Emergency Homelessness Assistance Act of 2021

I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1706 To provide emergency homelessness assistance to respond to the COVID- 19 pandemic, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 9, 2021 Ms. PRESSLEY (for herself, Ms. WATERS, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. NEGUSE, and Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services A BILL To provide emergency homelessness assistance to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Emergency Homeless- 4 ness Assistance Act of 2021’’. 5 SEC. 2. HOMELESSNESS ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORTIVE 6 SERVICES PROGRAM. 7 (a) APPROPRIATION.—In addition to amounts other- 8 wise made available, out of any money in the Treasury 9 not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated for fis- 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 May 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1706.IH H1706 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1706 IH cal year 2021, $5,000,000,000, as authorized under title 1 II of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing 2 Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. 12721 et seq.), to remain 3 available until September 30, 2025, except that amounts 4 authorized under subsection (d)(3) shall remain available 5 until September 30, 2029, for the following activities to 6 primarily benefit qualifying individuals or families: 7 (1) Tenant-based rental assistance. 8 (2) The development and support of affordable 9 housing pursuant to section 212(a) of the Cranston- 10 Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (42 11 U.S.C. 12742(a)) (‘‘the Act’’ herein). 12 (3) Supportive services to qualifying individuals 13 or families not already receiving such supportive 14 services, including— 15 (A) activities listed in section 401(29) of 16 the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act 17 (42 U.S.C. 11360(29)); 18 (B) housing counseling; and 19 (C) homeless prevention services. 20 (4) The acquisition and development of non- 21 congregate shelter units, all or a portion of which 22 may— 23 (A) be converted to permanent affordable 24 housing; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:44 May 06, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1706.IH H1706 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1706 IH (B) be used as emergency shelter under 1 subtitle B of title IV of the McKinney-Vento 2 Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11371– 3 11378); 4 (C) be converted to permanent housing 5 under subtitle C of title IV of the McKinney- 6 Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 7 11381–11389); or 8 (D) remain as non-congregate shelter 9 units. 10 (b) QUALIFYING INDIVIDUALS OR FAMILIES DE- 11 FINED.—For the purposes of this section, qualifying indi- 12 viduals or families are those who are— 13 (1) homeless, as defined in section 103(a) of 14 the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 15 U.S.C. 11302(a)); 16 (2) at-risk of homelessness, as defined in sec- 17 tion 401(1) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assist- 18 ance Act (42 U.S.C. 11360(1)); 19 (3) fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic vio- 20 lence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or 21 human trafficking; 22 (4) in other populations where providing sup- 23 portive services or assistance under section 212(a) of 24 the Act (42 U.S.C. 12742(a)) would prevent the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 May 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1706.IH H1706 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1706 IH family’s homelessness or would serve those with the 1 greatest risk of housing instability; or 2 (5) veterans and families that include a veteran 3 family member that meet one of the preceding cri- 4 teria. 5 (c) TERMS AND CONDITIONS.— 6 (1) FUNDING RESTRICTIONS.—The cost limits 7 in section 212(e) (42 U.S.C. 12742(e)), the commit- 8 ment requirements in section 218(g) (42 U.S.C. 9 12749(g)), the matching requirements in section 220 10 (42 U.S.C. 12750), and the set-aside for housing de- 11 veloped, sponsored, or owned by community housing 12 development organizations required in section 231 of 13 the Act (42 U.S.C. 12771) shall not apply for 14 amounts made available in this section. 15 (2) ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Notwithstanding 16 sections 212(c) and (d)(1) of the Act (42 U.S.C. 17 12742(c) and (d)(1)), of the funds made available in 18 this section for carrying out activities authorized in 19 this section, a grantee may use up to fifteen percent 20 of its allocation for administrative and planning 21 costs. 22 (3) OPERATING EXPENSES.—Notwithstanding 23 sections 212(a) and (g) of the Act (42 U.S.C. 24 12742(a) and (g)), a grantee may use up to an addi- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:44 May 06, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1706.IH H1706 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1706 IH tional five percent of its allocation for the payment 1 of operating expenses of community housing develop- 2 ment organizations and nonprofit organizations car- 3 rying out activities authorized under this section, 4 but only if— 5 (A) such funds are used to develop the ca- 6 pacity of the community housing development 7 organization or nonprofit organization in the ju- 8 risdiction or insular area to carry out activities 9 authorized under this section; and 10 (B) the community housing development 11 organization or nonprofit organization complies 12 with the limitation on assistance in section 13 234(b) of the Act (42 U.S.C. 12774(b)). 14 (d) ALLOCATION.— 15 (1) FORMULA ASSISTANCE.—Except as pro- 16 vided in paragraphs (2) and (3), amounts made 17 available under this section shall be allocated pursu- 18 ant to section 217 of the Act (42 U.S.C. 12746) to 19 grantees that received allocations pursuant to that 20 same formula in fiscal year 2021, and such alloca- 21 tions shall be made within 30 days of enactment of 22 this Act. 23 (2) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—Up to 24 $25,000,000 of the amounts made available under 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 May 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1706.IH H1706 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1706 IH this section shall be used, without competition, to 1 make new awards or increase prior awards to exist- 2 ing technical assistance providers to provide an im- 3 mediate increase in capacity building and technical 4 assistance available to any grantees implementing 5 activities or projects consistent with this section. 6 (3) OTHER COSTS.—Up to $50,000,000 of the 7 amounts made available under this section shall be 8 used for the administrative costs to oversee and ad- 9 minister implementation of this section and the 10 HOME program generally, including information 11 technology, financial reporting, and other costs. 12 (4) WAIVERS.—Any provision of any statute or 13 regulation used to administer the amounts made 14 available under this section (except for requirements 15 related to fair housing, nondiscrimination, labor 16 standards, and the environment), may be waived 17 upon a finding that any such waivers or alternative 18 requirements are necessary to expedite or facilitate 19 the use of amounts made available in this section. 20 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:28 May 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1706.IH H1706 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS