SB-2 California Building Homes and Jobs Act
2017 California Senate Bill SB 2, the Building Homes and Jobs Act, was introduced by Senator Atkins (D - San Diego) on December 5, 2016, passed the California State Senate on September 15, 2017 and the legislation was enrolled on September 19, 2017 during the California Legislatures 2017-2018 Regular Session.
The SB 2 bill text, history, votes, etc. are available via the governmental California Legislative Information website
California in the early 2000s collected over $1 billion a year that it allocated to low and moderate income housing. When due to budgetary pressures California governor Jerry Brown and the legislature dissolved the state's redevelopment agencies in 2011, this large-scale affordable housing funding dried up, leaving California with a dearth of affordable housing.
The state of California still maintained housing assistance programs that cover "among other things, emergency housing, multifamily housing, farmworker housing, home ownership for very low and low-income households, and downpayment assistance for first-time home buyers," and by law, these programs are funded by bonds issued by the state.
Bill SB 2 creates an infusion of additional funding to go towards affordable housing. It makes " legislative findings and declarations relating to the need to establish permanent, ongoing sources of funding dedicated to affordable housing development. The bill would impose a fee, except as provided, of $75 to be paid at the time of the recording of every real estate instrument, paper, or notice required or permitted by law to be recorded [wiki emphasis], per each single transaction per single parcel of real property, not to exceed $225. By imposing new duties on counties with respect to the imposition of the recording fee, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would require that a county recorder quarterly send revenues from this fee, after deduction of any actual and necessary administrative costs incurred by the county recorder, to the Controller for deposit in the Building Homes and Jobs Fund, which the bill would create within the State Treasury."
The act provides for the allocation of funds from this permanent source to local governments in order to support and promote affordable housing programs and initiatives. The stipulations of the legislation are slated to produce about $250 million a year in funding, most of which would help finance low-income and homeless housing. In addition to standard residential affordable housing, the act would provide assistance for homebuyers and funding for farmworker housing and would help cities plan for development of housing.To help evaluate the effectiveness of its use, the legislation imposes reporting and auditing requirements related to these state-funded initiatives. SB 2 is an "urgency statute" and as such slated for immediate implementation.
References
SB-2 Building Homes and Jobs Act - California Legislative Information website
Los Angeles Times. "Editorial: Don't Let California's Housing Crisis Get Worse. Lawmakers Need to Act on these Bills," 4 Sept. 2017