(a) An authority shall prepare a feasible method or plan for relocation of any families and persons to be temporarily or permanently displaced from housing facilities in the area affected by the affordable housing investment plan. The method or plan adopted pursuant to this section shall be incorporated into the affordable housing investment plan pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 62252.

(b) The city, county, or city and county that created the authority shall ensure that the method or plan of the authority for the relocation of families or single persons to be displaced by a rehabilitation or retrofitting project within the affordable housing investment plan area shall provide that no persons or families of low and moderate income shall be displaced unless and until there is a suitable housing unit available and ready for occupancy by the displaced person or family at rents comparable to those at the time of their displacement and that all other requirements of Chapter 16 (commencing with Section 7260) of Division 7 of Title 1 of the Government Code are met. The housing units shall be suitable to the needs of those displaced persons or families and must be decent, safe, sanitary, and otherwise standard dwellings. The authority shall not displace the person or family until the housing units are available and ready for occupancy.

(c) The authority shall require in the recorded covenants for those units that the housing be made available to the persons and families of low or moderate income displaced by a rehabilitation or retrofitting project. Those persons and families shall be given priority in renting or buying those units in advance of marketing the units to the general public. Failure to give that priority shall not affect the validity of title to real property; however, a unit may not be counted as a replacement or production unit in the event of noncompliance with this provision. The authority shall keep a list of persons and families of low and moderate income displaced by the rehabilitation or retrofitting project who are to be given priority, and may establish reasonable rules for determining the order or priority on the list. The list shall be provided to the owner of those properties at or before any certificate of occupancy is issued.

(d) If insufficient suitable housing units are available in the affordable housing investment plan area for low- and moderate-income persons and families to be displaced from a rehabilitation or retrofitting project, the city council or board of supervisors that created the authority shall assure that sufficient land be made available within its territorial jurisdiction for suitable housing for rental or purchase by low- and moderate-income persons and families. If insufficient suitable housing units are available in the community for use by persons and families of low and moderate income displaced by the rehabilitation or retrofitting project, the authority may, to the extent of that deficiency, direct or cause the development, rehabilitation, or construction of housing units within the community, both inside and outside of the affordable housing investment plan area.

(e) Permanent housing facilities shall be made available within two years from the time occupants are displaced and pending the development of those facilities there will be available to those displaced occupants adequate temporary housing facilities at rents comparable to the units from which the displaced occupants were displaced.

(f) (1) Whenever dwelling units housing persons and families of low or moderate income are destroyed or removed from the low- and moderate-income housing market as part of a rehabilitation or retrofitting project that is subject to a written agreement with the authority or where financial assistance has been provided by the authority, the authority shall, within two years of the destruction or removal, rehabilitate, develop, or construct, or cause to be rehabilitated, developed, or constructed, for rental or sale to persons and families of low or moderate income, an equal number of replacement dwelling units that have an equal or greater number of bedrooms as those destroyed or removed units at affordable housing costs within the territorial jurisdiction of the authority. One hundred percent of the replacement dwelling units shall be available at an affordable housing cost to persons in the same or a lower income category (extremely low, low, very low, or moderate), as the persons displaced from those destroyed or removed units.

(2) The authority shall require all replacement dwelling units and other dwelling units rehabilitated, retrofitted, developed, constructed, or price restricted to remain available at affordable housing cost to, and occupied by, persons and families of extremely low income, low-income, moderate-income, and very low income households, respectively, for not less than 55 years for rental units or 45 years for owner-occupied units.

(3) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the authority may replace, destroy, or remove dwelling units with a fewer number of replacement dwelling units if the replacement dwelling units meet both of the following criteria:

(A) The total number of bedrooms in the replacement dwelling units equals or exceeds the number of bedrooms in the destroyed or removed units. Destroyed or removed units having one or no bedroom are deemed for this purpose to have one bedroom.

(B) The replacement units are affordable to, and occupied by, the same income level of households as the destroyed or removed units.

(g) (1) An authority shall provide relocation assistance and shall make all of the payments required by Chapter 16 (commencing with Section 7260) of Division 7 of Title 1, including the making of those payments financed by the federal government.

(2) This subdivision shall not be construed to limit any other authority which an authority may have to make other relocation assistance payments, or to make any relocation assistance payment in an amount which exceeds the maximum amount for that payment authorized by Chapter 16 (commencing with Section 7260) of Division 7 of Title 1.

(Added by Stats. 2017, Ch. 764, Sec. 1. (AB 1598) Effective January 1, 2018.)