Summary
SB-233 would require the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to meet with councils of government (COGs) regarding regional housing need methodology at least 38 months prior to the scheduled revision of the housing element.
Background
Current law requires local governments to periodically adopt a housing element, which is a plan to accommodate the “Regional Housing Need Allocation” (RHNA) in their community. Currently, California is in its sixth statewide housing element update cycle.
State law also requires HCD provide a regional determination to a COG at least 26 months before a housing element due date. In this 6th cycle, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) staff requested HCD to provide an earlier date to have more time to coordinate the concurrent Sustainable Communities Strategy, prepare the RHNA methodology, increase local engagement, and potentially have additional time to hear RHNA appeals. However, HCD did not fulfill this request and provided the determination in August 2019, exactly 26 months before the October 2021 housing element due date.
Concurrent with HCD’s California’s Housing Future 2040: The Next RHNA engagement initiative, SCAG launched a RHNA reform stakeholder engagement process in 2022 and 2023 which produced recommendations including a request to codify an earlier date for HCD to provide regional determinations to COGs.
Jurisdictions have historically been housing element compliant. However, this has not been true in the most recent cycles which featured numerous changes to housing element law since 2017. 122 out of 197 SCAG jurisdictions in 2022 and 105 out of 109 Bay Area jurisdictions in 2023 were out of compliance for missing their housing element deadline. As of November 26, 2024, HCD still reported an out of compliance status for 116 jurisdictions out of 539 statewide.
Proposal
SB-233 will require HCD to meet with COGs regarding regional housing determination 12 months sooner in specified jurisdictions for the 7th cycle and all jurisdictions for the 8th and subsequent cycles thereafter.