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.
• SB 937 (Wiener): Prohibits a local agency from requiring the payment of certain types of impact fees until the date of final inspection or the date the certificate of occupancy is issued for 100% affordable projects and market-rate projects with 10 or less units.
• SB 1037 (Wiener): Strengthens enforcement of State housing laws by allowing courts, in cases brought by the Attorney General, to impose monetary penalties against cities or counties that violate State housing laws.

Two bills Housing California is opposed to also made it to the Governor’s desk. These include AB 3068 (Haney) and AB 3190 (Haney). AB 3190 (Haney) which requires prevailing wages to be applied to state Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. AB 3190 (Haney) is tied directly to AB 3160 (Gabriel), meaning that if one is vetoed then the other would be considered inoperative or dead/vetoed. AB 3068 (Haney) applies skilled and trained workforce requirements to adaptive reuse developments receiving ministerial approval.

For a full list of bills Housing California has engaged in this year please visit our website here.

The Governor has until 11:59 pm on Monday, September 30th to sign or veto these bills. Thank you to everyone who supported our priorities this legislative cycle. We look forward to working with our partners, people with lived experience, and legislators to craft solutions in 2025 that move us toward a California with homes, health, and prosperity for all.

In solidarity,

Housing CA Policy Team (Chris, Natalie, Divya, and Lauren)