New Bill May Boost State Enforcement Powers Over Housing Law

California’s attorney general may be getting more muscle to discipline local governments that have violated state housing law via a new bill that would allow fines to be levied more quickly.

Under Senate Bill 1037, announced Wednesday by Attorney General Rob Bonta and state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, the attorney general could seek new penalties to be assessed from the date of a violation.

If passed, it would subject governments to a minimum civil penalty of $10,000 per month, not to exceed $50,000 per month, for each violation from the date the violation started. The money would be earmarked for affordable housing in the affected jurisdiction.

Currently, California’s Department of Housing and Community Development is authorized to notify the attorney general when it tells cities and counties they are in violation of the state Planning and Zoning Law.

Every city and county in California must periodically update and streamline its housing element to meet its share of a 2022 statewide housing plan, which estimates the state must plan for 2.5 million new homes.

After receiving a court order to comply, local governments have 60 days to bring their housing elements into compliance before getting hit with a monetary penalty. Sometimes, with extensions, the hammer doesn’t fall for a year.

“The reason for the bill is that the penalty system right now is very unworkable and it’s easy for cities to evade it,” said Erik Mebust, a spokesperson for Wiener, who introduced the law. “Right now, they get 60 days. So. they’ll wait the full 60 days and then they can appeal things and they can kind of bury it in process for months.”

In November, San Francisco, under a state mandate to accommodate 82,000 new housing units by 2031, received a threatening letter from HCD when it missed a deadline to change its permitting policy. The city’s Board of Supervisors eventually adopted an ordinance to bring the city into compliance.

“This bill was not generated directly in response to anything that happened in San Francisco,” said Mebust. “But San Francisco is definitely emblematic of a pattern we’re seeing statewide with a number of cities.

San Francisco has the longest permit approval times in the state. There’s a lot of changes to make in the culture so cities comply with the law, and San Francisco has not always been the best at that in the past, but it is trying to turn over a new leaf now.”

Wiener’s office expects the bill to be heard in committee next month, followed by a Senate vote in May. If approved by the legislature, it will go into effect Jan. 1, 2024.