Sen. Nancy Skinner Introduces Bill to Protect Live-Work Housing and Ensure Safety
Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, announced today Senate Bill 906, which is designed to protect existing live-work and warehouse spaces used for housing to ensure safety improvements are made without residents being displaced. SB 906 would allow cities to work cooperatively with property owners to make live-work and warehouse spaces and other types of housing safer. The legislation would also reform California live-work laws that effectively make some communal live-work and warehouse spaces, including arts and maker communities, illegal.
“California’s housing crisis demands that we give cities the tools they need to protect existing housing while making it safer, especially live-work and warehouse spaces,” Sen. Skinner said. “Right now, cities are faced with difficult choices: Force the closure of live-work and warehouse spaces and other types of housing that have safety issues and push tenants onto the street; mandate upgrades that could make the housing too expensive for existing tenants; or ignore the problems and allow people to remain in potentially hazardous conditions. SB 906 is a necessary tool to protect and retain live-work and warehouse residences.”
The city of Oakland is a co-sponsor of SB 906. Oakland has numerous live-work and industrial warehouse spaces that could be made into safe, affordable housing, particularly for struggling artists and musicians and other creative people. Unfortunately, current law gives cities little flexibility in working with property owners and tenants, so substandard live-work and warehouse spaces often end up being red-tagged for code violations and immediately closed by property owners who cannot afford to make all the improvements immediately, with tenants losing their homes and sometimes becoming homeless.
“SB 906 would allow us to work closely with property owners to keep some of our most vulnerable tenants and artists housed in safe, affordable live-work and warehouse spaces,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “Oakland has a long and proud history of fostering affordable joint living and work spaces, especially for our vibrant arts and maker communities. But as a city, we must also ensure that people have safe, affordable housing, and are not forced onto the streets and into homelessness. So, we’re proud to work closely with Sen. Skinner and get SB 906 passed into law.”
Under SB 906, the city would have the flexibility to work with property owners of live-work and warehouse spaces and other types of housing that do not fully meet code so that property owners could make repairs over a period of up to seven years — prioritizing those upgrades necessary to protect the health and safety of tenants and the public. That way, repairs could be done over time, so that tenants don’t get evicted or face steep, unaffordable rent hikes. SB 906 also fixes woefully out-of-date California live-work laws that cap the number of residents of a space at four or mandate that all tenants be related to each other. These rules have effectively made many current joint-living communities unlawful.
“The city of Oakland has a long and important history of creative communities and live-work spaces. It is important that state law promotes and supports safe and effective live-work opportunities,” said Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan. “I appreciate Sen. Skinner for her leadership in introducing legislation to ensure cities can work collaboratively with our communities to provide safe and affordable live-work solutions.”
SB 906 also has support from people and groups in the live-work, DIY community. “I support legislation that eases the way for joint living and working quarters for any household size, regardless of family relations. I also support flexibility to allow substandard buildings seven years to come into compliance when there are not imminent life-safety issues,” said East Bay architect Tom Dolan, founding member of Safer DIY Spaces, Oakland.
Sen. Nancy Skinner represents the 9th Senate District, which includes the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and Alameda, and much of the East Bay. She is also the Senate majority whip.