Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6820 To provide emergency rental assistance under the Emergency Solutions Grants program of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in response to the public health emergency resulting from the coronavirus, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MAY 12, 2020 Mr. HECK (for himself, Ms. WATERS, Mr. KILMER, Ms. SCHRIER, Ms. NOR- TON, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. PETERS, Mr. NADLER, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. BERA, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. TONKO, Mr. PERLMUTTER, Mr. POCAN, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. CA´RDENAS, Ms. DELBENE, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. BEYER, Mr. HORSFORD, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas, Mrs. MURPHY of Florida, Mrs. DINGELL, Mr. EVANS, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. NEGUSE, Ms. HAALAND, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mrs. DEMINGS, Mr. CLEAVER, Mr. HUFFMAN, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Miss RICE of New York, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. ROSE of New York, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illi- nois, Mr. RICHMOND, Mrs. HAYES, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mrs. DAVIS of Cali- fornia, Mr. VARGAS, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. LEWIS, Mr. ROUDA, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. CLAY, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. COHEN, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. SAN NICOLAS, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Mr. MI- CHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania, Ms. TLAIB, Ms. BONAMICI, Mrs. AXNE, Ms. BASS, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. GOMEZ, Mr. LOWENTHAL, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. LANGEVIN, Mr. THOMPSON of California, Mr. HIMES, Mr. FOSTER, Mr. LYNCH, Ms. MENG, Ms. SCAN- LON, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. RYAN, Ms. ADAMS, Mr. SUOZZI, Ms. WEXTON, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. JEFFRIES, Mr. SIRES, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Ms. DEAN, Ms. DELAURO, Ms. TITUS, Ms. SHALALA, Mr. TAKANO, Ms. LOFGREN, Ms. MUCARSEL-POWELL, Mr. LARSEN of Washington, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. PASCRELL, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. WILSON of Florida, Mrs. BUSTOS, Mr. SOTO, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. LAWSON of Florida, Mr. SWALWELL of California, Mr. CASTEN of Illinois, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. HIGGINS of New York, Mr. CONNOLLY, Ms. JOHNSON of Texas, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Ms. ROYBAL- ALLARD, Mr. TRONE, Mr. COOPER, Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 6820 IH MCEACHIN, Mr. COURTNEY, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. LEVIN of California, Mr. CICILLINE, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. KILDEE, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. CISNEROS, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. GARAMENDI, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. SHERMAN, Ms. SPEIER, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. QUIGLEY, and Mr. CROW) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services A BILL To provide emergency rental assistance under the Emergency Solutions Grants program of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in response to the public health emergency resulting from the 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 ‘‘Emergency Rental As- 4 sistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. EMERGENCY RENTAL ASSISTANCE. 6 (a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 7 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Housing 8 and Urban Development (referred to in this section as the 9 ‘‘Secretary’’) $100,000,000,000 for an additional amount 10 for grants under the Emergency Solutions Grants pro- 11 gram under subtitle B of title IV of the McKinney-Vento 12 Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11371 et seq.), to 13 remain available until expended (subject to subsections (d) 14 and (n) of this section), to be used for providing rental 15 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 6820 IH assistance in accordance with section 415(a)(4) of such 1 Act (42 U.S.C. 11374(a)(4)) and this section. 2 (b) DEFINITION OF AT RISK OF HOMELESSNESS.— 3 Notwithstanding section 401(1) of the McKinney-Vento 4 Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11360(1)), for pur- 5 poses of assistance made available with amounts made 6 available pursuant to subsection (a), the term ‘‘at risk of 7 homelessness’’ means, with respect to an individual or 8 family, that the individual or family— 9 (1) has an income below 80 percent of the me- 10 dian income for the area as determined by the Sec- 11 retary; and 12 (2) has an inability to attain or maintain hous- 13 ing stability or has insufficient resources to pay for 14 rent or utilities due to financial hardships. 15 (c) INCOME TARGETING AND CALCULATION.—For 16 purposes of assistance made available with amounts made 17 available pursuant to subsection (a)— 18 (1) each grantee of such amounts shall use— 19 (A) not less than 40 percent of the 20 amounts received only for providing assistance 21 for individuals or families experiencing home- 22 lessness or at risk of homelessness who have in- 23 comes not exceeding 30 percent of the median 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 6820 IH income for the area as determined by the Sec- 1 retary; 2 (B) not less than 70 percent of the 3 amounts received only for providing assistance 4 for individuals or families experiencing home- 5 lessness or at risk of homelessness who have in- 6 comes not exceeding 50 percent of the median 7 income for the area as determined by the Sec- 8 retary; and 9 (C) the remainder of the amounts received 10 only for providing assistance to individuals or 11 families experiencing homelessness or at risk of 12 homelessness who have incomes not exceeding 13 80 percent of the median income for the rel- 14 evant geographic area as determined by the 15 Secretary, except that if a grantee demonstrates 16 to the satisfaction of the Secretary that the 17 population in the geographic area served by the 18 grantee having such incomes is sufficiently 19 being served with respect to activities eligible 20 for funding with such amounts, such grantee 21 may establish a higher percentage limit for pur- 22 poses of subsection (b)(1), which shall not in 23 any case exceed 120 percent of the area median 24 income; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 6820 IH (2) in determining the income of a household— 1 (A) the calculation of income performed at 2 the time of application for such assistance shall 3 consider only income that the household is cur- 4 rently receiving at such time and any income 5 recently terminated shall not be included; 6 (B) the calculation of income performed 7 with respect to households receiving ongoing as- 8 sistance (such as medium-term rental assist- 9 ance) 3 months after initial receipt of assist- 10 ance shall consider only the income that the 11 household is receiving at the time of such re- 12 view; and 13 (C) the calculation of income performed 14 with respect to households receiving assistance 15 for arrearages shall consider only the income 16 that the household was receiving at the time 17 such arrearages were incurred. 18 (d) 3-YEAR AVAILABILITY.— 19 (1) IN GENERAL.—Each grantee of amounts 20 made available pursuant to subsection (a) shall— 21 (A) expend not less than 60 percent of 22 such grant amounts within 2 years of the date 23 that such funds became available to the grantee 24 for obligation; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 6820 IH (B) expend 100 percent of such grant 1 amounts within 3 years of such date. 2 (2) REALLOCATION AFTER 2 YEARS.—The Sec- 3 retary may recapture any amounts not obligated in 4 compliance with paragraph (1)(A) and reallocate 5 such amounts to grantees in compliance with the 6 formula referred to in subsection (h)(1)(A). 7 (3) RESCISSION AND REALLOCATION OF 8 FUNDS.—Any amounts made available pursuant to 9 subsection (a) that are not expended by a grantee to 10 provide assistance in accordance with this section by 11 the deadline under paragraph (1)(B) shall be reallo- 12 cated by the Secretary as follows: 13 (A) Sixty-five percent shall be transferred 14 and credited to the Housing Trust Fund estab- 15 lished under section 1338 of the Federal Hous- 16 ing Enterprises Financial Safety and Sound- 17 ness Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568). 18 (B) Thirty-five percent shall be transferred 19 or credited to the Capital Magnet Fund estab- 20 lished under section 1339 of the Federal Hous- 21 ing Enterprises Financial Safety and Sound- 22 ness Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4569). 23 (e) RENT RESTRICTIONS.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 6820 IH (1) INAPPLICABILITY.—Section 576.106(d) of 1 title 24, Code of Federal Regulations, shall not 2 apply with respect to homelessness prevention assist- 3 ance made available with amounts made available 4 under subsection (a). 5 (2) AMOUNT OF RENTAL ASSISTANCE.—In pro- 6 viding homelessness prevention assistance with 7 amounts made available under subsection (a), the 8 maximum amount of rental assistance that may be 9 provided shall be the greater of— 10 (A) 120 percent of the higher of— 11 (i) the Fair Market Rent established 12 by the Secretary for the metropolitan area 13 or county; or 14 (ii) the applicable Small Area Fair 15 Market Rent established by the Secretary; 16 or 17 (B) such higher amount as the Secretary 18 shall determine is needed to cover market rents 19 in the area. 20 (f) SUBLEASES.—Notwithstanding the second sen- 21 tence of subsection (g) of section 576.106 of title 24 of 22 the Code of Federal Regulations, a program participant 23 may sublet, with rental assistance made available with 24 amounts made available pursuant to subsection (a) of this 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 6820 IH section, a dwelling unit from a renter of the dwelling unit 1 if there is a legally binding, written lease agreement for 2 such sublease. 3 (g) HOUSING RELOCATION OR STABILIZATION AC- 4 TIVITIES.—A grantee of amounts made available pursuant 5 to subsection (a) may expend up to 25 percent of its allo- 6 cation for activities under section 415(a)(5) of the McKin- 7 ney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 8 11374(a)(5)), except that notwithstanding such section, 9 activities under such section may be provided only for indi- 10 viduals or families having incomes not exceeding 50 per- 11 cent of the area median income. 12 (h) ALLOCATION OF ASSISTANCE.— 13 (1) IN GENERAL.—In allocating amounts made 14 available pursuant to subsection (a), the Secretary 15 shall— 16 (A)(i) for any purpose authorized in this 17 section, allocate 2 percent of such amount for 18 Indian tribes and tribally designated housing 19 entities (as such terms are defined in section 4 20 of the Native American Housing Assistance and 21 Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 22 4103)) under the formula established pursuant 23 to section 302 of such Act (25 U.S.C. 4152), 24 except that 0.3 percent of the amount allocated 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 6820 IH under this clause shall be allocated for the De- 1 partment of Hawaiian Home Lands; and 2 (ii) not later than 30 days after the date 3 of enactment of this Act, obligate and disburse 4 the amounts allocated pursuant to clause (i) in 5 accordance with such allocations and provide 6 such grantees with any necessary guidance for 7 use of the funds; 8 (B)(i) not later than 7 days after the date 9 of enactment of this Act and after setting aside 10 amounts under subparagraph (A), allocate 50 11 percent of any such remaining amounts under 12 the formula specified in subsections (a), (b), 13 and (e) of section 414 of the McKinney-Vento 14 Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11373) 15 for, and notify, each State, metropolitan city, 16 and urban county that is to receive a direct 17 grant of such amounts; and 18 (ii) not later than 30 days after the date 19 of enactment of this Act, obligate and disburse 20 the amounts allocated pursuant to clause (i) in 21 accordance with such allocations and provide 22 such grantees with any necessary guidance for 23 use of the funds; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:32 Jun 01, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 6820 IH (C)(i) not later than 45 days after the date 1 of enactment of this Act, allocate any remaining 2 amounts for eligible grantees according to a for- 3 mula to be developed by the Secretary that 4 takes into consideration the formula referred to 5 in subparagraph (A) and the need for emer- 6 gency rental assistance under this section, in- 7 cluding the severe housing cost burden among 8 extremely low- and very low-income renters and 9 disruptions in housing and economic conditions, 10 including unemployment; and 11 (ii) not later than 30 days after the date 12 of the allocation of such amounts pursuant to 13 clause (i), obligate and disburse such amounts 14 in accordance with such allocations. 15 (2) ALLOCATIONS TO STATES.— 16 (A) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding sec- 17 tion 576.202(a) of title 24, Code of Federal 18 Regulations, a State recipient of an allocation 19 under this section may elect to administer up to 20 100 percent of its allocation to carry out activi- 21 ties eligible under this section. 22 (B) REQUIREMENT.—Any State recipient 23 making an election described in subparagraph 24 (A) shall serve households throughout the entire 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:40 May 30, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6820.IH H6820 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 6820 IH State, including households in rural commu- 1 nities and small towns. 2 (3) ELECTION NOT TO ADMINISTER.—If a 3 grantee elects not to receive funds under this sec- 4 tion, such funds shall be allocated to the State re- 5 cipient in which the grantee is located. 6 (4) PARTNERSHIPS AND SUBGRANTEES.—A re- 7 cipient of a grant under this section may distribute 8 fun [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]