Know Your Home Act of 2020

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8451 To amend the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to provide additional funding under the Community Development Block Grant pro- gram for units of general local government to digitize and make available online information regarding violations of housing construction, building, and safety codes, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Mrs. HAYES, and Mr. SAN NICOLAS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services A BILL To amend the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to provide additional funding under the Commu- nity Development Block Grant program for units of gen- eral local government to digitize and make available on- line information regarding violations of housing construc- tion, building, and safety codes, 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 ‘‘Know Your Home Act 4 of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:38 Oct 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8451.IH H8451 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8451 IH SEC. 2. CDBG ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES. 1 (a) ELIGIBLE ACTIVITY.—Subsection (a) of section 2 105 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 3 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5305(a)) is amended— 4 (1) in paragraph (25)(D), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 5 the end; 6 (2) in paragraph (26), by striking the period at 7 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 8 (3) by adding at the end the following new 9 paragraph: 10 ‘‘(27) payment of costs incurred by a unit of 11 general local government that receives amounts 12 under this title (including pursuant to section 13 106(d)(1)) for making publicly available online com- 14 prehensive information regarding violations during 15 the most recent 3 years of any Federal, State, or 16 local statutes, codes, ordinances, or regulations re- 17 lating to the construction, safety, quality, health, or 18 cleanliness of residential structures by any struc- 19 tures located in such unit of general local govern- 20 ment, which shall include the location of the struc- 21 ture, identity of the owner of the structure, the na- 22 ture of the violation, the date or dates of the viola- 23 tion, and the date of any rescission of such viola- 24 tion.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:38 Oct 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8451.IH H8451 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8451 IH (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 1 103 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 2 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5304) is amended— 3 (1) by inserting ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—’’ before 4 ‘‘The Secretary’’; and 5 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub- 6 section: 7 ‘‘(b) AMOUNTS FOR ESTABLISHING ONLINE DATA- 8 BASE OF HOUSING CODE VIOLATIONS.—In addition to 9 amounts authorized to be appropriated under subsection 10 (a), there is authorized to be appropriated $30,000,000 11 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2025, for grants 12 under this title, except that amounts made available pur- 13 suant to this subsection for a fiscal year may only be used 14 for the eligible activity under section 105(a)(27) and may 15 only be provided to units of general local government 16 whose statements of projected uses of funds under this 17 title prepared in accordance with section 104(a) for a fis- 18 cal year provide for such use for such fiscal year.’’. 19 SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT FOR ELIGIBILITY FOR CDBG GRANT 20 AMOUNTS. 21 Section 104 of the Housing and Community Develop- 22 ment Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5304) is amended by adding 23 at the end the following new subsection: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:38 Oct 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8451.IH H8451 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8451 IH ‘‘(n) REQUIREMENT TO COLLECT AND MAKE AVAIL- 1 ABLE INFORMATION REGARDING HOUSING CODE VIOLA- 2 TIONS.— 3 ‘‘(1) REQUIREMENT.—No funds made available 4 for fiscal year 2026 or any fiscal year thereafter for 5 grants under this Act may be allocated for, or obli- 6 gated or expended to, any unit of general local gov- 7 ernment that fails to collect and make publicly avail- 8 able immediately upon request comprehensive infor- 9 mation regarding violations during the most recent 10 3 years of any Federal, State, or local statutes, 11 codes, ordinances, or regulations relating to the con- 12 struction, safety, quality, health, or cleanliness of 13 residential structures by any structures located in 14 such unit of general local government, which shall 15 include the location of the structure, identity of the 16 owner of the structure, the nature of the violation, 17 the date or dates of the violation, and the date of 18 any rescission of such violation. 19 ‘‘(2) PREEMPTION.—The laws of any State or 20 unit of general local government requiring the filing 21 of a request and other procedures for obtaining in- 22 formation from a State or unit of general local gov- 23 ernment, or any agency thereof, to obtain such infor- 24 mation are preempted to the extent that such laws 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:38 Oct 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8451.IH H8451 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8451 IH apply to information regarding the violations de- 1 scribed in paragraph (1) and to information regard- 2 ing violations described in section 105(a)(27).’’. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:38 Oct 24, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8451.IH H8451 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS