Strategy to Reduce & Prevent Homelessness

      Section 1 of the bill requires the department of local affairs, as part of its SMART Act hearing in January of 2027, to submit and present a proposal for the development of a statewide strategy on homelessness prevention and resolution. The proposal must include a plan that sets forth a timeline, an estimated budget, and a process for developing and implementing a statewide strategy on homelessness prevention and resolution. The proposal must set forth the following components that must be included in the statewide strategy on homelessness prevention and resolution:

• Identification of gaps and barriers that impede access to operational services for individuals experiencing homelessness;
• Identification of state agency-provided housing resources, including utilization rates;
• Recommendations for collaboration between state and local partners to facilitate homelessness response;
• Recommendations for funding and policies that could be implemented at the state level to support homelessness prevention and resolution;
• Recommendations that have been proposed in coordination with continuum of care organizations to improve the implementation of the homeless management information system, data reporting, and coordinated entry systems;
• Updates on regional navigation campuses; and
• Updates on continuum of care organizations.

When developing the proposal, the department shall seek and incorporate feedback from a diverse array of stakeholders.

      Section 2 creates a new type of special district, a multijurisdictional homelessness response authority (authority), which may be created when any combination of local governments enter into an intergovernmental agreement with one another to establish an authority. An authority must:

• Be used by the contracting local governments to reduce and prevent homelessness; and
• Have boundaries that contain the entirety of all the contracting local governments, but nothing more.

An authority has several discretionary powers that relate to its ability to coordinate and plan with departments and organizations to reduce and prevent homelessness, including but not limited to the power to provide for the levy of sales or sales and use taxes by the contracting local governments. If the intergovernmental agreement that creates an authority provides for the levy of a sales or sales and use tax by the contracting local governments within the boundaries of the authority:

• Each contracting local government shall submit to its registered electors a ballot question that relates to the tax and that requires any new tax revenue approved through the ballot question to be used solely for the planning, coordination, and implementation of regional strategies to reduce and prevent homelessness;
• The intergovernmental agreement must provide for a case in which the electors in some but not all of the contracting local governments approve the collection of the sales or sales and use tax at the general election; and
• The intergovernmental agreement must provide that all or part of the taxes levied are distributed to the authority.

An authority may seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, or donations from private or public sources for the purposes of planning, coordinating, and implementing regional strategies to reduce and prevent homelessness, may issue revenue or general obligation bonds, and may pledge its revenue and revenue-raising powers for the payment of such bonds.

      Section 3 allows a county to designate a portion of documentary filing fees, which are collected for filing documents associated with the grant or conveyance of real property, to be transferred to the county government or a housing authority for the purpose of developing, preserving, or acquiring affordable housing that:

• Is within the jurisdiction of the county government or housing authority;
• Is aligned with demonstrated community needs; and
• Will be available to individuals experiencing homelessness.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)