Emergency Housing Voucher Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 7084 To authorize emergency rental voucher assistance, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 1, 2020 Ms. WATERS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services A BILL To authorize emergency rental voucher assistance, 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 Housing 4 Voucher Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. EMERGENCY RENTAL ASSISTANCE VOUCHER PRO- 6 GRAM. 7 (a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 8 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Housing 9 and Urban Development (in this section referred to as the 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:55 Jun 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7084.IH H7084 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 7084 IH ‘‘Secretary’’), $10,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2020, to re- 1 main available until expended, for— 2 (1) 200,000 incremental emergency vouchers 3 under subsection (b); 4 (2) renewals of the vouchers under subsection 5 (b); and 6 (3) fees for the costs of administering vouchers 7 under subsection (b). 8 (b) EMERGENCY VOUCHERS.— 9 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide 10 emergency rental assistance vouchers under this sub- 11 section, which shall be tenant-based rental assistance 12 under section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act 13 of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)). 14 (2) SELECTION OF FAMILIES.— 15 (A) MANDATORY PREFERENCES.—Each 16 public housing agency administering assistance 17 under this section shall provide preference for 18 such assistance to eligible families that are— 19 (i) homeless (as such term is defined 20 in section 103(a) of the McKinney-Vento 21 Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 22 11302(a)); 23 (ii) at risk of homelessness (as such 24 term is defined in section 401 of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:32 Jun 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7084.IH H7084 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 7084 IH McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act 1 (42 U.S.C. 11360)); or 2 (iii) fleeing, or attempting to flee, do- 3 mestic violence, dating violence, sexual as- 4 sault, or stalking. 5 (B) ALLOCATION.—In allocating amounts 6 made available under this section, the Secretary 7 shall— 8 (i) not later than 60 days after the 9 date of the enactment of this Act, allocate 10 at least 50 percent of such amounts to 11 public housing agencies in accordance with 12 a formula that considers— 13 (I) the capability of public hous- 14 ing agencies to promptly use emer- 15 gency vouchers provided under this 16 section; and 17 (II) the need for emergency 18 vouchers provided under this section 19 in the geographical area, based on 20 factors determined by the Secretary, 21 including risk of transmission of 22 coronavirus, high numbers or rates of 23 sheltered and unsheltered homeless- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:55 Jun 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7084.IH H7084 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 7084 IH ness, and economic and housing mar- 1 ket conditions; 2 (ii) allocate remaining amounts in ac- 3 cordance with a formula that considers— 4 (I) the criteria under clause (i) 5 and the success of a public housing 6 agency in promptly utilizing vouchers 7 awarded under clause (i); and 8 (II) the capability of the public 9 housing agency to create and manage 10 structured partnerships with service 11 providers for the delivery of appro- 12 priate community-based services; and 13 (iii) designate the number of vouchers 14 under this section that each public housing 15 agency that is awarded funds under this 16 section is authorized to administer. 17 (C) ELECTION NOT TO ADMINISTER.—If a 18 public housing agency elects not to administer 19 amounts under this section, the Secretary shall 20 award such amounts to other public housing 21 agencies according to the criteria in subpara- 22 graph (B). 23 (D) FAILURE TO USE VOUCHERS PROMPT- 24 LY.—If a public housing agency fails to issue 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:55 Jun 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7084.IH H7084 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 7084 IH all of its authorized vouchers under this section 1 on behalf of eligible families within a reasonable 2 period of time as determined by the Secretary, 3 the Secretary shall reallocate any unissued 4 vouchers and associated funds to others public 5 housing agencies according to the criteria under 6 subparagraph (B)(ii). 7 (3) WAIVERS AND ALTERNATIVE REQUIRE- 8 MENTS.—Any waiver or alternative requirement that 9 the Secretary makes available to all public housing 10 agencies in connection with assistance made avail- 11 able under the heading ‘‘Tenant-Based Rental As- 12 sistance’’ in title XII of division B of the CARES 13 Act (Public Law 116–136; 134 Stat. 601) shall 14 apply to assistance under this section until the expi- 15 ration of such waiver or alternative requirement. 16 (4) TERMINATION OF VOUCHERS UPON TURN- 17 OVER.— 18 (A) IN GENERAL.—A public housing agen- 19 cy may not reissue any vouchers made available 20 under this section when assistance for the fam- 21 ily initially assisted is terminated. 22 (B) REALLOCATION.—Upon termination of 23 assistance for one or more families assisted by 24 a public housing agency under this section, the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:55 Jun 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7084.IH H7084 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 7084 IH Secretary shall reallocate amounts that are no 1 longer needed by such public housing agency 2 for assistance under this section to another 3 public housing agency for the renewal of vouch- 4 ers previously authorized under this section. 5 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:55 Jun 04, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H7084.IH H7084 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS