Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills Tuesday that tweak existing shelter laws and ADU laws in an effort to increase supply and make a dent in the state’s housing and homelessness crisis.
One of the bills, Assembly Bill 3057, focuses on something called junior ADUs — units created in existing houses that can be up to 500 square feet and don’t need their own bathrooms.
Under the new law, junior ADUs — which larger ADU — will be exempt from California Environmental Quality Act requirements that can add time and cost to projects.
The bill’s author, Assemblywoman Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City), called the exemption a “small but significant technological change that offers Californians more accessible and efficient options for building affordable housing solutions.”
The other bill, Assembly Bill 2835, was authored by Assembly Member Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino). It makes permanent a set of temporary rules that have made it easier to house homeless individuals in privately owned properties hotels and motels longer than 30 days.
Local authorities, including Los Angeles, have increasingly turned to that strategy to get people off the streets, sometimes relying on government funding.
“The homelessness crisis requires immediate and innovative action, not the status quo,” Newsom said in a statement. “With these new laws, local authorities have even more tools to provide housing. I urge them to fully utilize the state’s unprecedented resources to tackle homelessness.”