Bill > AB474

This bill addresses housing challenges for older adults and people with disabilities by creating new provisions for nonprofit home-sharing programs. The legislation modifies housing discrimination laws to allow homeowners to rent out rooms in their primary residence through nonprofit home-sharing programs without facing discrimination claims, and it provides significant benefits for program participants. Specifically, the bill would exempt income earned from renting bedrooms through these nonprofit programs from being counted as income when determining eligibility for public social services like CalFresh, SSI/SSP, and Medi-Cal. A nonprofit home-sharing program is defined as a service administered by a nonprofit or government entity that helps match homeowners with unoccupied bedrooms to potential tenants, provides free case management and background checks, ensures lease agreements of at least 30 days, and offers ongoing support to both tenants and landlords. The bill is motivated by California's housing affordability crisis, noting that many older adults and people with disabilities struggle with housing costs, with over 40,000 people 55 and older experiencing homelessness. By incentivizing home sharing, the legislation aims to increase housing options and potentially help address the state's housing shortage, which is estimated to be nearly 1.3 million affordable units short of demand.

Budget and Finance, Health and Social Services, Justice

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB474