The California Legislature is again considering dozens of housing-related bills.
Some of those proposals could grow housing access for vulnerable communities amid potential changes at the federal level to housing assistance. Others confront technology’s emerging presence in rental properties, from artificial intelligence falsifying property image listings to portable solar energy powering up apartments.
The housing proposals in the statehouse follow a big year for housing policy in 2025, particularly after catastrophic wildfires destroyed 12,000 structures throughout Los Angeles, altering some environmental regulations as rebuilding efforts got underway. Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended CEQA requirements and coastal regulations in order to expedite rebuilding in affected areas, for example, and lawmakers later legalized CEQA exemptions for residential developments on vacant urban land.
This year, some of the new proposals could build on those changes, including one bill that aims to expedite permits for multifamily buildings in coastal zones and another that would establish a framework for mortgage repayments for future natural emergencies.
Here are just some of the proposals lawmakers are considering this year.
Trump-proofing housing assistance
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering a rule to add time limits and work requirements to recipients of federal housing assistance. If enacted, it could affect hundreds of thousands of Californians, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Assembly Bill 2128, proposed by Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, aims to counter such changes at the federal level, if they occur, by prohibiting housing authorities and other housing providers in California that use HUD subsidies from imposing work requirements and time limits on tenants.
If approved, state regulations would remove the burden on housing providers to opt into such federal mandates, according to Dawn Adler, Quirk-Silva’s legislative director.
The Trump administration has made work requirements for government assistance, including housing and rental aid, a priority. Advocates for this argue that certain requirements can promote self-sufficiency and would spread assistance across a larger number of recipients. Critics, meanwhile, say requirements cause undue hardship at a time of high housing unaffordability and homelessness.
Bill status: recently introduced and waiting to be referred to a committee.
Curbing AI deception
Building on a newly enacted law to flag AI images in online home sale listings, Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, wants to extend the regulations to include rental listings. Violations for both would be a criminal offense.
Assembly Bill 2025 would require those who digitally alter an image for a rental ad or promotion to disclose it as such. And if it’s online, the original image would also need to be included, according to the bill text.
“They can do a lot of creative things with AI,” Pellerin said. “A lot of time renters don’t have the time to see the place before signing a lease, and when they move in, it looks completely different.”
Bill status: recently introduced and waiting to be referred to a committee.
Scaling up portable solar
Portable solar energy devices are old news in Germany, where more than 1 million devices were connected to the country’s electric grid by the end of 2025, according to the German Solar Industry Association, a trade group.
Known as “balcony solar” and as an alternative to rooftop solar paneling, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, wants the technology to make waves in California, especially for renters.
With paneling similar to that seen on rooftops, the “plug and play” system includes sheaths that can be fitted around balconies and then plugged into an electrical outlet.
Under Wiener’s proposed Senate Bill 868, similar to one that passed in Utah last year, the devices would be exempt from certain interconnection electricity regulations used on technologies such as solar panels.
Consumers would be exempt from paying an electrical corporation or a publicly owned utility for the electricity the device feeds into a building’s electrical system, according to the bill. In addition, the bill says electric companies or utilities would not be liable for any damage or injury caused by a portable solar device.
Use of portable solar devices has been found to lower reliance on utility companies as well as electricity costs, Wiener’s office said.
“Renters and residents of apartment buildings, in particular, deserve options to lower costs and access clean energy the same way homeowners can access rooftop solar,” Wiener said in a press release.
Bill status: in committee.
Emergency mortgage relief
The California Emergency Mortgage Relief Act is being touted as a first-of-its-kind legislation offering statewide protection to homeowners impacted by a wildfire, flood, earthquake or other natural disaster.
Introduced by Assemblymember John Harabedian, D-Pasadena, Assembly Bill 1842 would establish a framework so that when the governor or federal government declares a state of emergency, a homeowner may request a forbearance to pause mortgage payments on a home that has become uninhabitable as a direct result of the emergency.
If eligible, the homeowner would be approved for an initial forbearance period of 180 days, which could later be extended for up to 12 months.
“California is facing more frequent and severe natural disasters, and families should not have to worry about mortgage payments on homes they cannot live in,” Harabedian said.
Bill status: in committee.
Homelessness funding
Authored by Assemblymember José Luis Solache, D-Lynwood, the HHAP Pathways for Cities Act would make the 469 cities in California that have fewer than 300,000 residents eligible for grant funding through the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program.
Funds from that grant could be used for social services and affordable housing programs.
Now, these grants are only available to cities with populations greater than 300,000, and all 58 counties and the 44 Continuums of Care — which are groups of agencies working together to address homelessness.
“AB 1708 will provide an equitable pathway for all cities to access critical state homelessness funding,” said Solache, the former mayor of Lynwood, a city with about 64,000 residents.
Bill status: in committee.
Coastal development
A bill proposed by Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Hollywood, would modernize California’s coastal permitting process, aiming to make it easier to build multifamily housing in certain transit-rich urban communities in coastal zones.
Eligible communities must have at least one “high-quality transit corridor” or transit priority area, a city plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fatal or severe injury crashes and certain bicycle facilities.
Current state law requires anyone seeking to build in a coastal zone to obtain a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission or local government. This bill would remove that requirement for specific projects.
“Streamlining multifamily housing approvals in existing urbanized areas along California’s coast will both address our housing crisis and increase access to our amazing coastal resources,” Azeen Khanmalek, executive director of Abundant Housing LA, which is co-sponsoring the legislation, said in a statement.
Bill status: in committee.
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