More than 1.3 million housing units need substantial rehabilitation, and 2 million contain lead paint, which causes several health problems in children. According to another estimate, there are at least 150,000 homeless persons in California and at least half are physically or mentally ill or disabled. Whether or not these estimates are precisely accurate, there is no doubt that California faces a major shortage of affordable housing. During the last two decades, affordable housing units have been disappearing due to attrition and the conversion of publicly assisted affordable housing to market-rate housing. Scarce public resources, an inadequate supply of private capital, and changes in the 1986 Federal Tax Reform Act made it extremely difficult to finance the development of affordable housing, especially for Californians classified as very low income.
Supportive housing provides both shelter and support and employment services.
There are more than 5,000 mobilehome parks in California. Senator Craven, the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Mobile and Manufactured Homes, is carrying SB 482 to extend the mobilehome park inspection program, which currently is due to expire at the end of this year. It would provide a specific constitutional basis for the mobilehome park rent control ordinances that local communities have enacted. The bill also would require any exaction or mitigation obligation imposed by a public agency as a condition for performance of a discretionary act to have a direct relationship to the burdens imposed by, and to be roughly proportional in extent to the impact of, the proposed activity.