Reducing Veteran Homelessness Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4858 To amend title 38, United States Code, and the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012, to make certain enhancements to grants awarded by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and contracts between the Secretary and entities that provide services to homeless veterans, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES OCTOBER 23 (legislative day, OCTOBER 19), 2020 Mrs. LOEFFLER (for herself and Mr. ROUNDS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs A BILL To amend title 38, United States Code, and the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Fami- lies Act of 2012, to make certain enhancements to grants awarded by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and con- tracts between the Secretary and entities that provide services to homeless veterans, 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 ‘‘Reducing Veteran 4 Homelessness Act of 2020’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:33 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4858.IS S4858 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4858 IS SEC. 2. IMPROVEMENTS TO GRANTS AWARDED BY THE SEC- 1 RETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS TO ENTITIES 2 THAT PROVIDE SERVICES TO HOMELESS VET- 3 ERANS. 4 (a) RATES FOR PER DIEM PAYMENTS.—Section 5 2012(a)(2)(B) of title 38, United States Code, is amended 6 by striking clause (i) and inserting the following new 7 clause (i): 8 ‘‘(i)(I) Except as provided in clause (ii), and subject 9 to the availability of appropriations, the Secretary may ad- 10 just the rate for such per diem payments. 11 ‘‘(II) Any adjustment made under this clause— 12 ‘‘(aa) may not result in a rate that— 13 ‘‘(AA) is lower than the rate in effect 14 under this paragraph as in effect immediately 15 preceding the date of the enactment of the Re- 16 ducing Veteran Homelessness Act of 2020; or 17 ‘‘(BB) exceeds the rate that is 115 percent 18 of the rate authorized for State homes for 19 domiciliary care under subsection (a)(1)(A) of 20 section 1741 of this title, as the Secretary may 21 increase from time to time under subsection (c) 22 of that section; and 23 ‘‘(bb) may be determined on the basis of local- 24 ity.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:33 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4858.IS S4858 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4858 IS (b) REIMBURSEMENT FOR USE OF HOMELESS MAN- 1 AGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM.—Section 2012(a) of 2 such title is amended by adding at the end the following 3 paragraph: 4 ‘‘(4) The Secretary may reimburse the recipient of 5 a grant under section 2011, 2013, or 2061 of this title 6 for fees charged to that grant recipient for the use of the 7 homeless management information system described in 8 section 402(f) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assist- 9 ance Act (Public Law 100–77; 42 U.S.C. 11360a(f))— 10 ‘‘(A) in amounts the Secretary determines to be 11 reasonable; and 12 ‘‘(B) if the Secretary determines that the grant 13 recipient is unable to obtain information contained 14 in such system through other means and at no cost 15 to the grant recipient.’’. 16 SEC. 3. CONTRACTS RELATING TO CASE MANAGERS FOR 17 HOMELESS VETERANS IN SUPPORTED HOUS- 18 ING PROGRAM. 19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 304 of the Honoring 20 America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Fami- 21 lies Act of 2012 (Public Law 112–154; 38 U.S.C. 2041 22 note) is amended— 23 (1) in subsection (a)— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:33 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4858.IS S4858 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4858 IS (A) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ before ‘‘The Sec- 1 retary’’; and 2 (B) by adding at the end the following new 3 paragraphs: 4 ‘‘(2)(A) The director of each covered medical center 5 shall seek to enter into one or more contracts or agree- 6 ments described in paragraph (1). 7 ‘‘(B) Any contract or agreement entered into under 8 subparagraph (A) may require that each case manager 9 employed by an eligible entity has credentials equivalent 10 to the credentials required for a case manager of the De- 11 partment of Veterans Affairs. 12 ‘‘(C)(i) The Secretary may waive the requirement 13 under subparagraph (A) with respect to a covered medical 14 center if the Secretary determines that fulfilling such re- 15 quirement is infeasible. 16 ‘‘(ii) If the Secretary grants a waiver under clause 17 (i), the Secretary shall, not later than 90 days after grant- 18 ing the waiver, submit to the Committee on Veterans’ Af- 19 fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Veterans’ Af- 20 fairs of the House of Representatives a report con- 21 taining— 22 ‘‘(I) an explanation of the determination made 23 under clause (i); 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:33 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4858.IS S4858 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4858 IS ‘‘(II) a plan to increase the number of case 1 managers of the Department; and 2 ‘‘(III) a plan for the covered medical center to 3 increase use of housing vouchers allocated to that 4 medical center under the program described in para- 5 graph (1). 6 ‘‘(D) In this paragraph, the term ‘covered medical 7 center’ means a medical center of the Department with 8 respect to which the Secretary determines that— 9 ‘‘(i) 15 percent of all housing vouchers allocated 10 to that medical center under the program described 11 in paragraph (1) during the fiscal year preceding the 12 fiscal year in which such determination was made 13 were unused due to a lack of case management serv- 14 ices provided by the Secretary; and 15 ‘‘(ii) one or more case manager positions have 16 been vacant for at least nine consecutive months im- 17 mediately preceding the date of such determina- 18 tion.’’; and 19 (2) in subsection (b)(2)— 20 (A) in the matter before subparagraph (A), 21 by striking ‘‘, including because—’’ and insert- 22 ing a period; and 23 (B) by striking subparagraphs (A), (B), 24 and (C). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:33 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4858.IS S4858 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 4858 IS (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 1 this section shall take effect on the first day of the first 2 fiscal year that begins after the date of the enactment of 3 this Act. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:33 Nov 01, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S4858.IS S4858 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS