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Bipartisan Bills to Respond to the Eviction Crisis Introduced |
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In late June, Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Rob Portman (R-OH), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Todd Young (R-IN) reintroduced a bill—S. 2182— to respond to the continuing crisis facing the nation’s renters. A companion bill will be introduced in the House by Representative Richie Torres (D-NY). The bill would:
- Reduce evictions by creating an Emergency Assistance Fund with $3 billion annually to provide financial assistance and stability services to low-income households facing displacement. Additionally, the bill would create a program for state and local governments to expand the use of landlord-tenant community courts. And it supports expanded funding for legal services.
- Improve data collection and analysis, including creating a national database that tracks evictions and standardizes data collection.
- Improve Information on Tenant Screening by enabling tenants to access their tenant screening reports to determine accuracy and requiring that tenants who successfully challenge an eviction have the filing removed from their report.
Any effort by the Federal or State government is welcome. California’s eviction protections expired on June 30th, and there are concerns that tens of thousands of renters who had applied for rental assistance from the State may now be at risk of eviction. While the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) reports that all applications for assistance were processed by the expiration date, other sources indicated that more than 135,000 tenants had their applications denied. Those that did not meet the earlier application deadline are already facing displacement.
Because the bill is bi-partisan, there is a good chance it will pass--it will need 60 votes in the Senate, so all Democrats and ten Republicans. To learn more about the Eviction Crisis Act, check out this comprehensive website from Senator Bennet.
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Congressmembers Propose Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2022 |
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Senator Bennet is also championing a new bill along with his colleagues Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) that seeks to protect veterans, military service members, and lower-income families from housing discrimination. Companion legislation was introduced in the House by Representative Scott Peters (D-CA).
The Fair Housing Improvement Act of 1968 protects groups from housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. The Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2022 expands on the 1968 law by adding source of income, veteran status, and military status to the list of protected classes. Specifically, the bill would prohibit landlords from denying housing to individuals with Section 8/ Housing Choice Vouchers or HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers, or other miscellaneous and lawful sources of income. Landlords have 40 months to comply with the law during which they can familiarize themselves with legal requirements and compliance.
Unfortunately, there are regular reports that income source is used as a reason to deny a rental application, so this bill is timely and needed. Like the Eviction Crisis Act, this bill will require 60 votes in the Senate to pass. See the press release and a link to the bill language here.
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Key Bills Move Forward as Legislature Leaves for July Recess
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The Legislature is taking a summer break from work after a busy June schedule. Those bills that made it out of the policy committee in the second house before June 30th lived to see another day. August will be another busy month, with a deadline of August 31st for each house to pass bills. The Governor then has until September 30th to sign or veto bills, or they become law without his signature. Here are a few key bills we are following:
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Produce Housing for All
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AB 1719 (Ward, District 78, San Diego): would enact the Community College Faculty and Employee Housing Act of 2022 to allow community college districts to restrict occupancy to their faculty and staff and still qualify for both Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Program and other State and local funds. While federal law does not allow employee housing that restricts occupancy to access LIHTCs, it does allow a state to identify a protected group, which this bill seeks to do. This bill would help many Community Colleges address their affordable housing and employee retention challenges.
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AB 2334 (Wicks, District 15, Berkeley): would expand the State’s Density Bonus Law by allowing housing developments to receive increased height and unlimited density if the project is in an urbanized very low vehicle miles traveled (VMT) area, as defined. Specifically, the bill allows height increases of up to three additional stories (or 33 feet) and limits a local jurisdiction’s ability to restrict density. To qualify, at least 80% of the homes would need to be restricted to occupancy by lower-income households, with the remaining homes restricted to moderate-income households. It is expected that the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research will soon release maps that identify very low VMT areas in Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) areas.
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AB 2097 (Friedman, District 43, Burbank): would prohibit local jurisdictions from imposing parking minimums on housing and commercial developments that are located within a half mile walking distance of public transit. Public transit is defined as being a major transit stop or a location along a high-quality transit corridor. Specifically, the requirements apply to residential development with 40 or fewer homes, mixed-use developments with 40 or fewer homes, residential or mixed-use development of any size that meets certain affordability requirements, or commercial or other development. If a developer chooses to provide parking, the bill would require that it include electric vehicle parking spaces as well as parking that is accessible to persons with disabilities. Hotels, motels, and other lodging must provide parking as required by local ordinances.
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Preserve Vulnerable Housing
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SB 490 (Caballero, District 12, Salinas): would establish the Community Anti-Displacement and Preservation Technical Assistance Program within the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to help qualified entities engaged in acquisition rehabilitation projects with technical assistance and best practices. Qualified organizations include nonprofit corporations, community land trusts, public housing authorities, housing cooperatives, resident associations, and local and regional government agencies. The bill requires an appropriation.
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Protect Tenants and Small Landlords
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SB 847 (Hurtado, District 14, Bakersfield): would create a grant program administered by HCD to provide grants to landlords who applied for rental assistance funding under the State Rental Assistance Program. Qualified landlords include those who have received a negative final decision, submitted a completed application but have not received a final decision, submitted a completed application but funding was unavailable or the entity had stopped accepting new applications, submitted an application but the tenant had already received the maximum allowable assistance, landlords whose tenant had submitted an application but the landlord was unable to finalize the application due to no fault of the landlord, and landlords who obtained a civil money judgement before June 1, 2022. This grant program requires an appropriation and would sunset on January 1, 2025.
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Promote Equity & Inclusion
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AB 1206 (Bennett, District 37, Santa Barbara): seeks to increase the feasibility of community land trusts by extending the welfare tax exemption to developments even when a renter’s income goes up to 140% of Area Median Income (AMI) as long as the owner is a community land trust and the unit continues to be restricted. If an occupant’s income exceeds 140% of AMI, the unit will no longer be considered a lower income unit and will not be eligible for the welfare tax exemption. This bill would sunset on June 30, 2028.
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Prevent Displacement
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SB 649 (Cortese, District 15, San Jose): would create the Local Tenant Preferences to Prevent Displacement Act to support local tenant preferences for affordable housing projects financed with state or local funds or tax programs, with the intent of reducing displacement of lower income households. The bill requires jurisdictions that choose to implement the law to enact an ordinance that clearly defines the tenants eligible for the preference, includes detailed findings that support the preference, provides a declaration that the ordinance complies with fair housing laws, and includes a detailed summary of policies and strategies that have been developed to address housing supply and equitable housing access.
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Hot off the Press! New ADU Report from the Terner Center
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The Terner Center on Housing Innovation and the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate just released a new report that details the financing options available to homeowners interested in building an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) and includes recommendations to improve existing mortgage products now available to homeowners. The authors found that the majority of homeowners that have built a new ADU have used cash or refinanced their homes to access cash and that changes to government financing loans are needed to encourage greater participation. Check out the report here!
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SCAG’s Housing Policy Leadership Academy Wins Achievement Award! |
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On June 14, SCAG’s Housing Policy Leadership Academy (HPLA) won the annual 2022 National Association of Regional Council’s (NARC) Major Metro Achievement Award, presented at the NARC Conference in Columbus, Ohio. Funded through the state’s REAP 1.0 grant, the HPLA is an online training for emerging and established community leaders from across the SCAG region to better understand how to advance policy solutions for increasing affordable housing. The course brings together people from different backgrounds and disciplines in monthly sessions to examine issues and solutions from multiple perspectives and apply their learning to current housing policy challenges. SCAG is partnering with the Global Policy Leadership Academy to organize this event.
To learn more about SCAG’s HPLA, visit scag.ca.gov/hpla. For more information about our sister company, the Global Policy Leadership Academy, visit https://gpla.co. To learn how you can bring a Housing Policy Leadership Academy to your community, contact Krista Phipps at [email protected].
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Your Feedback and Ideas are Important to Us
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LeSar wants to make sure we are always doing our best to make our newsletter more useful to you. Our team has created a short 5-minute survey to help us understand you better, run some new ideas by you, and see how frequently you’d like to receive a newsletter from us. The information you provide will help our team ensure we are providing the best offerings and content to you. Thank you in advance for taking time to share your thoughts with us!
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Need Help Understanding the Funding and Policy Landscape? |
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With continuous competition for financial investments from public and private sources, organizations are faced with the ongoing challenge of identifying new approaches and revenue streams to fund their programs and initiatives.
LDC’s Capital Mapping Subscription Service enables organizations to position themselves strategically by identifying funding sources from federal, state, local, philanthropic, and private entities and tracking applicable legislation to identify relevant trends. The service provides a synopsis of each opportunity, including a rolling 24-month timeline with critical milestones (for example, proposed and final funding guidelines, workshops, submittal due dates) to support the client’s strategic goals. Additional services available upon request include strategic assistance in acquiring and applying for funding and deep-dives on specific topics of interest.
To learn more and obtain custom pricing, contact Jacqueline Woo, Senior Associate, at [email protected]
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