RivCo Supervisors To Approve Funding Request To State for Affordable Housing Projects

RIVERSIDE (CNS) - Riverside County supervisors tomorrow are expected
to sign off on a $625,000 funding request to the California Department of
Housing & Community Development under a program to aid localities in expanding
affordable housing opportunities by taxing numerous documents tied to real
estate transactions.
   The Senate Bill 2 application to the state, if approved, would provide
a source of funds for the county Transportation & Land Management Agency,
in partnership with the Economic Development Agency, to begin reviewing
prospective sites for low-income housing developments in unincorporated
communities.
   The goal is to ``streamline and facilitate housing production,''
according to TLMA documents posted to the Board of Supervisors' agenda.
   SB 2, the Building Homes & Jobs Act, was signed into law by then-Gov.
Jerry Brown in September 2017.
   The law was one of several approved during the 2017-18 legislative
session to address the state's worsening housing crisis. Under SB 2, document
transfer recording fees went from about $10 per instrument to a minimum $75 and
a maximum $225.
   Deeds, grant deeds, trustee deeds, deeds of trust, quit claim deeds,
fictitious deeds of trust, requests for notices of default, judgment abstracts
in foreclosure proceedings, easement notices, notices of trustee sales and
other documents are subject to the tax.
   The revenue generated is supposed to go into a trust fund for annual
distribution to counties and cities, based on size and need.
   According to the legislation, funds can go to homeless reduction
programs, mixed use low- and moderate-income housing projects, and migrant
farmworker housing.
   A report attached to SB 2 found that, weighed against demand,
California has a deficit of more than 1.5 million low-income rental units
throughout the state, which also has a homeless population approaching 120,000.
   According to a Senate analysis, the loss of redevelopment agencies,
which the Brown administration dismantled in 2011, contributed to the
affordable housing deficit.