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  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

The state of California has 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." By law, these programs are funded by bonds issued by the state.

Bill SB 2 "would make 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, 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 bill would provide for the allocation of funds from this permanent source to local governments in order to support and promote affordable housing programs and initiatives. To help evaluate the effectiveness of its use, the legislation would impose 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