2020 California Housing Highlights, Part 5: The ones that passed
California started the year with over 100 housing bills. In the end, just 13 bills were signed into law. Some of the others were reintroduced in 2021.
COVID Emergency Relief
AB1436 —Payment Extension for Rent & Mortgages: Makes it so that tenants cannot be evicted for unpaid rent from during COVID state of emergency, or 90 days after. The rent is converted into regular consumer debt. Defers mortgage payments.
Mobile Homes
SB915 — COVID protections for mobile homes: Bans evicting mobile home owners or tenants affected by COVID19 during a state of emergency and for 120 days after end of emergency.
AB2782 — Mobile Home rent control and protection against park closures: Requires 60 days notice, govt approval, relocation plan/payments when a mobile home park is closed. Requires impact mitigation to subdivide a MH park or floating home marina. Allows rent control on mobile home leases more than 1 year long. (This part was merged in from SB999)
Tenant & Homeowner Rights
AB2405 — Right to Housing: Declares and funds state policy that all children and families have a right to housing. Takes effect in 2026.
AB2463 — Ban on forced sale of home due to consumer debt: Bans forced sale of a home by someone a homeowner owes less than $75,000 of unsecured consumer debt to (such as medical debt, credit card debt, etc).
AB3182 — Right to Rent in HOAs: Homeowner associations would no longer be allowed to ban owners from renting out a house or condo.
SB1079 — Priority for owner-occupants, public, and nonprofits in foreclosure sales: Requires a seller to receive offers from tenants and potential owner-occupiers. Also prohibits the bundling of properties during an auction.
SB1157 — Optional credit reporting for tenants: Allows tenants in certain buildings who want to build a credit history to request that their landlord report their rent payments to a credit agency.
SB1190 — Right to end lease early for victims of violent crime: Allows tenants to end a lease early if they or an immediate family member is victim of a crime causing injury or death.
Regulating Short Term Rentals
SB1049 Raises the maximum fine for illegal short term rentals from $1000 to $5000.
Housing Production
AB725 — Missing Middle Zoning: requires cities to zone land for moderate income housing in existing neighborhoods rather than sprawl.
AB1851 — Yes on God’s Parking Lot: Allows reduction in parking at churches and other religious facilities when building housing on the lot. Only half the spaces need to remain.
AB2345 — Larger Density Bonus: increases maximum affordable housing density bonus from 35% to 50%.
AB3308 — Teacher & Public Employee Housing: Allows school districts to use affordable housing tax credit funding to build homes specifically for teachers and other public employees.
SB995 — CEQA Streamlining Extension and Expansion: Continues CEQA streamlining for large projects (over $100 million) for 4 more years. Extends streamlining to smaller projects ($15–100 million).
SB1085 — Zoning Concessions for Inclusionary Housing: makes it easier to get zoning concessions for buildings that contain some affordable housing. This bill previously also had bonuses for moderate income rental housing as well as decreases on impact fees charged by cities, but these have been removed.
SB1138 — Shelter Zoning: Reduces the number of restrictions or standards that cities can place on the opening of new emergency shelters.
SB1299 — Grants for Rezoning Shopping Centers: Creates incentive grants for cities to rezone commercial land for housing. The grants would make up for the loss of sales tax revenue.
SB1120 — Duplexes and Lot Splits: Allows duplexes or dividing a lot into 2 lots in non-rural single-family zones. It does not allow demolition of rent controlled homes or housing that has had a tenant in the last 3 years. More on that bill below:
Cleanup Bills
Two bills make minor edits to clarify bills passed last year.
AB3088 Corrects a cross-referencing error in last year’s AB1482 rent cap and tenant protection bill. SB1030 makes several minor changes to miscellaneous state housing laws.
