Homeless shelters: safety regulations.

The State Housing Law, among other things, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to adopt, amend, or repeal rules and regulations for the protection of the health, safety, and general welfare of the occupant and the public relating to specified residential structures, as provided, which apply throughout the state. Existing law requires the housing or building department of every city or county, or the health department if there is no building department, to enforce within its jurisdiction the provisions of the State Housing Law, building standards, and the other rules and regulations adopted by the department pertaining to the maintenance, sanitation, ventilation, use, or occupancy of apartment houses, hotels, or dwellings. A violation of the State Housing Law, or of the building standards or rules and regulations adopted pursuant to that law, is a misdemeanor. Existing law establishes, among various other programs intended to address homelessness in this state, the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program for the purpose of providing jurisdictions with one-time grant funds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the efforts of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. This bill would require a city or county that receives a complaint from an occupant of a homeless shelter, as defined, or an agent of an occupant, alleging that a homeless shelter is substandard to inspect the homeless shelter, as specified. The bill would require a city or county that determines that a homeless shelter is substandard to issue a notice to correct the violation to the owner or operator of the homeless shelter within 10 business days of the inspection, or issue the notice to correct the violation immediately if the violation constitutes an imminent threat to the health and safety of the occupants of the homeless shelter. The bill would authorize a city or county to issue an emergency order directing the owner or operator to take immediate action to rectify violations if the city determines that the violations are dangerous, hazardous, imminently detrimental to life or health, or otherwise render the homeless shelter unfit for human habitation. The bill would require a city or county to provide free, certified copies of any inspection report or citation issued pursuant to these provisions to a complaining occupant or their agent, as specified. This bill would make the owner or operator of a homeless shelter responsible for correcting any violation cited pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require the owner or operator of a homeless shelter to correct each violation within 30 days of receipt of the citation, subject to a 30-day extension, as specified. This bill would authorize a city or county to impose additional civil penalties on the owner or operator that fails to correct a violation within the required time period. The bill would prohibit a city or county from awarding or distributing any state funding, as defined, to the owner or operator of a homeless shelter for purposes of operating the homeless shelter if, among other things, the owner or operator fails to correct a violation within the required time period. This bill would require each city and county to submit a report by April 1 of each year that provides specified information, including, among other things, any pending uncorrected violations cited under these provisions, a list of emergency orders issued, and a list of any owners or operators who received 3 or more violations within any 6-month period, except as specified. The bill would authorize the Department of Housing and Community Development or the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to deem an owner or operator of a shelter ineligible for state funding, as defined, for shelter operations based on the information provided in the report. The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. By adding to the duties of local officials with respect to enforcement of the State Housing Law, the violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.