---
type: "Bill"
title: "Employee Housing Act: agricultural land use."
description: "The Employee Housing Act requires a person operating employee housing to obtain a permit to operate that housing from the agency that enforces the act, which can either be the Department of Housing and Community Development or a city, county, or city and county that assumes responsibility for enforcing the act. The act designates any employee housing consisting of no more than 36 beds in a group quarters or 12 units or spaces designed for use by a single family or household as an agricultural land use."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "AB 840"
citation: "California AB 840 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Employee Housing Act: agricultural land use."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Torres"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 15
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2011-02-17"
last_action: "2011-07-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/e61e1f0d-7080-4749-b718-a026da0cb55a"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB840"
source_hash: "7f525e5eefdc77c8b8c83d8775ad3788004f8463d7ac1befef8f0d286f825bee"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 840 (20112012) — Employee Housing Act: agricultural land use.

The Employee Housing Act requires a person operating employee housing to obtain a permit to operate that housing from the agency that enforces the act, which can either be the Department of Housing and Community Development or a city, county, or city and county that assumes responsibility for enforcing the act. The act designates any employee housing consisting of no more than 36 beds in a group quarters or 12 units or spaces designed for use by a single family or household as an agricultural land use.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/17/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB840&version=20110AB84099INT)
2. **07/08/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB840&version=20110AB84097CHP)
3. **AB840** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB840)
4. **06/24/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB840&version=20110AB84098ENR)

## Votes

- AB 840 TORRES Consent Calendar Second Day — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be placed on the Consent Calendar. — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- Consent Calendar 2nd — **36–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **5–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Torres — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2011-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2011-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2011-03-25** Referred to Com. on H. & C.D. `referral-committee`
- **2011-05-11** From committee: Do pass. To consent calendar. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (May 11). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-12** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-05-19** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 1449.) `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-05-19** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2011-06-02** Referred to Com. on T. & H. `referral-committee`
- **2011-06-15** From committee: Do pass. To consent calendar. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 14). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-06-16** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-06-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 1536.). `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-06-23** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2011-06-27** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11:30 a.m.
- **2011-07-07** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-07-08** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 74, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/e61e1f0d-7080-4749-b718-a026da0cb55a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).