2022 California Housing Legislation Highlights

Latest Update: May 31, 2022
This is the summary for 2022. For past years: 2021, 2020, 2019

Bills as introduced in March 2022. Click to enlarge

Bills still active as of May 31, 2022. Click to enlarge

11x17 PDFs
March 27, 2022
May 31, 2022

Wildfires

SB 1292 (Stern) Allows cities to limit development in fire hazard zones & replacing the zoned capacity elsewhere. For every unit of zoned capacity removed from a fire zone, 2 units of capacity must be added elsewhere. — Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2705 (Quirk-Silva) Fire hardening & retrofitting standards. Also provides funding for hardening 300,000 homes in very high fire hazard zones. Passed Assembly 73–0

General Plan Housing Elements

AB 1445 (Levine) Requires fire, sea level rise, evacuation risk to be considered in determining each city’s share of regional housing goals. Passed Assembly 57–16
AB 1976 (Santiago) Allows state to fine and rezone cities that don’t zone enough land for apartments. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2339 (Bloom) Unmet housing goals from previous planning cycles are carried over and added to goals of next planning cycle. Also requires cities to allow homeless shelters in more zones. Passed Assembly 55–16
AB 2653 (Wicks) Allows state to reject cities’ housing element annual reports that don’t meet state guidelines. Passed Assembly 55–19

Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)

SB 897 (Wieckowski) Requires cities to allow 2-story ADUs up to 25' tall, also allows reduction of parking requirements in multifamily buildings where garages are converted into ADUs. Passed Senate 24–9
AB 916 (Salas) Requires cities to allow 2-story ADUs up to 18' tall, also allows adding bedrooms without public hearings. Passed Assembly 61–0
AB 2221 (Quirk-Silva) Cleanup edits of previous ADU laws. Passed Assembly 74–0
AB 2430 (Grayson) Allow tiny houses on wheels to be used as ADUs. Inactive. Held in Committee

Parking

SB 1067 (Portantino) No parking required for housing if at least 20% of the units are low or moderate income housing or housing for students, the elderly, or persons with disabilities, or if less than 20 units. Applies to sites within 1/2 mile of a major transit stop. Passed Senate 23–8
AB 2097 (Friedman) No parking needed for housing, businesses, or other development within 1/2 mile of a major transit stop or high quality transit corridor. Passed Assembly 47–20
AB 2244 (Wicks) Reduction in parking requirements for sites with housing & religious buildings. Passed Assembly 76–0

Zoning

SB 6 (Caballero) Housing in office/retail zones. Passed Senate 32–2 in 2021. Likely to have been superseded by AB2011.
AB 2011 (Wicks) Streamlined approval for housing with at least 15% affordable units and prevailing wage, located in commercial zones. Projects with 50 or more units also to provide apprenticeships and healthcare benefits for workers. Passed Assembly 48–11
AB 682 (Bloom) Density bonuses for cohousing with shared kitchens. Note that cohousing in this bill is defined as bedrooms with shared common areas, such as a residential hotel or dorm. Passed Assembly 52–8
SB 1369 (Wieckowski) Conversion of commercial, industrial, and public buildings to housing would be allowed by right in any zone. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 1551 (Santiago) Density bonus for mixed use commercial projects that include affordable housing. Passed Assembly 61–0
AB 2619 (Patterson) Making it easier to open a residential care facility for more than 6 people. Inactive. Held in Committee

Project Approvals

AB 1952 (Gallagher) Faster approval for projects that receive funding from the state’s Infill Infrastructure Grant Program of 2019. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2218 (Quirk-Silva) Requires people to be living within 20 miles of a infill project site to file a CEQA lawsuit against it. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2234 (Robert Rivas) Faster approval of building permits. Passed Assembly 74–0

Reducing Costs

AB 1056 (Grayson) Program to invest in industrialized housing / modular housing. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2513 (Grayson) State program to reduce construction defect insurance costs. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2063 (Berman) Removes affordable housing impact fees on density bonus units. Inactive. Held in Appropriations.

Homeownership

AB 1837 (Mia Bonta) Helps occupants & nonprofits buy foreclosed homes, limits investor buying. Passed Assembly 55–18
AB 2013 (Quirk-Silva) State plan to increase homeownership among people of color. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2123 (Villapudua) Housing grants for healthcare workers in areas that have a shortage of healthcare workers. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2166 (Mayes) Sets aside 30% of federal Community Development Block Grant money for helping low & moderate income homebuyers. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2170 (Grayson) Gives current & future occupants & nonprofits priority in buying foreclosed 1–4 unit buildings. Passed Assembly 76–0

Homelessness

SB 513 (Hertzberg) Funding for pet facilities, food, & health at homeless shelters. Passed Senate 36–0
SB 914 (Rubio) Goal to end homelessness among domestic violence survivors, their children, & unaccompanied women. Passed Senate 37–0
SB 1083 (Skinner) Grants to prevent homelessness for families & pregnant people. Passed Senate 39–0
AB 1685 (Bryan) Waiver of parking fines for people who are homeless, up to $1500 per person per year. Passed Assembly 74–0
AB 2011 (Quirk-Silva) Funding for RV parks and subsidies for RV dwellers. Gut and amended into a housing production bill
AB 2325 (Luz Rivas) Interagency coordination to end homelessness. Inactive. Held in Appropriations
AB 2483 (Maienschein) Prioritizing funding for housing that contains at least 25 units for elderly people who are homeless. Also provides assistance for people with disabilities to live in their own homes. Passed Assembly 74–0
AB 2547 (Nazarian) Grants to prevent homelessness for older adults & people with a disability. Passed Assembly 56–7
AB 2623 (Villapudua) Allows exception to Housing First policy to allow sober housing in facilities that have children. Inactive. Held in Committee

Tenant Applications

SB 649 (Cortese) Preference for local residents at risk of displacement in getting spots in affordable housing. Passed Senate 37–0
SB 1026 (Wieckowski) Energy efficiency disclosure for rental housing. Passed Senate 22–9
SB 1335 (Eggman) No credit checks / credit history reports required for tenants receiving subsidies such as section 8 vouchers. Passed Senate 29–5
AB 1816 (Bryan) Re-entry housing for people released from jail or prison, including grants for applicants, incentives for landlords, and rent assistance. Passed Assembly 58–17
AB1961 (Gabriel) Centralized website for searching for and applying for affordable housing throughout the state.Passed Assembly 76–0
AB 2203 (Luz Rivas) No credit checks / credit history reports required for tenants receiving subsidies such as section 8 vouchers. Inactive. Held on Assembly floor
AB 2297 (Wicks) Regulations for landlords who offer tenants the option of paying a monthly fee instead of a one-time security deposit. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2383 (Jones-Sawyer) Bans asking about criminal record on initial application. Landlords can still do a follow-up background check and reject applicants based on record. Passed Assembly 43–20
AB 2527 (Quirk-Silva) Bans the use of credit checks for the purpose of qualifying for rental housing. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2559 (Ward) Requires landlords to note whether they accept reusable credit / tenant screening reports. Prohibits landlords from charging fees if using the reusable reports. Passed Assembly 54–8

Renaming Things

AB 2503 (Cristina Garcia) Amended to create a commission to study whether to continue to the use of “Landlord” and “tenant” in state laws, or use other words. Passed Assembly 54–15

Tenant Protections

SB 843 (Glazer) Bigger state tax refunds (California Renters Tax Credit) for low income renters. Increases it from $60 to $500 for individuals, from $120 to $1000 for couples and heads of households. Passed Senate 37–0
SB 847 (Hurtado) Grants for landlords who participated in the COVID rent relief program. Passed Senate 35–0
SB 971 (Newman) Allows pets in new affordable housing buildings. Passed Senate 30–1
SB 1017 (Eggman) Protecting domestic violence survivors from eviction. Passed Senate 28–9
AB1858 (Quirk-Silva) Extends health and safety regulations to substandard buildings that people live in, even if they are not officially residential use.Inactive. Held in Appropriations
AB 2050 (Lee) Limits on when the Ellis Act can be used to close an apartment building and evict everyone. Owners would have to have owned the building for at least 5 years. Exception for individuals that own no more than 4 homes. Held on Assembly floor.
AB 2179 (Grayson) Extension of emergency COVID tenant protections. Passed and signed into law on March 31, 2022
AB 2240 (Muratsuchi) Rent cap & protections for mobile homes. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2597 (Bloom) Right to air conditioning / cooling. Passed Assembly 48–21
AB 2710 (Kalra) Opportunity for tenants to purchase when bldg is sold., either themselves or with a nonprofit. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2713 (Wicks) Limits on owner move-in & Ellis Act evictions. Owner would have to intend to live in unit for at least 3 consecutive years, and cannot be already living in a different unit on the same property. Owners that want to evict tenants to demolish or remodel a building would have to obtain permits before filing the eviction. Inactive. Held on Assembly floor

Green Building

AB 2446 (Holden) Reducing carbon emissions from the manufacturing of building materials. 80% reduction by 2045. Passed Assembly 46–17

Ballot Measures

SCA 2 (Allen) Eliminates requirement that public housing be approved by ballot measure. Passed Senate 37–0
SCA 9 (Gonzalez) Creates a right to housing. Inactive. Held in Committee
ACA 14 (Wicks) $10 billion/year for affordable housing and housing the homeless. Inactive. Held in Appropriations
AB 411 (Irwin) $600 million bond for veterans’ housing. Passed Assembly 76–0
SB 1457 (Hertzberg) $25 billion affordable housing bond. Passed Senate 28–7

Taxes

AB 1771 (Ward) Tax on profit from homes sold within 7 years of purchase. Tax rate ranges from 5% for homes held for 6–7 years, up to 25% for homes held for less than 3 years. Exemptions include lot splits, buildings where at least 15% of units are affordable, and primary residences of first time homeowners. Inactive. Held in Committee

Public Land

AB 1748 (Seyarto) Easier sales of surplus land zoned for low or middle density housing (up to 30 units per acre). Inactive. Failed vote in committee
AB 1910 (Cristina Garcia) Grants and incentives for converting publicly owned golf courses to parks and housing. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2357 (Ting) Website for affordable housing developers to search for surplus public land. Also simplifies process for declaring land surplus. Passed Assembly 54–19
AB 2439 (Bloom) Housing on Department of Motor Vehicles land. Inactive. Held in Appropriations
AB 2762 (Bloom) Affordable housing on parking lots at parks and recreational facilities. Inactive. Held in Committee

Data

AB 889 (Gipson) Transparency on who owns rental property. Passed Assembly 47–18 last year. In Senate committee
AB 2094 (Robert Rivas) Annual report data on extremely low income (less than 30% of area median income) housing production. Passed Assembly 65–0
AB 2469 (Wicks) Statewide rental registry tracking ownership, physical attributes of the unit, length of tenancy, vacancies, and rent. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2531 (Grayson) Requires cities to have a centralized website listing development and permit fees, zoning, and other requirements. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 2873 (Jones-Sawyer) Requires reporting on diversity of businesses involved in affordable housing projects applying for state tax credit funding. Passed Assembly 55–10

Affordable Housing Production

AB 2334 (Wicks) Unlimited density and 3 extra stories of height allowed for affordable housing in areas with less driving (low vehicle travel areas where the driving is less than 85% of the regional or city average). Makes a few other changes to relax zoning for affordable housing. Passed Assembly 49–22
AB 2445 (Gallagher) Makes it more costly to file lawsuits opposing affordable housing, would require posting of a $500,000 bond. Inactive. Held in Committee

Funding

SB 948 (Becker) Statewide reserve fund for affordable projects, instead of requiring individual projects to have transition reserves in case of loss of operating subsidies. Passed Senate 37–0
AB 1288 (Quirk-Silva) Prioritizes tax credits for new construction by allowing shifting of funds from the 4% tax credit program to the 9% tax credit program. Passed Assembly 58–0
SB 1466 (Stern) $200–250 million a year for affordable housing. Inactive. Held in Committee
AB 1945 (Aguiar-Curry) Disaster recovery & rebuilding fund to preserve, repair, develop, or acquire affordable housing. Inactive. Held in Appropriations
AB 2006 (Berman) Streamlined monitoring of affordable projects for compliance with funding programs. Passed Assembly 76–0
AB 2186 (Grayson) Grants for cities that waive fees on projects where at least 75% of units are affordable. Passed Assembly 74–0
AB 2233 (Quirk-Silva) Statewide public housing loan fund. Passed Assembly 57–1
AB 2305 (Grayson) Consolidated funding application for state housing funding. Passed Assembly 76–0

Creating Regional Affordable Housing Agencies in Southern California

SB 679 (Kamlager) Los Angeles County. Passed Senate 29–7
SB 1105 (Hueso) San Diego County. Passed Senate 27–7
SB 1177 (Portantino) Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena. Passed Senate 33–0
SB 1344 (Rubio) San Gabriel Valley. Inactive. Held in Committee

Social Housing

AB 2053 (Lee) Mixed income social housing. Passed Assembly 47–20

School Employees

AB 1719 (Ward) Community college worker housing. Passed Assembly 56–16
AB 2295 (Bloom) Allows housing for school employees to exceed local zoning. Passed Assembly 50–19

Student Housing

SB 886 (Wiener) Faster approvals for student housing, CEQA exemption. Passed Senate 33–1
AB 1602 (McCarty) Revolving loan fund. Passed Assembly 67–0
AB 1764 (Medina) Student housing insecurity data + community college student housing to be reviewed by local gov’t bldg dept instead of the state. Passed Assembly 74–0
AB 2272 (Low) Loans for maintenance of private college student housing. Passed Asembly 61–0

Youth Housing

AB 1615 (Ting) Expands foster youth housing program to also cover youth ages 22–24. Extends transition housing program to cover those that are 25 years old. Passed Assembly 76–0

Preserving Affordable Housing

SB 490 (Caballero) Technical assistance. for buying and rehabbing buildings to become affordable housing. Passed Senate 36–0
AB 1850 (Ward) Rent limits on market-rate buildings converted to affordable housing. Average rents must be lowered at least 10% from previous market rate rents, and at least half the units also must be at least 20% less than the fair market rent in the area. Passed Assembly 52–0
AB 1911 (Gabriel) Tax credits for preserving affordability by converting existing privately owned housing to affordable housing. Inactive. Held in Appropriations

Property Taxes

AB 1206 (Bennett) Tax break for low-income units in limited equity co-ops. Passed Assembly 75–0
SB 1456 (Stern) Expands property tax exemption to more types of affordable housing, especially larger buildings. Passed Senate 39–0
AB 1933 (Friedman) Eliminate property tax on land that will be used for building low income homes. Passed Assembly 76–0