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OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 6529
AN ACT CONCERNING HOUSING AUTHORITIES.
SUMMARY
This bill (1) establishes background check requirements for housing
authority employees (§ 1), and (2) imposes an annual auditing
requirement on housing authorities (§ 3). These requirements apply to
local and regional housing authorities and the Connecticut Housing
Authority, if it operates as a housing authority. (In practice, only local
housing authorities are subject to the bill’s provisions.)
The bill requires (1) existing housing authority commissioners to
participate in federal Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) commissioner training by January 1, 2022, and (2) new
commissioners to participate in the training upon appointment (§ 1).
Finally, the bill also requires housing authorities receiving state
assistance and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (if it or its
subsidiaries are successor owners to housing previously owned by a
local authority) to annually provide tenants, beginning when they sign
their initial lease, (1) contact information for the authority’s
management, local public health department, and Commission on
Human Rights and Opportunities, and (2) a notice of tenant rights (§
2).
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2021
BACKGROUND CHECKS
Beginning October 1, 2021, this bill requires housing authority
employees to undergo a State Police Bureau of Identification state and
national criminal background check. The bill adopts similar
requirements for employees hired by housing authorities after that
date by requiring them to submit to the background check prior to 2021HB-06529-R000171-BA.DOCX
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starting work. However, the bill limits how a housing authority may
use this information in the hiring process. Specifically, a housing
authority may only refuse to hire an applicant after conducting a good
faith individualized assessment and considering whether:
1. a substantial nexus exists between an applicant’s criminal
history and the job he or she applied for;
2. substantial evidence exists that the applicant has not been
rehabilitated; and
3. insufficient time has elapsed since the applicant’s criminal
history.
ANNUAL AUDIT
The bill requires local housing authorities to annually contract with
an independent certified public accountant for a financial audit. The
audit results must be included in an authority’s annual report that
existing law requires it to submit to the housing commissioner and the
chief executive officer of the municipality where it is located. Existing
law already requires the (1) housing commissioner to ensure local
housing authorities are audited biennially and (2) authority to cover
the audit’s costs, if the commissioner requires it (CGS § 7-392(d)).
Additionally, under the State Single Audit Act, housing authorities
must audit themselves if they (1) have annual revenue of more than $1
million and (2) spend more than $300,000 in a fiscal year (CGS § 4-231).
COMMITTEE ACTION
Housing Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 11 Nay 4 (03/11/2021)