By Gary Warth
May 11
A slate of state and federal bills aimed at addressing homelessness, housing access and behavioral health is advancing through legislative committees, with several measures carrying potential implications for San Diego.
Here’s a look at key proposals:
SB-417 and AB-736, The Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026.
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks from Oakland introduced Assembly Bill 736 and Sen. Christopher Cabaldon of Napa Valley introduced Senate Bill 417 in February to create bond measures to ask voters to raise $10 billion for affordable housing.
SB-417 is scheduled to go before the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 13 and AB-736 has been amended in the Assembly and is scheduled to go before the Appropriations Committee on May 11.
The bills proposed by the Democratic legislators would fund several programs to create affordable rental housing for lower-income families, homeownership opportunities and supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Housing California, a nonprofit that advocates for the prevention and end of homelessness and for more affordable housing, supports both bills.
Supporters argue the bills will address the state’s housing shortage, create stable funding for the affordable housing pipeline and leverage funding, with every $1 invested by the state through the bond expected to be matched by $4 from federal tax credits.
Opponents argue that as general obligation bonds, they would incur $10 billion in state debt, which would be repaid by California taxpayers over many years.
AB-1556 The Supportive-Recovery Residence Program
Assembly Bill 1556 was moved to the suspense file by the Appropriations Committee on May 6.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file is for bills that would cost $150,000 from any fund. The suspense file allows staff to weigh the fiscal impact of a number of bills at once. Only bills that the chair pulls are voted on, and all bills that are pulled stay in the file and die without a vote.
AB-1556 was introduced by Assemblymember Matt Haney, (D-San Francisco) and would allow recovery residences to receive state funds while also satisfying core components of California’s Housing Fire policies that do not require sobriety as a condition for housing.
Under the bill, residents would not be evicted solely because of a relapse, and anyone who is evicted will receive a “warm handoff” to alternative housing or appropriate levels of care.
The bill also cites a 488% surge in overdose deaths among homeless Americans between 2010 and 2020 as a need for more recovery funding.
Arguments against the bill include the requirements being potentially overly burdensome and costly for smaller, grassroots or volunteer-run recovery residences, which could cause them to close and inadvertently reduce the overall supply of recovery housing.
The bill was amended to include language that sets requirements for recovery residences to receive state funding.
Haney has introduced two earlier bills that would have provided state funding for recovery residences. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed AB-255 last year, and AB-2479 died in committee the previous year.
AB-1708: Prioritizing smaller cities for homelessness funding
Assembly Bill 1708 was moved to the Appropriations Committee’s suspense file on May 6.
Introduced by Assemblymember José Luis Solache Jr. (D-Los Angeles), AB-1708 would prioritize cities with fewer than 300,000 residents for Round 7 Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) funding.
The bill requires continuums of care to accept applications exclusively from smaller jurisdictions during an initial 30-day period before opening funding to other entities.
Since its introduction, the bill has been amended to state that the HHAP program already has benefited smaller jurisdictions participating in regionally coordinated homeless action plans, and it details previous distributions as 30% for continuums of care, 42% to cities with more than 300,000 residents and 28% to counties.
To qualify for funding, the smaller cities must demonstrate compliance with housing elements, adopt local encampment policies and participate in regional homelessness action plans.
Opponents have argued the bill could reduce the flexibility of continuums of care to allocate funds to where they are most needed, including large urban areas with large homeless populations..
In San Diego County, 17 of 18 cities fall under the population threshold, potentially expanding direct access to funding for smaller jurisdictions.
SB-866 Planning and zoning: housing element: unhoused population
Senate Bill 866 passed the Senate Housing Committee 8-1 on April 16 and is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 11.
SB-866 was introduced by Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) and would require most jurisdictions in the state to include in their housing elements an itemized list of available resources for unhoused individuals including housing, mental, and behavioral health services, and a description of actions taken by the local government to connect unhoused individuals to these resources.
The housing elements also would include key actions that will be taken to reduce homelessness.
It also requires the jurisdictions to have updated, disaggregated data on their homeless populations, including the number of people, the average length of time they were unhoused, moments into and out of permanent housing and the number of people who became homeless after exiting jails, prisons or hospitals.
The bill’s requirements would not be placed on the 14 cities that receive HHAP funding.
AB-1606 Personal Income Tax Law: Corporation Tax Law: credits: cleanup costs
Assembly Bill 1606 was introduced by Stephanie Nguyen (D-Sacramento) and has been referred to the Appropriations Committee for a hearing May 13.
AB-1606 would provide a tax credit of up to $20,000 a year to cover the cost of businesses that clean up homeless encampments on their property.
The bill is seen as providing financial relief for small businesses and as a public health and safety measure. It is supported by the California Apartment Association, California Business Properties Association, California Business Roundtable, California Chamber of Commerce, California Retailers Association, and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, California
The California Tax Reform Association and the California Federation of Teachers oppose the bill. The Franchise Tax Board estimates a revenue loss of: $7.2 million in fiscal year 2026-27, a loss of $16 million in FY 2027-28 and $17 million loss in FY 2028-29.
AB-1899 Office of Youth Homelessness Prevention
Assembly Bill 1899 was introduced by Jessica Caloza (D-Los Angeles) and passed the Human Services Committee on April 23 by a vote of 6-0 and is scheduled for a May 13 hearing before the Appropriations Committee.
The bill would create an Office of Youth Homelessness Prevention under the new California Housing and Homelessness Agency.
The bill’s language states the mission of the office would be to prevent and homelessness among California youth and reduce youth homelessness to functional zero.
AB-2122 Infractions: warrants and penalties
Assembly Bill 2122 was introduced by Democrats Ash Kalra of San José and Josh Lowenthal of Los Angeles and was referred to the Appropriations Committee on April 20
The bill would remove the misdemeanor classification for failing to pay bail installments or fines if the original charge was an infraction, and remove the authorization to issue an arrest warrant for failure to pay a bill installment.
Proponents argue the current law creates a two-tiered system that could jail people who are unable to pay fines.
While AB-2122 does not directly mention homelessness, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said it could have tremendously beneficial impacts on people experiencing homelessness because they may be jailed because of bench warrants that they may not even know about.
AB-1924 Statewide homelessness prevention strategy
Assembly Bill 1924 was introduced by Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton) and is scheduled to be heard at the Appropriations Committee on May 14.
The bill would require the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a statewide homelessness prevention strategy by July 1, 2027.
Elements in the plan would include a homelessness prevention action plan for certain state agencies and evidence-based model homeless prevention practices. The bill would require the department to annually review and update the strategy and publish any revisions.
AB-2146: Streamlining access to supportive housing
Assembly Bill 2146 passed the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 23 with a vote of 10-1 and has been referred to the Appropriations Committee..
AB-2146 was introduced by Assemblymember Catherine Stefani (D-San Francisco) and would create a “Direct Access to Supportive Housing” designation to speed up placements for people exiting homelessness.
The bill would allow individuals referred through coordinated entry systems to self-certify as homeless, eliminating documentation barriers that often delay housing placements. A hearing is scheduled for April 22.
AB-2162 Housing: county funding allocations: nonminor dependents and young adults
Assembly Bill 2162 was referred to the suspense file on April 29.
The bill was introduced by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) and would revise reporting requirements and eligibility age for young adults receiving certain funds from the state Housing and Community Development Department.
Existing law requires the department to provide, under the Transitional Housing Program and the Housing Navigation and Maintenance Program, funding to counties to to help young adults ages 18 to 24 secure and maintain housing, with priority given to young adults formerly in the state’s foster care or probation systems.
The bill would extend the eligibility ages from 24 to 28 years old for both programs.
Existing law also requires a child welfare agency that accepts funding from either program to report certain data to the department on an annual basis, including specified information relating to the number of homeless youth served and the number of former or current foster youth served, as defined.
AB-2351 General plan: annual report: shelter beds
Assembly Bill 2351 was referred to the Appropriations Committee suspense file on May 6.
AB-2351 was introduced by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, (D-Alameda County) to require shelter beds to be part of a public entity’s general plan.
The Planning and Zoning Law now requires cities and counties to provide annual reports to the state on its general plan.
AB-2351 would require the report to include detailed information on homeless shelter beds as a way to improve accountability, tracking and transparency on the city’s or county’s capacity to serve its homeless population.
This bill would revise those reporting requirements to instead require information about the number of young adults served, including the number of young adults formerly in the state’s foster care or probation system and would require additional information to be reported under the Housing Navigation and Maintenance Program related to housing vouchers.
SB-1016: Expanding access to court-ordered mental health evaluations
Senate Bill 1016 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 12-0 April 27 and is scheduled for a May 11 hearing before the Appropriations Committee
Introduced by Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), SB 1016 would expand access to mental health evaluations for individuals with severe, untreated mental illness.
The bill would allow any individual to request a mental health evaluation through the state’s CARE Court process if a person is considered a danger to themselves, others or is gravely disabled.
While similar authority exists under current law, proponents argue SB-1016 would better integrate evaluations into the CARE system. Critics note counties, including San Diego, often rely on first responders instead of formal evaluation requests, raising questions about effectiveness and consistency.
