CalRHA Policy Update - October 2023
Legislative Update - Recap of Wins and Governor’s Action
Overall, CalRHA had a successful legislative year in that we were able to hold several problematic bills early in the year through the policy and fiscal committee process. A list of those bills that we successfully opposed and killed is below.
- AB 919 (Kalra) - Tenant Opportunity to Purchase
- AB 1035 (Muratsuchi) - Mobile Home Park Rent Cap
- ACA 3 (Lee) - Wealth Tax
- SB 395 (Wahab) - Statewide eviction database
- SB 440 (Skinner) - Regional Housing Authorities
- SB 460 (Wahab) - Ban the Box on Rental Applications
- SB 466 (Wahab) - Repeal of Costa-Hawkins Rental Act
- SB 594 (Durazo) - Disclosure of Beneficial Ownership Information
- SB 611 (Menjivar) - Rental Advertisements
- SB 863 (Allen) - Notice to Terminate
However, many reached the Governor’s desk where he has until October 14th to sign or veto legislation. So far, he has signed the following:
- AB 690 (Chen) - Legal Document and Unlawful Detainer Assistants - Extends the operation of the provisions of law regulating legal document assistants (LDAs) and unlawful detainer assistants (UDAs) from January 1, 2024, to January 1, 2030 - SUPPORT
- AB 1418 (McKinnor) - Tenancy: Local Regulations: Criminal Convictions - Limits the ability of local governments to adopt local ordinances, rules, policies, programs, or regulations to penalize a tenant's contact with law enforcement, or require landlords to adopt policies or procedures that do so.
- AB 1607 (Carillo) - LA County Affordable Solutions Act - Allows the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA) to transfer a portion of revenue raised by a tax measure to the County of Los Angeles for programs that provide support and services to prevent and combat homelessness.
- AB 1679 (Santiago) - Transaction and Use Taxes: County of LA - Authorizes Los Angeles County (LA County) to impose a transaction and use tax (TUT) that exceeds the 2% statutory limitation. - OPPOSE
- SB 48 (Becker) - Building Energy Savings Act- requires the California Energy Commission (CEC) along with other agencies, to develop a state strategy to achieve state goals for energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from existing buildings.
- SB 567 (Durazo) - Just Cause - Makes revisions to the no-fault just cause eviction provisions of the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (TPA) and provides additional enforcement mechanisms for violations of restrictions on residential rent increases and no-fault just cause evictions, to take effect April 1, 2024. - OPPOSE
- SB 712 (Portantino) - Micro Mobility Devices - Prohibits a landlord from prohibiting a tenant from owning personal micro mobility devices, as defined, or from storing and recharging up to one personal micro mobility device in their dwelling unit for each person occupying the unit.
The bills below have been vetoed by the Governor:
- AB 309 (Lee) - Social Housing Act - Creates the Social Housing Program (Program) within the Department of General Services (DGS) to identify and develop up to three social housing projects on state-owned surplus land deemed suitable for housing.
- AB 524 (Wicks) - Discrimination - Family Caregiver Status - Expands the protected characteristics under the Fair Employment and Housing Act's (FEHA) anti-discrimination provisions in employment to include family caregiver status. - OPPOSE
- AB 875 (Gabriel) - Courts: Reporting Data - Requires California courts to report aggregated data regarding unlawful detainer actions.
Finally, there are several bills still pending on the Governor’s desk, including:
- AB 12 (Haney) - 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. We did achieve a carve out for owners of up to 2 properties/4 units. - OPPOSE
- AB 548 (Boerner) - State Housing Law: Inspection - Requires local enforcement agencies to develop policies and procedures for inspecting multiple units in a building if an inspector or code enforcement officer has determined that a unit in that building is substandard or is in violation of state habitability standards. - OPPOSE
- AB 1317 (Carillo) - Unbundled Parking - Would require the owner of residential real property that provides parking with a residential unit to unbundle parking from the price of rent (“unbundled parking” selling or leasing parking spaces separate from the lease of the residential use). - OPPOSE
- AB 1332 (Carillo) - ADU Pre Approved Plans - Requires local governments to create a program for the pre-approval of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). - SUPPORT
- AB 1620 (Zbur) - Permanent Disabilities: Comparable Units - Allows a jurisdiction with rent control to require an owner of a rent-controlled unit to allow a tenant with a permanent physical disability to relocate to an available comparable or smaller unit located on an accessible floor of the property and retain their same rental rate. We negotiated amendments on this bill to remove opposition. - NEUTRAL
SB 71 (Umberg) - Small Claims and Limited Civil Case - This bill increases the amount in controversy limits for civil cases within the jurisdiction of the small claims court, as specified. This bill increases the limit on the amount in controversy for an action or special proceeding to be treated as a limited civil case. - SUPPORT
SB 267 (Eggman) - Credit of Persons Receiving Government 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. - OPPOSE
An issue that the Legislature did not fully address during session was the growing problem of insurance in the state. The Legislative leaders have said that they will continue to work on the issue this fall and going into next year.
Initiative Update
Two other constitutional amendments that were passed by the Legislature, but didn’t need a signature by the Governor are ACA 1 and ACA 13. Those bills had a large coalition of opposition, but were able to secure the required ⅔ vote of the Legislature. They will join the list of eligible initiatives for the November 5th, 2024 ballot. Top priorities for CalRHA are the Justice for Renters Act and Taxpayer Protection Act.
● ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry) - Voter Approval Threshold - ACA 1 lowers the voter threshold from a
two-thirds supermajority to 55% majority to approve local (city, county, and special district) GO bonds and certain special taxes for affordable housing, public infrastructure, and permanent supportive housing projects, and defines those terms. - OPPOSE
● ACA 13 (Haney) - Initiative Threshold - This measure would further provide that an initiative measure that includes one or more provisions that would amend the Constitution to increase the voter approval requirement to adopt any state or local measure would be approved by the voters only if the proportion of votes cast in favor of the initiative measure is equal to or greater than the highest voter approval requirement that the initiative measure would impose. The measure would specify that this voter approval requirement would apply to statewide initiative measures that appear on the ballot on or after January 1, 2024. - OPPOSE