2010 California Code
Health and Safety Code
Chapter 3.3. Residential Hotel Rehabilitation

50519.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares that the need for
decent housing among individuals of very low and low income is great,
and that residential hotels are often the only form of housing
affordable to these individuals. Many residential hotels are in poor
condition and in need of rehabilitation, and many are being
demolished or converted to other uses. The state can play an
important role in preserving the existence and improving the quality
of this housing resource through sponsoring demonstration projects
that will enable local sponsors to acquire, rehabilitate, maintain,
or otherwise protect and improve residential hotels as a housing
resource for persons of very low and low income. The demonstration
projects should be undertaken and designed so as to demonstrate the
feasibility of innovative methods of protecting and improving
residential hotels and of improving their habitability while assuring
their continued availability to persons of very low and low income.
   (b) The following definitions govern the construction of this
section:
   (1) "Residential hotel" means any building containing six or more
guestrooms or efficiency units, as defined by Section 17958.1,
intended or designed to be used, or which are used, rented, or hired
out, to be occupied, or which are occupied, for sleeping purposes by
guests, which is also the primary residence of those guests, but does
not mean any building containing six or more guestrooms or
efficiency units, as defined by Section 17958.1, which is primarily
used by transient guests who do not occupy that building as their
primary residence.
   (2) "Sponsor" means a local government or nonprofit housing
sponsor.
   (3) "Persons of low income" shall have the same meaning as persons
of low income as defined in Section 50093 of the Health and Safety
Code.
   (c) The department, in conjunction with the State Fire Marshal,
shall develop a model code for the rehabilitation of residential
hotels. The department shall adopt the code on or before January 1,
1981. The code need not be adopted by any city, county, or city and
county. However, those entities may adopt all or part of the code as
an alternative to the requirements of the State Housing Law, Part 1.5
(commencing with Section 17910) of Division 13, as that law applies
to residential hotels.
   The purpose of the standards shall be to protect the health,
safety, and welfare of the occupants of those residential hotels, to
allow the economically feasible rehabilitation of those residential
hotels, and to assure to the extent possible the preservation of
those residential hotels as housing for very low and low-income
persons.
   (d) The agency shall develop a program of financing and loan
insurance for the purpose of assisting the rehabilitation and
acquisition of residential hotels serving the housing needs of very
low and low-income persons by appropriate sponsors, and shall
implement that program on or before January 1, 1981.
   In the event that the agency is unable to implement that program,
it shall report to the Legislature on or before July 1, 1981, the
reasons for its inability to implement that program, and recommend
methods by which the agency could implement that program.
   (e) The department shall contract, subject to the availability of
federal funds, with selected sponsors to acquire, rehabilitate,
maintain, or otherwise protect and improve residential hotels as
housing for persons of low income. The contracts may provide for
grants or loans at an interest rate which the department determines
will facilitate the present and future use of residential hotels as
housing for persons of very low and low income. Subject to the
availability of funds, the department shall contract for the
preservation and improvement of at least one residential hotel in a
rural area. Subject to restrictions on funds received, the department
shall give first priority to residential hotels financed or acquired
with assistance from the agency pursuant to subdivision (d).
   (f) In connection with contracts let pursuant to subdivision (e),
the department shall fix, and may alter from time to time, a schedule
of rents as may be necessary to assure affordable rents for persons
of low income in residential hotels assisted by funds made available
under subdivision (e), and to the extent consistent with the
maintenance of the financial integrity of the sponsor of the project
and with the requirements for repayment of any funds loaned as
established by the department. No local government or nonprofit
housing sponsor receiving funds through the provisions of subdivision
(e) shall alter rents without the prior permission of the
department, which permission shall be given only if the sponsor
demonstrates that the alteration is necessary to defray necessary
operating costs and to avoid jeopardizing the fiscal integrity of the
sponsor or to maintain affordable rents to the residents in the
project. If the department does not act upon a request for a rent
increase within 60 days, the increase shall be deemed approved. In
connection with contracts authorized by subdivision (e), the
department may determine standards for the selection by sponsors of
the tenants for units in projects funded by contracts pursuant to
subdivision (e). The authority of the department to fix and alter
rents pursuant to this subdivision shall apply only to units within
residential hotels that receive assistance pursuant to subdivision
(e).


50520.  The department may, subject to appropriation by the
Legislature, grant funds for the purpose of providing relocation
benefits to persons and families of low or moderate income who are
displaced, or who may be displaced if not assisted, as a result of
any of the following:
   (a) Direct code enforcement activities of the department.
   (b) A disaster for which a state of emergency has been proclaimed
by the Governor on or after the effective date of this section.
   (c) Fires which damage or destroy residential structures.
   The department may also provide technical assistance to local
agencies in providing relocation benefits, pursuant to Sections 50500
and 50509.



50521.  Relocation benefits pursuant to Section 50520 may be
provided in the form of grants pursuant to Sections 50504 and 50510
for costs of developing replacement housing or of providing subsidies
to assist displaced persons.


50522.  The department may obtain federal assistance pursuant to
Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937, or any other
federal housing program, for use in providing relocation benefits to
persons subject to potential or actual displacement by public or
private action, where local relocation benefits or rental subsidies
are not immediately available.