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Committee advances AB 1339 to study insurance costs facing affordable housing providers
Summary
AB 1339, authored by Assemblymember Gonzales, was moved to Appropriations after sponsors said rising insurance premiums threaten affordable housing providers and that a data-driven CDI study is needed to craft policy responses.
Assemblymember Isaac Gonzales’ AB 1339, which would require the California Department of Insurance (CDI) to study insurance availability, premium trends and underwriting practices affecting affordable housing providers and to report policy and budget recommendations by Dec. 31, 2026, was approved by the Assembly Insurance Committee and referred to Appropriations.
Sponsor witnesses from Enterprise Community Partners and Housing California said the affordable housing sector has faced steep premium increases—witnesses reported increases ranging from 50% to as much as 4,500% for some organizations—and that those increases threaten providers’ financial viability. “Affordable housing developers are legally required to restrict rents at affordable levels, making it impossible to pass on the costs of rising premiums to their tenants,” Natalie Spivak of Housing California said.
Supporters described the study as a necessary step to get reliable, property-level data on premiums, claims and underwriting factors (including resident populations and income sources) so policymakers can design interventions tailored to affordable housing. Enterprise Community Partners’ Araceli Palafox told the committee the sponsors convened a working group of more than 100 organizations statewide to analyze the problem and that the proposed study would inform longer-term solutions.
No organized opposition appeared at the hearing. The committee approved the bill as amended and referred it to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for fiscal review. The CDI would be directed to consult with insurers, risk-sharing pools and affordable housing entities in preparing the study and to deliver a report with recommendations.
If enacted, AB 1339 would create a data-collection and reporting requirement to inform policy responses to rising insurance costs for properties that serve low-income residents; sponsors said the modest cost of the study is justified by the need to protect billions of dollars in affordable-housing assets and the residents who live in them.
