Existing law authorizes a governing body of a political subdivision, as those terms are defined, to declare a shelter crisis if the governing body makes a specified finding. Upon declaration of a shelter crisis, existing law, among other things, suspends certain state and local laws, regulations, and ordinances to the extent that strict compliance would prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the effects of the shelter crisis.
Existing law, upon a declaration of a shelter crisis by specified local jurisdictions, specifies additional provisions applicable to a shelter crisis declared by one of those jurisdictions. Existing law, among other things, exempts from the California Environmental Quality Act specified actions by a state agency or a city, county, or city and county relating to land owned by a local government to be used for, or to provide financial assistance to, a homeless shelter constructed pursuant to these provisions. Existing law requires a city, county, or city and county that declares a shelter crisis pursuant to these provisions to develop a plan to address the shelter crisis on or before July 1, 2019, or July 1, 2020, as applicable, and to annually report to specified committees of the Legislature on or before January 1, 2019, or on or before January 1 of the year following the declaration of the shelter crisis, as applicable, and annually thereafter until January 1, 2023. Existing law repeals these additional provisions as of January 1, 2023.
This bill would instead apply those additional provisions to a shelter crisis declared by any county or city. By expanding the scope of these provisions to apply within any county or city that has declared a shelter crisis, the bill would expand the above-described exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act. The bill would require the county or city to develop the above-described shelter plan on or before July 1, 2021, or on or before July 1 of the year following the declaration of the shelter crisis, as specified, and to include a plan to transition residents from homeless shelters to permanent housing. The bill would require the above-described annual report, for reports due by January 1, 2022, and thereafter, to include the bed capacity of new homeless shelters built. The bill would extend the repeal date of these provisions to January 1, 2026.

Statutes affected:
AB 2553: 8698.4 GOV, 4584 PRC
02/19/20 - Introduced: 4584 PRC
03/09/20 - Amended Assembly: 8698.4 GOV, 4584 PRC
05/12/20 - Amended Assembly: 8698.4 GOV
AB2553: 4584 PRC