In accordance with Assembly Bill 1255 (Robert Rivas, 2019), every California city and county is now required to have a central inventory of surplus and excess land and must report this inventory to HCD on the Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) form by April 1 of each year. To download and learn more about this form, please see the Annual Progress Reports.
HCD’s rulemaking process is an opportunity for the Department and interested parties to work together to develop regulations that impact the general welfare and well-being of the public.
One of the first required steps in rulemaking is to file a Notice of Proposed Action (Notice) with the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). Once filed, OAL will publish the Notice in the California Regulatory Notice Register (Register). HCD will also post the Notice on its website for public review.
The Surplus Land Act (SLA) (Gov. Code, §§ 54220-54234) aims to make local public land that is no longer needed for government purposes available for building affordable homes.
On January 15, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-06-19 that ordered the California Department of General Services (DGS) and HCD to identify and prioritize excess state-owned property and aggressively pursue sustainable, innovative, cost-effective housing projects.
One of the challenges in building new affordable homes is acquiring land suitable for housing. In 2019, Governor Newsom took several actions to make state and local public lands available for affordable housing development including:
The California State Auditor performed an evaluation of the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Mobilehome Park Maintenance inspection process in July 2020.
The results report provided a list of recommendations for the program. To better protect the health and safety of mobilehome park residents and owners, HCD has already implemented many of the report recommendations. Some of these actions include visiting a wider variety of mobilehome parks, improved consistency in inspections, and better communication with parks owners, management, and residents.
California Health and Safety Code section 18400.3 requires HCD to convene a task force of representatives of mobilehome owners, mobilehome park operators, local enforcement agencies that conduct mobilehome park inspections, and the Legislature, every six months, to provide input to HCD on the conduct and operation of the mobilehome park maintenance inspection program.
March 13, 2026 Task Force Meeting
The HUD Exchange – Related Federal Laws and Authorities website should be used as a step by step guide for only the following six topics:
Step 1 — Determine if your project will be using only HTF funding sources, or if you will be using a combination of federal funding sources.
Step 2 — Select the correct environmental review document based on your answers in Step 1. HCD has prepared four different environmental review documents (linked below) depending on the proposed NHTF project status.
National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF) projects must comply with Federal Housing Trust Fund (HTF) Environmental Provisions, which is a specialized federal environmental review for NHTF projects.
The Environmental Provision requirements and guidance are described in HUD Notice: CPD-16-14 (PDF).
