Emergency Housing Voucher Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4164 To authorize emergency housing voucher assistance, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JULY 2, 2020 Mr. BROWN (for himself and Ms. SMITH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL To authorize emergency housing 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 HOUSING VOUCHER PROGRAM. 6 (a) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 7 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Housing 8 and Urban Development (in this section referred to as the 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Jul 12, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4164.IS S4164 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4164 IS ‘‘Secretary’’), $10,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2020, to re- 1 main available until expended, for— 2 (1) 200,000 incremental emergency housing 3 vouchers under subsection (b); 4 (2) renewals of emergency housing vouchers 5 under subsection (b); and 6 (3) fees for the costs of administering emer- 7 gency housing vouchers under subsection (b). 8 (b) EMERGENCY HOUSING VOUCHERS.— 9 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide 10 emergency housing vouchers under this subsection, 11 which shall be tenant-based rental assistance under 12 section 8(o) the United States Housing Act of 1937 13 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)). 14 (2) SELECTION OF FAMILIES.— 15 (A) PREFERENCES FOR EMERGENCY 16 HOUSING VOUCHERS.—Each public housing 17 agency administering assistance under this sec- 18 tion shall provide preference for such assistance 19 to eligible families that are— 20 (i) homeless (as such term is defined 21 in section 103(a) of the McKinney-Vento 22 Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 23 11302(a)); 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Jul 12, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4164.IS S4164 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4164 IS (ii) at risk of homelessness (as such 1 term is defined in section 401 of the 2 McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act 3 (42 U.S.C. 11360); or 4 (iii) fleeing, or attempting to flee, do- 5 mestic violence, dating violence, sexual as- 6 sault, or stalking. 7 (B) ALLOCATION.—In allocating amounts 8 made available under this section, the Secretary 9 shall— 10 (i) not later than 60 days after the 11 date of the enactment of this Act, allocate 12 at least 50 percent of such amounts to 13 public housing agencies in accordance with 14 a formula that considers— 15 (I) the capability of public hous- 16 ing agencies to promptly use emer- 17 gency housing vouchers provided 18 under this section; and 19 (II) the need for emergency hous- 20 ing vouchers provided under this sec- 21 tion in the geographical area, based 22 on factors determined by the Sec- 23 retary, including risk of transmission 24 of Coronavirus (COVID–19), high 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Jul 12, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4164.IS S4164 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4164 IS numbers or rates of sheltered and 1 unsheltered homelessness, and eco- 2 nomic and housing market conditions; 3 (ii) allocate remaining amounts in ac- 4 cordance with a formula that considers— 5 (I) the criteria under clause (i) 6 and the success of a public housing 7 agency in promptly utilizing emer- 8 gency housing vouchers awarded 9 under clause (i); and 10 (II) the capability of the public 11 housing agency to create and manage 12 structured partnerships with service 13 providers for the delivery of appro- 14 priate community-based services; and 15 (iii) designate the number of emer- 16 gency housing vouchers under this section 17 that each public housing agency that is 18 awarded funds under this section is au- 19 thorized to administer. 20 (C) ELECTION NOT TO ADMINISTER.—If a 21 public housing agency elects not to administer 22 amounts under this section, the Secretary shall 23 award such amounts to other public housing 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Jul 12, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4164.IS S4164 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4164 IS agencies according to the criteria in subpara- 1 graph (B). 2 (D) FAILURE TO USE VOUCHERS PROMPT- 3 LY.—If a public housing agency fails to issue 4 all of its authorized emergency housing vouch- 5 ers under this section on behalf of eligible fami- 6 lies within a reasonable period of time as deter- 7 mined by the Secretary, the Secretary shall re- 8 allocate any unissued emergency housing vouch- 9 ers and associated funds to others public hous- 10 ing agencies according to the criteria under 11 subparagraph (B)(ii). 12 (3) WAIVERS AND ALTERNATIVE REQUIRE- 13 MENTS.—Any waiver or alternative requirement that 14 the Secretary makes available to all public housing 15 agencies in connection with assistance made avail- 16 able under the heading ‘‘Tenant-Based Rental As- 17 sistance’’ in title XII of division B of the CARES 18 Act (Public Law 116–136; 134 Stat. 601) shall 19 apply to assistance under this section until the expi- 20 ration of such waiver or alternative requirement. 21 (4) TERMINATION OF VOUCHERS UPON TURN- 22 OVER.— 23 (A) IN GENERAL.—A public housing agen- 24 cy may not reissue any emergency housing 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Jul 12, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4164.IS S4164 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 4164 IS vouchers made available under this section 1 when assistance for the family initially assisted 2 is terminated. 3 (B) REALLOCATION.—Upon termination of 4 assistance for one or more families assisted by 5 a public housing agency under this section, the 6 Secretary shall reallocate amounts that are no 7 longer needed by such public housing agency 8 for assistance under this section to another 9 public housing agency for the renewal of emer- 10 gency housing vouchers previously authorized 11 under this section. 12 (c) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘public 13 housing agency’’ has the meaning given the term in sec- 14 tion 3(b)(6) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 15 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)(6)). 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:41 Jul 12, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4164.IS S4164 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS