STAY HOME Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6714 To provide assistance to pay off rental arrearages of low- and moderate- income households accruing during the public health emergency relating to coronavirus, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 5, 2020 Mr. ESPAILLAT (for himself and Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services A BILL To provide assistance to pay off rental arrearages of low- and moderate-income households accruing during the public health emergency relating to coronavirus, 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 ‘‘Subsidizing Tenant 4 Arrears Yet Helping Owners with Mortgages Emergency 5 Act of 2020’’ or the ‘‘STAY HOME Act of 2020’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:47 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6714.IH H6714 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6714 IH SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 1 In addition to any other amounts made available for 2 fiscal year 2020 for grants under the Emergency Solutions 3 Grants program under subtitle B of title IV of the McKin- 4 ney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11371 et 5 seq.), there is authorized to be appropriated 6 $25,000,000,000 for grants under such subtitle made in 7 accordance with this Act to respond to needs arising from 8 the public health emergency relating to Coronavirus Dis- 9 ease 2019 (COVID-19). 10 SEC. 3. ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES. 11 (a) PAYMENTS FOR RENTAL ARREARAGES.— 12 Amounts made available pursuant to section 2 of this Act 13 may be used only to provide payments, to avoid eviction, 14 on behalf of eligible households under subsection (b), di- 15 rectly to the owners of dwelling units occupied by such 16 households, in the amount necessary to pay all or a por- 17 tion of any amount of rent for such dwelling unit past 18 due at the time of such payment and attributable to occu- 19 pancy at any time during the emergency declared on 20 March 13, 2020, by the President under the Robert T. 21 Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 22 (42 U.S.C. 4121 et seq.) relating to the Coronavirus Dis- 23 ease 2019 (COVID–19) pandemic. 24 (b) ELIGIBLE HOUSEHOLDS.—An eligible household 25 under this section shall be a household that— 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:47 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6714.IH H6714 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6714 IH (1) has an income that does not exceed 120 1 percent of the median income for the area in which 2 the family resides; and 3 (2) resides in a dwelling unit located in any 4 area that, at any time during the emergency speci- 5 fied in subsection (a), is or was subject to an order 6 made by any State or local government official or 7 agency requiring residents to stay at home, to stay 8 at home except to the extent necessary, or to stay 9 at home except to the extent necessary to conduct 10 essential activities. 11 (c) TREATMENT OF CREDIT SCORES.—An owner or 12 other lessor of a dwelling unit for which a payment of rent 13 is made pursuant to this Act shall not report such pay- 14 ment or assistance to a consumer reporting agency and 15 the provision of such assistance on behalf of an eligible 16 household shall not adversely affect the credit score of any 17 member of such household. 18 (d) PROHIBITION.—No grantee of amounts under 19 this Act nor any State nor local government may require 20 any eligible household to prove or demonstrate an ability 21 to pay future rent amounts due or to prove or demonstrate 22 employment, as a condition of assistance under this Act 23 on behalf of such household. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:47 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6714.IH H6714 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 6714 IH (e) TREATMENT.—In applying subtitle B of title IV 1 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 2 U.S.C. 11371 et seq.) with respect to amounts made avail- 3 able pursuant to section 2 of this Act, any reference to 4 activities under section 415(a) of the McKinney-Vento 5 Homeless Assistance Act shall be considered to include the 6 activity under subsection (a) of this section. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:47 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6714.IH H6714 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS