Added by AB 2634

Government Code §65583

Every city or county is required to prepare a jurisdictional development plan that includes a housing element calling for an assessment of the housing needs of the community. This assessment includes an inventory of land suitable for residential development based on an evaluation of the community’s demographic information, such as population and employment trends. The required evaluation must consider the housing needs for all income levels, including those households defined as extremely low income households, so that future development will result in a proportionate amount of housing for the differing income levels.

Extremely low income households are those that fall at or below 30% of the area median income; the figure is adjusted for family size and annually revised.

The local government must determine the percent of extremely low income households in the community or assume that half of the very low income households in the community qualify as extremely low income households.

The housing element must also provide a list of suitable sites for the development of emergency shelters. If suitable emergency shelter sites cannot be presented, the housing element must identify steps that can be taken to obtain sites that can be developed into emergency shelters within the allotted planning period. The local government may work in conjunction with neighboring communities to identify suitable sites for the development of emergency shelters by adopting a multijurisdictional agreement.

Effective January 1, 2007.