HomeMy WebLinkAboutDiamond Bar SB 866 (Blakespear) - Letter of Opposition (Superceded by letter 8/6/2026)
City of Diamond Bar
21810 Copley Drive | Diamond Bar, CA 91765-4178
909-839 -7000 | Fax 909-861-3117
www.DiamondBarCA.gov
Steve Tye
Mayor
District 1
Ruth M. Low
Mayor Pro Tem
District 2
Andrew Chou
Council Member
District 3
Stan Liu
Council Member
District 5
Chia Yu Teng
Council Member
District 4
June 11 , 2026
The Honorable Matt Haney
Chair, Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee
1020 N Street, Room 156
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: Opposition of SB 866 (Blakespear) - Planning and zoning: housing element:
unhoused population.
Dear Chair Haney,
As Mayor of the City of Diamond Bar, I am writing to respectfully oppose SB 866
(Blakespear), which would impose extensive homelessness-related data reporting
requirements in the Housing Elements of small cities with populations between 50,000 and
300,000.
The State’s flagship homelessness grant program, the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and
Prevention (HHAP) Grant Program, allocates funding to 14 cities with populations over
300,000. Grantees must submit a regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to the
California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) that includes
data collection on homelessness. The original intent of making such data collection a
requirement for receiving HHAP funding was to ensure accountability for jurisdictions
receiving direct state funding to address homelessness.
Recent amendments to SB 866 would impose a separate reporting requirement on 165
small cities that do not receive HHAP funding, such as the City of Diamond Bar. This
requirement to collect extensive homelessness data despite lacking the necessary
resources is further contradicted by the fact that the next round of HHAP proposes
exempting the largest cities that receive millions of dollars in State homelessness funding
from the same extensive data-collection mandate proposed under SB 866.
Several of the proposed data collection requirements would be extremely difficult, if not
impossible, for cities to fulfill. SB 866 would require cities to report the number of individuals
who become homeless after exiting institutional systems such as jails, prisons, hospitals, and
treatment centers – all of which are operated primarily by the State, counties, healthcare
providers, or private entities that do not share or provide information to cities.
Implementing these requirements would also place a significant administrative and
financial burden on cities like Diamond Bar that do not receive direct state homelessness
funding. The process of updating Housing Elements is already complex, costly, and time -
Chair Matt Haney
June 11, 2026
Page 2
intensive, involving extensive public outreach, technical analysis, environmental review,
and coordination with HCD. Adding homelessness-related reporting requirements would
increase the risk of delays in Housing Element certification and create additional
compliance challenges for cities working in good faith to comply with State housing laws.
For these reasons, the City of Diamond Bar respectfully opposes SB 866 and urges the
Legislature to pursue collaborative, regionally coordinated solutions without imposing
additional unfunded mandates on local governments.
Sincerely,
Steve Tye
Mayor, City of Diamond Bar
cc: Diamond Bar City Council
Senator Bob J. Archuleta, 30th District
Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, 56th District
Jennifer Quan, Regional Public Affairs Manager, League of California Cities
League of California Cities, cityletters@cacities.org