Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that amends the requirements of zoning law relating to homeless shelters.

Highlights:

• Defines the “housing element” as the identification and analysis of existing and projected housing needs and a statement of goals, policies, quantified objectives, financial resources, and scheduled programs for the preservation, improvement, and development of housing (Sec. 1).

• Requires the housing element to contain (Sec. 1):

• An assessment of housing needs and an inventory of resources and constraints relevant to the meeting of these needs, which must include:

• An analysis of population and employment trends and documentation of projections and a quantification of the locality’s existing and projected housing needs for all income levels;

• An analysis and documentation of household characteristics, including level of payment compared to ability to pay, housing characteristics, including overcrowding, and housing stock condition;

• An inventory of land suitable and available for residential development, and an analysis of the relationship of zoning and public facilities and services to these sites;

• The identification of one or more zones or zoning designations that allow residential use, including mixed-use areas, where emergency shelters are allowed as a permitted use without a conditional use or other discretionary permit;

• An analysis of potential and actual governmental constraints upon the maintenance, improvement, or development of housing for all income levels;

• An analysis of potential and actual nongovernmental constraints upon the maintenance, improvement, or development of housing for all income levels;

• An analysis of any special housing needs, such as those of the elderly, persons with disabilities, large families, farmworkers, families with female heads of households, and families and persons in need of emergency shelter;

• An analysis of opportunities for energy conservation with respect to residential development; and

• An analysis of existing assisted housing developments that are eligible to change from low-income housing uses during the next 10 years due to termination of subsidy contracts, mortgage prepayment, or expiration of restrictions on use; 

• A statement of the community’s goals, quantified objectives, and policies relative to the maintenance, preservation, improvement, and development of housing; and

• A program that sets forth a schedule of actions during the planning period, each with a timeline for implementation, which must:

• Identify actions that will be taken to make sites available during the planning period with appropriate zoning and development standards and with services and facilities to accommodate that portion of the city’s or county’s share of the regional housing need for each income level that could not be accommodated on certain sites;

• Assist in the development of adequate housing to meet the needs of extremely low, very low, low-, and moderate-income households;

• Address and remove governmental and nongovernmental constraints to the maintenance, improvement, and development of housing, including housing for all income levels and housing for persons with disabilities;

• Conserve and improve the condition of the existing affordable housing stock;

• Promote and affirmatively further fair housing opportunities and promote housing throughout the community or communities for all persons regardless of race, religion, sex, marital status, ancestry, national origin, color, familial status, or disability;

• Preserve for lower income households the assisted housing developments;

• Develop a plan that incentivizes and promotes the creation of accessory dwelling units that can be offered at affordable rent for very low, low-, or moderate-income households;

• Include an identification of the agencies and officials responsible for the implementation of the various actions and the means by which consistency will be achieved with other general plan elements and community goals;

• Include a diligent effort by the local government to achieve public participation of all economic segments of the community in the development of the housing element; and

• Affirmatively further fair housing.

• Requires zones where emergency shelters are allowed, to include sites that meet at least one of the following standards (Sec. 1):

• Vacant sites zoned for residential use;

• Vacant sites zoned for nonresidential use that allow residential development and are proven to be connected to amenities and services that serve people experiencing homelessness; and 

• A nonvacant site, provided that a description is provided regarding the current use of each property at the time it is identified and an analysis is provided indicating how the site is adequate and available for use as a shelter in the current planning period, while meeting all of the state and local health, safety, habitability, and building requirements necessary for any other residential development.

Full Bill Text