(KGTV) — It was a busy week for the California Senate Housing Committee, a group of eleven state senators who are the first hurdle for legislation aimed at addressing the housing and homelessness crisis.
Twelve bills made it out of the committee this week, meaning they got the necessary votes from committee members to send the legislation on to the next step.
The bills are all headed to various other committees to be voted on again, eventually reaching the full Senate, if passed, before heading to the Assembly for approval as well.
But their passage out of the Housing Committee marks a key milestone for efforts to tackle the housing crisis from all angles.
San Diego State Senator Steve Padilla is a member of the housing committee, and his vote was crucial for the passage of SB 79, which would legalize apartment buildings within a half mile of transit stations.
ABC 10News reported on this bill when it was introduced. Depending on the level of service provided, this could allow buildings up to 75 feet or higher in neighborhoods that are exclusively single-family homes.
“SB 79 eliminates housing bans that most CA cities have enacted in the neighborhoods around transit stops,” the bill’s author, Scott Wiener (D–San Francisco) said on Bluesky. “Even though those transit systems are funded by all CA taxpayers.”
These systems are harder to sustain, Wiener said, because of the lack of housing density in the surrounding neighborhoods. Allowing dense buildings near the stations, and on transit agency-owned property, would provide a much-needed boost in revenue for the agencies.
Sen. Padilla’s vote helped the bill pass the Housing Committee 6-2, with three abstaining.
Senator Catherine Blakespear (D–Encinitas) also had legislation pass out of the Housing Committee this week.
Sen. Blakespear introduced SB 16 to require cities to create a homeless action plan that must be approved by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
These plans must include the information from cities’ point-in-time homeless counts that shows how many people are homeless, demographic data on these individuals, and inventories of housing and shelter space available, and they also have to outline their plans to have enough shelter to accommodate the number of homeless people in their city.
If these plans, including those to provide adequate shelter, are not approved by HCD, state funding through the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) Grant Program can be withheld.
This is a lot like the Regional Housing Needs Allocation and Housing Element process, where HCD approves cities’ plans to build housing – or face a loss of state funding and the builder’s remedy, that lets developers bypass local jurisdictions that don’t have compliant housing elements and get projects approved that don’t comply with local zoning.
10News previously covered a builder’s remedy development in Del Mar that is still waiting for approval from the city. The developers argue their permits should be issued because the project was submitted while Del Mar was out of compliance with its housing element.
Other bills that were passed from the Housing Committee this week include:
- SB 9 – Prohibits cities from imposing owner-occupancy requirements or other additional standards for ADUs.
- SB 749 – Requires owners of mobile home parks to offer their property for sale before closing or redeveloping for a different use.
- SB 750 – Establishes an insurance program for multifamily housing construction loans.
- SB 838 – Specifies that mixed-use housing developments may not include hotel rooms or other “transient lodging” to be considered a “housing development project”; this language change could impact a development's eligibility for density bonus concessions and other incentives.
