Cal. Code Regs. tit. 18 § 137
Example No. 1
The two-story building with seven completely-furnished apartments is used exclusively to provide temporary low-cost housing to missionaries, clergy, other religious workers and their families on furlough status while in the United States. The articles of incorporation of the nonprofit religious corporation which owns and operates the property provide that its purpose is to provide housing for missionaries, clergymen, other religious workers and their families who work in establishing and furthering its religious purposes throughout the world. This housing is exempt as a facility incidental to and reasonably necessary for the accomplishment of the church's religious and charitable purposes.
Example No. 2
The property of a private school is used to provide board and housing to students. Although most of the school's students were day students, some students relied upon the school for board and lodging. These services provided by the school are reasonably related to the exempt educational activity, and are an exempt use of the property within the school's educational purpose.
Example No. 3
Property owned by a nonprofit corporation is used for housing and related facilities for persons who assemble two weeks each year for purposes of religious instruction and worship. The residential facilities are exempt as within the organization's religious purpose. Housing for caretakers or maintenance workers required to reside at the religious conclave facility is exempt as institutionally necessary.
Example No. 4
A nonprofit religious organization owns housing which it provides to its ministers and their families. Organizational documents require the church to provide housing as part of a system that allows the organization flexibility in assigning the clergy, aids in recruiting and keeping the clergy and provides the clergy with privacy and respite. The property also is used regularly for church functions such as youth meetings and organizational committee meetings. The church's use of its property to provide housing for its clergy is exempt as reasonably necessary for the furtherance of its religious purpose.
Example No. 5
The primary missionary activity of a nonprofit religious organization is to publish and disseminate its religious literature to the general public. The organization owns a complex consisting of a temple and six apartment buildings that provide work areas for about 250 devotees, about one-half of whom are involved in the publishing and distribution of the organization's religious books and magazines. The work areas are frequently used at night as sleeping areas since most of the devotees live in the rooms in which they work. The devotees follow a seven-hour daily regimen of communal and individual daily prayers, meditations, chanting, and attendance at temple services and observe a strict diet which necessitates living in the temple complex. Property used for housing the devotees in the temple complex is exempt as reasonably necessary for the fulfillment of the organization's religious objectives.
Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 18, § 137
Note: Authority cited: Section 15606(c), Government Code. Reference: Sections 214, 214.01, 214.1., 214.2, 254, 254.5 and 255, Revenue and Taxation Code; and Article XIII, Sections (4)b and (5), California Constitution.