Tenants Together monitors legislation in Sacramento that impacts California renters. We are currently monitoring dozens of bills in an unusually crowded state docket. There are hundreds of bills in the legislature this year as the state attempts to address our housing crisis. We are also supporting bills to protect tenants more broadly from threats at the federal level. Click on the bill name to see the text and follow its status as it moves through the legislature.
Currently, TT supports the following bills:
AB 71 (Chiu): Eliminates the mortgage interest deduction for second homes and increases funding for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program
STATUS: Bill is in Assembly Rev & Tax Committee.
AB 74 (Chiu): Establishes program under the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to fund competitive grants to pay for rental assistance
STATUS: Bill is in Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 291 (Chiu): Stops landlords from using immigration status against tenants, including a ban on landlord disclosure of immigration status to ICE.
STATUS: Bill will be heard in Assembly Privacy & Consumer Protection Committee on May 2. Send a letter to your Assemblymember NOW in support.
AB 423 (Bonta): Exempts Oakland Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels from Ellis Act evictions
STATUS: Passed Assembly Housing, headed to the Assembly Floor
AB 686 (Santiago): Adopts “affirmatively further fair housing” (AFFH) obligations into California law, to counter federal attack on AFFH
STATUS: Bill is in Assembly Appropriations Committee.
AB 915 (Ting): Allows cities to require more Below Market Rate (BMR) units when state density bonus is used to add units
STATUS: Bill is in Assembly Local Government Committee.
AB 982 (Bloom): Requires a one year notice period for all Ellis Act evictions, not just evictions of senior or disabled tenants.
STATUS: Bill will be heard in Assembly Housing & Community Development, date not set.
AB 1137 (Maienschein): Requires new state subsidized housing built to be pet friendly as is already required for federally subsidized properties
STATUS: Bill is in Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 1505 (Bloom): Allows local inclusionary housing laws to require affordable rental units as part of new private housing developments, overturning the Palmer Court decision
STATUS: Cleared committee, headed to Assembly floor for vote
AB 1506 (Bloom): Repeals the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act, eliminating this state law barrier to stronger local rent control laws
STATUS--MORE TIME TO ORGANIZE: Per request of the author, this is now a two year bill. Send a letter to your Assemblymember NOW to keep up the momentum.
SB 2 (Atkins): Imposes a real estate document filing fee to fund affordable housing
STATUS: Bill is in Assembly Appropriations Committee
SB 54 (Lara): Makes California a sanctuary state by prohibiting state and local authorities from using resources for immigration enforcement purposes
STATUS: Passed the Senate 27-12. Now heads to the Assembly. Sign the petition NOW to help this bill pass.
SB 377 (Monning): Requires the State Department of Public Health to update regulations governing lead-related construction work to comply with existing state and federal regulations.
STATUS: Bill is in Senate Appropriations Committee
SB 562 (Lara): States the intent of the Legislature to establish comprehensive universal single-payer health care
STATUS: Bill is in Senate Health Committee
SB 574 (Lara): Requirements on UC contracting to prevent outsourcing public sector jobs to unscrupulous, low-bid private contractors
STATUS: Bill is in Senate Appropriations Committee
Tenants Together opposes the following bills:
AB 1569 (Caballero): Impose new requirements on tenants who seek to have animals to accommodate disabilities
STATUS--WE WON: Hearing canceled at request of the author. Not proceeding this year.
SB 35 (Wiener): Streamlining of development projects without sufficient focus on affordable housing (will consider removing opposition if amendments are made).
STATUS: Bill is in Senate Government & Finance Committee. Amendments expected.