California Housing Justice Act of 2026.

The deadline for the department to create finance plans was extended from July 1, 2029 to August 1, 2030.

The deadline for the California Housing and Homelessness Agency to report to the Legislature on finance plans and performance metrics was extended from April 1, 2030 to October 1, 2030.

A new requirement (subparagraph C) obligates the department to seek public consultation when developing finance plans, specifically including people with lived experiences of homelessness and housing instability.

A new Section 50570.3 was added making the entire chapter operative only upon appropriation by the Legislature for implementing its provisions. This means the bill has no legal effect until funding is actually allocated.

The state-mandated local program designation was changed from 'yes' to 'no,' removing the classification that would trigger state reimbursement obligations to local agencies for mandated costs.

The act was renamed from the California Housing Justice Act of 2025 to the California Housing Justice Act of 2026 throughout the bill.

The entire California Housing Justice Fund (former Section 50570.3) was deleted. This removed the requirement for the Legislature to make an ongoing annual allocation into a General Fund account, and eliminated the specified uses including rental subsidies, housing development/acquisition/rehabilitation/preservation, social housing, tenant stability programs, and other uses identified in finance plans.

The deadline for the department to create finance plans was extended from January 1, 2028 to July 1, 2029. The reporting deadline was changed from October 1 of each year beginning in 2028 to a single report due by April 1, 2030.

The reporting requirement was simplified from an annual obligation to report on progress in meeting performance measures and benchmarks (with website updates at least annually) to a one-time report on the finance plans and performance metrics with a general obligation to publish goals and update progress.

The list of entities the department must collaborate with when creating finance plans was shortened. Counties and cities were removed from the explicit list, and specific Interagency Council working group names (State Funding and Programs Working Group, Racial Equity Working Group, Youth and Young Adults Working Group) were replaced with the generic term 'working groups.'

The bill was renamed from the California Housing Justice Act of 2025 to the California Housing Justice Act of 2025, 2026, reflecting its passage across two legislative sessions. Senator Arreguin was added as a coauthor.

The definition of 'Housing First' (which referenced Section 8255 of the Welfare and Institutions Code) was removed from the definitions section.

The phrase 'Statewide annual performance metrics' was changed to 'Statewide performance metrics,' removing the word 'annual.' The agency name in the reporting provision was corrected to simply 'California Housing and Homelessness Agency.'

The deadline for the department to create finance plans was extended from January 1, 2027 to January 1, 2028.

The annual reporting requirement to the Legislature was pushed back from beginning in 2027 to beginning in 2028.

The bill no longer amends Section 50001 of the Health and Safety Code (the Zenovich-Moscone-Chacon Housing and Home Finance Act findings). The act description was changed from 'amend Section 50001 and add Chapter 4' to simply 'add Chapter 4.'

The list of collaborators for creating finance plans was expanded to include 'working groups' generally, beyond the three specifically named Interagency Council working groups.

The agency name was updated from 'Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency' to 'California Housing and Homelessness Agency,' reflecting a renaming of the state agency.

The legislative findings and declarations were restructured: they were moved from Section 50570.1 into a new standalone Section 1 at the top of the bill, and the definitions section was renumbered from 50570.2 to 50570.1.

Finance plans may now take into consideration existing recent plans or data analyses assessing costs of solving homelessness, and the housing unaffordability finance plan may reference data from the Statewide Housing Plan to build 1,000,000 affordable homes by 2030.

Performance metrics language was softened: 'Updating annually' became 'Updating annually as needed' and 'Identifying and regularly updating' became 'Identifying and regularly updating, as needed,' giving the department more flexibility in how often it revises metrics.

The fiscal committee vote changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the bill received budget approval. The state-mandated local program designation also changed from 'no' to 'yes.'

Creates the California Housing Justice Fund in the General Fund and requires the Legislature to invest an ongoing annual allocation in an amount needed to solve homelessness and housing unaffordability. The fund is to be used for rental subsidies, development/acquisition/rehabilitation/preservation of affordable and supportive housing, social housing, tenant stability programs, and other uses identified in finance plans.

Requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to create, by no later than January 1, 2027, two finance plans (one to solve homelessness and one to solve the housing unaffordability crisis) in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders including local entities, nonprofits, people with lived experience of homelessness, and members of the Interagency Council on Homelessness working groups.

Requires the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to report to the Legislature on or before October 1 of each year beginning in 2027 on progress toward performance measures and benchmarks, and to publish goals on its website with at least annual updates.

Adds extensive new definitions including acutely low income households, affordable housing (capped at 30 percent of income for rent), continuum of care, homelessness (broadened to include people exiting institutional settings who were homeless before admission), Housing First, permanent housing, permanent supportive housing, rental subsidies, and voluntary service.

Establishes statewide annual performance metrics including reducing the number of individuals experiencing homelessness, reducing duration of homelessness, reducing returns to homelessness, reducing racial and ethnic disparities in homelessness, increasing access to affordable housing after homelessness, and reducing the number of households paying more than they can afford.

The bill's scope expanded dramatically from a nonsubstantive amendment to one existing code section (Section 50001) to an entirely new chapter (Sections 50570-50570.3) in the Health and Safety Code, with the original Section 50001 amendment demoted to Section 2 of the bill.

State-mandated local program designation changed from 'no' to 'yes,' and fiscal committee applicability changed from 'no' to 'yes,' reflecting the new obligations imposed on local entities through the finance plan collaboration requirements.