The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a)  Large numbers of California’s renters face excessive housing costs and live in overcrowded or substandard units. Many of these renters also have special housing needs arising from their employment status, age, or disability, and live in communities suffering from a lack of investment.

(b)  In previous years, the state has attempted to address the needs of California renters through a series of small programs operated by the Department of Housing and Community Development, each offering financing targeted at a specific population or building type. These programs were typically highly successful in addressing local housing and community development needs. However, because each individual program came with a unique set of rules, the programs were often costly and time consuming to administer, for both the state and program users.

(c)  A more efficient method to address renter housing needs would be to operate one omnibus multifamily housing program modeled upon an existing successful program. This omnibus program would provide a standardized set of program rules and features applicable to all housing types. As particular needs are identified, it may be easily and quickly customized to meet those needs.

(d)  It is the intent of the Legislature that the Multifamily Housing Program created by this chapter constitute this omnibus multifamily housing program, and that it be based on the department’s existing California Housing Rehabilitation Program as established and described in Subchapter 8 (commencing with Section 7670) of Chapter 7 of Part 1 of Title 25 of the California Code of Regulations.

(e)  The Multifamily Housing Program is intended to take the place of the following department programs:

(1)  The Deferred-Payment Rehabilitation Loan Program established by Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section 50660).

(2)  The Rental Housing Construction Program established by Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 50735).

(3)  The Family Housing Demonstration Program established by Section 5 of Chapter 30 of the Statutes of 1988.

Repeal of the statutes establishing these programs would be administratively problematic because the department still administers a portfolio of loans from these programs. Therefore, in lieu of repeal, it is the Legislature’s intent that no further allocation of funds be made to these programs and that any and all future funds that would have been appropriated to these programs shall be appropriated instead to the Multifamily Housing Program.

(Added by Stats. 1999, Ch. 637, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2000.)