2024-109 California Department of Housing and Community Development
Increased Support is Critical for Local Jurisdictions to Complete Timely Housing Plans
Published: January 15, 2026
Audit Recommendations Disclosure
When an audit is completed and a report is issued, auditees must provide the State Auditor with information regarding their progress in implementing recommendations from our reports at three intervals from the release of the report: 60 days, six months, and one year. Additionally, Senate Bill 1452 (Chapter 452, Statutes of 2006), requires auditees who have not implemented recommendations after one year, to report to us and to the Legislature why they have not implemented them or to state when they intend to implement them. Below is a listing of each recommendation the State Auditor made in the report referenced and a link to the most recent response from the auditee addressing their progress in implementing the recommendation and the State Auditor’s assessment of auditee’s response based on our review of the supporting documentation.
Recommendations to the Legislature
Recommendation 1
To reduce the spike in HCD’s workload that occurs when many local jurisdictions submit their revised housing elements contemporaneously, the Legislature should consider amending the housing element law to further stagger these submissions by doing the following:
Assigning housing element due dates based on smaller regional groupings and local jurisdiction size. Such an amendment should allow local jurisdictions within larger COGs to have different due dates, such as separating ABAG and SCAG deadlines by three years.
Agency response status:
Pending
Recommendation 2
To reduce the spike in HCD’s workload that occurs when many local jurisdictions submit their revised housing elements contemporaneously, the Legislature should consider amending the housing element law to further stagger these submissions by doing the following:
Establishing incentives, such as priority access to housing-related grants or streamlined review by HCD, for local jurisdictions that submit their housing element revisions, including subsequent submittals, ahead of schedule.
Agency response status:
Pending
Recommendation 3
To ensure that local jurisdictions and HCD have time to adjust to any new or updated housing element laws without disrupting current planning cycles, the Legislature should consider including a transition period, such as a delay in the effective date of a law passed during a planning cycle.
Agency response status:
Pending
Recommendations to the California Department of Housing and Community Development
Recommendation 4
To ensure that local jurisdictions have the assistance and guidance necessary to update their revised housing elements, HCD should immediately create or revise polices to do the following:
Ensure that it offers scheduled meetings to local jurisdictions following their receipt of a findings letter.
Agency response status:
Pending
Recommendation 5
To ensure that local jurisdictions have the assistance and guidance necessary to update their revised housing elements, HCD should immediately create or revise polices to do the following:
Ensure that it uses consistent language in its findings letters to distinguish between a requirement and a suggestion.
Agency response status:
Pending
Recommendation 6
To ensure that local jurisdictions have the assistance and guidance necessary to update their revised housing elements, HCD should immediately create or revise polices to do the following:
Establish timelines to ensure that it issues guidance for new legal requirements before those requirements take effect.
Agency response status:
Pending
Recommendation 7
To ensure that local jurisdictions have the assistance and guidance necessary to update their revised housing elements, HCD should immediately create or revise polices to do the following:
Provide each local jurisdiction or group of local jurisdictions within a COG with a proposed timeline that identifies significant milestones such as expected dates for the submission of initial and revised draft housing elements and that allows adequate time for the department’s review and feedback.
Agency response status:
Pending
Recommendation 8
To ensure that it has sufficient staffing to conduct timely and thorough housing element reviews and to provide local jurisdictions with individualized assistance as necessary, HCD should complete a comprehensive workforce analysis. This analysis should assess current and projected workload, include both primary and secondary reviewers, and specifically address times of significantly increased workload. This analysis should also include a review of the compensation offered to primary and secondary reviewers and their competitiveness to other, comparable positions.
Agency response status:
Pending
