SB 330 protected units: what a teardown owes the housing it removes

The Housing Crisis Act of 2019 (SB 330, extended by SB 8), archived at Gov. Code §§ 66300–66300.6.5, is the statute that governs most multifamily teardowns through its sunset on January 1, 2030. Its demolition article says a covered jurisdiction may not approve a project that requires demolishing residential units unless the project replaces them — and may not approve demolition of protected units at all unless replacement, relocation and right-of-return conditions are met.

For redevelopment underwriting this is the central compliance stack: it decides how many affordable units the new project must absorb, what the displacement budget is, and which tenants come back at what rents. HCD's April 2026 advisory is the agency's current reading.

Protected units include those that, now or within the past five years, were (a) subject to rent control or any form of rent/price restriction, (b) deed-restricted affordable, or (c) occupied by lower-income households. Ordinary market-rate units occupied by moderate/above-moderate households are "residential units" — still triggering one-for-one replacement — but without the occupant-protection package.

• Underwriting watch-outs:
• The five-year look-back means a seller's recent vacancies don't cleanse the site — diligence rent rolls and departures back five years, same as the density-bonus screen.
• Occupant income is presumed lower-income absent evidence; build the conservative case.
• Withdrawn (Ellis) units within the look-back carry their own layered restrictions — see the Ellis guide.

• One-for-one replacement: the project must create at least as many units as it demolishes; protected units must be replaced under the standards borrowed from the density-bonus statute's § 65915(c)(3) — equivalent affordability, comparable bedroom mix.
• Relocation: lower-income occupants receive relocation benefits and assistance consistent with state relocation law.
• Right of return: displaced lower-income occupants get a first right to a comparable unit in the new project at an affordable rent.
• Interim protections: existing occupants may remain until 6 months before construction, with proper notices.

• Underwriting watch-outs:
• Replacement affordability stacks with any density-bonus set-aside — on formerly rent-controlled sites the combined load can dominate the unit mix; run the stack before pricing land.
• Right-of-return units rent at affordable levels to returning households — model those units at restricted rents for the return window, not market.
• The relocation line item belongs in sources-and-uses from day one; on occupied 10–20 unit buildings it is routinely six figures.

The HCA's first article also bars covered jurisdictions from downzoning below their January 1, 2018 zoning capacity, from imposing housing moratoria or subjective-standard creep, and from applying new standards to vested SB 330 applications. Together with the preliminary-application freeze (see the streamlining topic), the Act is both a shield for your project and a set of duties toward the housing you remove.

Sunset: the principal provisions expire January 1, 2030 by their own terms. Projects vested before then keep their protections; timing a teardown pipeline around the sunset — in either direction — is now a real underwriting decision.