CalRHA Legislative Update - March

Legislative Update from CalRHA

We are now past the legislative bill introduction deadline of February 17th and it is clear that 2023 is going to be a busy year on the legislative front. Governor Newsom has stated that housing and homelessness are his top priorities for the year and it is also a priority for the Legislature, based on the sheer number of bills that have been introduced on the subject.

The CalRHA President, Legislative Chair and Vice-Chair, as well as the PAC Chair came to Sacramento in February to begin outreach, education, and advocacy on both bills and the budget. We met with the Governor’s Office, Leadership, key committees, and several members of the Legislature.

A top priority for CalRHA will be the attacks on Costa-Hawkins. Senator Aisha Wahab (D-Fremont) has introduced SB 466 to repeal major provisions of the Costa-Hawkins Act, and we will know more if the proposal is viable as the legislative session progresses. SB 466 comes on the heals of a proposed initiative measure, the Justice for Renters Act, supported by Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which repeals Costa-Hawkins and is slated for the 2024 ballot. It is worth noting that Governor Newsom was against Proposition 21, a prior rent control initiative. There have been over 2,600 bills introduced this year, which is the most in at least a decade. In addition to SB 466 on Costa-Hawkins, there are many others that will be a top priority for CalRHA, including:  

• AB 12 (Haney, D-San Francisco) - Tenancy: Security Deposits - Would prohibit a landlord from receiving a security deposit for a rental agreement in an amount in excess of one month’s rent, regardless of whether the residential property is unfurnished or furnished.
• AB 59 (Gallaher, R-Chico) - Taxation: Renter’s Tax Credit - Would increase the renter’s tax credit to $2,000 for spouses filing joint returns, heads of households, and surviving spouses and $1,000 for other individuals.
• AB 875 (Gabriel, D-Woodland Hills) - Courts: Data Reporting - Would require courts to report specified information to the Judicial Council regarding unlawful detainer cases and summary data on COVID-19 rental debt in small claims court, by ZIP code.
• AB 932 (Ting, D-San Francisco) - Junior ADU: Application Approval Time - Would streamline ADU applications from 60-days to 45-days. 
•  AB 1097 (L. Rivas, D-Arleta) - Credit History of Persons Receiving Government Rent Subsidies - Would require housing providers to consider alternative evidence in lieu of the person’s credit history in determining rental accommodations.
• AB 1418 (McKinnor, D-Inglewood) - Tenancy: Local regulations - Would prohibit a local government from imposing a penalty against a resident, owner, tenant, landlord, or other person as a consequence of contact with a law enforcement agency and prohibit a local government from requiring or encouraging a landlord to perform a criminal background check of a tenant or a prospective tenant or to evict or penalize a tenant because of the tenant’s association with another tenant or household member who has had contact with a law enforcement agency or has a criminal conviction.
• AB 1505 (Rodriguez, D-Chino) - Seismic Retrofit: Multifamily Housing - Would direct $250 million from the General Fund for seismic retrofit for multifamily housing.
• ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry, D-Woodland) - Local government financing: affordable housing and public infrastructure: voter approval - Would lower the necessary voter threshold from a two-thirds supermajority to 55 percent to approve local general obligation (GO) bonds and special taxes for affordable housing and public infrastructure projects.
• SB 267 (Eggman, D-Stockton) - Credit History of Persons Receiving Government Rent Subsidies - would prohibit the use of a person’s credit history as part of the application process for a rental housing accommodation without offering the applicant the option of providing alternative evidence of financial responsibility and ability to pay in instances in which there is a government rent subsidy and would require that the housing provider consider that alternative evidence in lieu of the person’s credit history.
• SB 460 (Wahab, D-Fremont) - Hiring of real property: Criminal History - Would prohibit a housing provider from inquiring about an applicant’s criminal history, requiring an applicant to disclose their criminal history, or requiring an applicant to authorize the release of their criminal history, or basing any adverse action on information contained in an applicant’s criminal history, unless they are complying with federal law.
• SB 555 (Wahab, D-Fremont) - Would create the Social Housing Act of 2023
• SB 569 (Glazer, D-Orinda) - Renter’s Tax Credit - Would require that the Franchise Tax Board recompute the renters tax credit for inflation and refund for tax years 2023-2028. 

There are also several notable “spot” or placeholder bills, including:

•  AB 309 (Lee, D-Milpitas) - Spot bill on Social Housing.
•  AB 831 (Nguyen, D-Elk Grove) - Spot bill on Housing Discrimination - Would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation on housing discrimination, including increasing enforcement pathways to address source of income discrimination against recipients of federal housing assistance vouchers.
• AB 1438 (Carillo, D-Palmdale) - Spot bill to make changes to the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Act.
• AB 1658 (Santiago, D-LA) - Spot bill on housing discrimination.
• SB 37 (Caballero, D-Salinas) - Spot bill to create the Older Adults and Adults with Disabilities Housing Stability Act.
• SB 395 (Wahab, D-Fremont) - Statewide eviction database - Would state the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation that would require landlords to report all evictions to a new statewide eviction reporting database.
• SB 398 (Wahab, D-Fremont) - Spot bill on rent skimming.
• SB 567 (Durazo, D-Los Angeles) - Spot bill on tenancy.
• SB 863 (Allen, D-Los Angeles) - Spot bill dealing with compelled rent or lease.

As always, CalRHA will keep you informed as these bills make their way through the Legislature. We will be sure to send out Calls to Action when we are at a pivotal juncture and your involvement could determine the outcome. 

About CalRHA

The California Rental Housing Association represents 24,000 members totaling more than 653,000 units, made up of small, medium and large rental housing owners throughout the State of California.