I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 4606
To increase the number of landlords participating in the Housing Choice
Voucher program.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY13, 2023
Mr. C
LEAVER(for himself and Mrs. CHAVEZ-DEREMER) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To increase the number of landlords participating in the
Housing Choice Voucher program.
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 ‘‘Choice in Affordable 4
Housing Act of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act— 7
(1) the term ‘‘Housing Choice Voucher pro-8
gram’’ means the tenant-based assistance program 9
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under section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act 1
of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)); and 2
(2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 3
of Housing and Urban Development. 4
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 5
Congress finds the following: 6
(1) The Housing Choice Voucher program is 7
the Federal Government’s largest program helping 8
low-income families, the elderly, and persons with 9
disabilities to afford decent, safe, and sanitary hous-10
ing in the private market. 11
(2) The Housing Choice Voucher program is 12
proven to have positive impacts on voucher holders, 13
including increased housing stability, reduced home-14
lessness, and children lifted out of poverty. 15
(3) As a public-private partnership, the Hous-16
ing Choice Voucher program relies on the willingness 17
of private landlords to accept vouchers. 18
(4) Landlord participation is declining in the 19
Housing Choice Voucher program, with an average 20
of 10,000 housing providers leaving the program 21
each year between 2010 and 2016. 22
(5) Landlord participation is especially lacking 23
in ‘‘high-opportunity neighborhoods’’ that have low 24
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poverty rates and good access to quality schools, 1
jobs, and public transportation. 2
(6) The Secretary has conducted and continues 3
to conduct research on landlord participation in the 4
Housing Choice Voucher program. 5
(7) The Moving to Work demonstration pro-6
gram of the Department of Housing and Urban De-7
velopment has given participating public housing 8
agencies the ability to test innovative strategies to 9
incentivize landlords to accept vouchers. 10
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 11
It is the sense of Congress that— 12
(1) the Housing Choice Voucher program 13
should be improved to increase the number of land-14
lords, particularly landlords with units in high-op-15
portunity neighborhoods, who accept vouchers in 16
order to expand housing choice and opportunity, and 17
further fair housing; and 18
(2) Federal programs to help people afford safe 19
and decent housing are important in all commu-20
nities, including urban, rural, and tribal areas. 21
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SEC. 5. INCENTIVIZING LANDLORD PARTICIPATION IN 1
HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM. 2
(a) O
NE-TIMEINCENTIVEPAYMENTS.—Section 8(o) 3
of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 4
1437f(o)), is amended by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(22) O
NE-TIME INCENTIVE PAYMENTS .— 6
‘‘(A) D
EFINITION.—In this paragraph, the 7
term ‘eligible unit’ means a dwelling unit 8
that— 9
‘‘(i) is located in a census tract with 10
a poverty rate of less than 20 percent; and 11
‘‘(ii) has not previously been subject 12
to a housing assistance payment contract 13
under this subsection. 14
‘‘(B) I
NCENTIVE PAYMENT AUTHORITY .— 15
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—To incentivize 16
landlords who own dwelling units in low- 17
poverty areas to enter into housing assist-18
ance payment contracts under this sub-19
section, the Secretary shall provide assist-20
ance under this paragraph to public hous-21
ing agencies to be used to offer a one-time 22
payment directly to the owner of an eligi-23
ble unit entering into a housing assistance 24
payment contract with the public housing 25
agency for the eligible unit. 26
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‘‘(ii) AMOUNT.—The amount of an in-1
centive payment made to an eligible owner 2
under clause (i) may not exceed 200 per-3
cent of the monthly housing assistance 4
payment made to the eligible owner for the 5
eligible unit. 6
‘‘(iii) C
ONDITIONS PERMITTED .—Sub-7
ject to paragraph (7), a public housing 8
agency may require the owner of an eligi-9
ble unit, as a condition of receiving an in-10
centive payment under clause (i), to com-11
mit to lease the eligible unit to tenants as-12
sisted under this subsection for more than 13
1 year. 14
‘‘(iv) L
IMIT.—The owner of an eligible 15
unit may not receive more than 1 incentive 16
payment under clause (i), regardless of— 17
‘‘(I) the number of eligible units 18
owned by the owner; or 19
‘‘(II) the number of public hous-20
ing agencies with which the owner has 21
entered into housing assistance pay-22
ment contracts.’’. 23
(b) S
ECURITYDEPOSITPAYMENTS.—Section 8(o) of 24
the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 25
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1437f(o)), as amended by subsection (a), is amended by 1
adding at the end the following: 2
‘‘(23) S
ECURITY DEPOSIT PAYMENTS .— 3
‘‘(A) S
ECURITY DEPOSIT PAYMENT AU -4
THORITY.—The Secretary shall provide assist-5
ance to public housing agencies to be used to 6
pay the owner of a dwelling unit assisted under 7
this subsection for a security deposit, or a sub-8
stantial portion thereof, on behalf of the tenant 9
of the dwelling unit in accordance with subpara-10
graph (B). 11
‘‘(B) M
INIMUM PHA REQUIREMENTS .—A 12
public housing agency that receives assistance 13
from the Secretary under subparagraph (A) 14
shall administer the assistance in accordance 15
with the following conditions: 16
‘‘(i) The public housing agency shall 17
pay the owners of dwelling units assisted 18
under this subsection for a security de-19
posit, or a substantial portion thereof, in 20
an amount determined by the public hous-21
ing agency, on behalf of the tenants of the 22
dwelling units. 23
‘‘(ii) In making payments to owners of 24
dwelling units under clause (i), the public 25
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housing agency shall give priority to own-1
ers of dwelling units occupied by extremely 2
low-income families. 3
‘‘(iii) The owner of a dwelling unit 4
may deduct amounts from a security de-5
posit payment received under clause (i) to 6
cover damages beyond normal wear and 7
tear caused by the tenant of the dwelling 8
unit, any member of the tenant’s house-9
hold, or any guest or other person under 10
the tenant’s control. 11
‘‘(iv) The public housing agency shall 12
conduct a damage claims process where-13
by— 14
‘‘(I) in order to deduct amounts 15
from a security deposit payment re-16
ceived under clause (i), the owner of 17
a covered dwelling unit must submit a 18
claim to the public housing agency 19
with an itemized list of damages and 20
evidence and request reimbursement; 21
and 22
‘‘(II) the tenant of a covered 23
dwelling unit may refute a claim sub-24
mitted under subclause (I). 25
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‘‘(v) The public housing agency 1
shall— 2
‘‘(I) establish an amount of re-3
pair costs for which a tenant will be 4
responsible; and 5
‘‘(II) notify a tenant, upon the 6
tenant entering into a lease for a 7
dwelling unit assisted under this sub-8
section, of the amount described in 9
subclause (I). 10
‘‘(vi) The public housing agency may 11
determine what action to take if a tenant 12
demonstrates an inability to pay the 13
amount of repair costs for which the ten-14
ant is responsible under clause (v). 15
‘‘(vii) At the end of a tenant’s occu-16
pancy of a dwelling unit assisted under 17
this subsection, the landlord shall return to 18
the public housing agency any unused 19
amount of a security deposit payment re-20
ceived under clause (i). 21
‘‘(C) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing 22
in subparagraph (B) shall be construed to pro-23
hibit a public housing agency from establishing 24
additional conditions for the administration of 25
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assistance received under subparagraph (A) in 1
accordance with applicable State and local 2
laws.’’. 3
(c) L
ANDLORDLIAISONBONUSPAYMENTS.—Section 4
8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 5
1437f(o)), as amended by subsection (b), is amended by 6
adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(24) L
ANDLORD LIAISON BONUS PAYMENTS .— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each year, the Sec-9
retary shall award 1 bonus payment to each 10
public housing agency that employs, contracts 11
with a service partner that employs, or dem-12
onstrates an intent to employ or contract with 13
a service partner that employs, not less than 1 14
dedicated landlord liaison whose duties include, 15
with respect to the tenant-based assistance pro-16
gram under subsection (o)— 17
‘‘(i) conducting landlord outreach, re-18
cruitment, and retention; 19
‘‘(ii) educating and training landlords 20
regarding the program; and 21
‘‘(iii) operating a phone hotline, online 22
portal, monitored email address, or other 23
mechanism designated by the Secretary for 24
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landlord questions and concerns regarding 1
the program. 2
‘‘(B) D
EMONSTRATING COMPLIANCE .—The 3
Secretary shall determine how a public housing 4
agency may demonstrate that it offers or in-5
tends to offer a landlord liaison service for pur-6
poses of subparagraph (A). 7
‘‘(C) A
MOUNT.—The Secretary shall estab-8
lish an amount for the landlord liaison bonus 9
payment authorized under subparagraph (A) 10
that— 11
‘‘(i) may vary by region; 12
‘‘(ii) does not exceed the 150 percent 13
of the average cost of employing, or con-14
tracting with a service partner that em-15
ploys, such a landlord liaison, based on 16
local market conditions; and 17
‘‘(iii) is sufficient to incentivize public 18
housing agencies to employ, or contact 19
with a service partner that employs, such 20
a landlord liaison.’’. 21
(d) H
OUSINGPARTNERSHIPFUND.—Section 8 of the 22
United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f), 23
is amended by adding at the end the following: 24
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‘‘(ee) HERSCHELLASHKOWITZHOUSINGPARTNER-1
SHIPFUND.— 2
‘‘(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es-3
tablish a fund, to be known as the ‘Herschel 4
Lashkowitz Housing Partnership Fund’, for the pur-5
pose of incentivizing landlords to participate in the 6
tenant-based assistance program under subsection 7
(o) in accordance with paragraph (2) of this sub-8
section. 9
‘‘(2) A
UTHORIZED USES.—The Secretary shall 10
use amounts from the Housing Partnership Fund 11
for— 12
‘‘(A) incentive payments under subsection 13
(o)(22); 14
‘‘(B) security deposit payments under sub-15
section (o)(23); 16
‘‘(C) landlord liaison bonus payments 17
under subsection (o)(24); and 18
‘‘(D) other uses, as determined by a public 19
housing agency and approved by the Secretary, 20
designed primarily— 21
‘‘(i) to recruit owners of dwelling 22
units, particularly dwelling units in census 23
tracts with a poverty rate of less than 20 24
percent, to enter into housing assistance 25
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payment contracts under subsection (o); 1
and 2
‘‘(ii) to ensure that owners that enter 3
into housing assistance payment contracts 4
as described in clause (i) of this subpara-5
graph continue to lease their dwelling units 6
to tenants assisted under subsection (o). 7
‘‘(3) R
EPORTS.—The Secretary shall require a 8
public housing agency that receives assistance from 9
the Herschel Lashkowitz Housing Partnership Fund 10
to submit an annual report to the Secretary on the 11
use of the assistance. 12
‘‘(4) A
UTHORIZATION OF ADDITIONAL APPRO -13
PRIATIONS.—There is authorized to be appropriated 14
for deposit in the Herschel Lashkowitz Housing 15
Partnership Fund $100,000,000 for each of fiscal 16
years 2024 through 2028, to remain available until 17
expended.’’. 18
SEC. 6. HOUSING QUALITY STANDARDS. 19
(a) S
ATISFACTION OFINSPECTIONREQUIREMENTS 20
T
HROUGHPARTICIPATION IN OTHERHOUSINGPRO-21
GRAMS.—Section 8(o)(8) of the United States Housing 22
Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)(8)), as amended by sec-23
tion 101(a) of the Housing Opportunity Through Mod-24
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ernization Act of 2016 (Public Law 114–201; 130 Stat. 1
783), is amended by adding at the end the following: 2
‘‘(I) S
ATISFACTION OF INSPECTION RE -3
QUIREMENTS THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN 4
OTHER HOUSING PROGRAMS .— 5
‘‘(i) L
OW-INCOME HOUSING TAX 6
CREDIT-FINANCED BUILDINGS .—A dwell-7
ing unit shall be deemed to meet the in-8
spection requirements under this para-9
graph if— 10
‘‘(I) the dwelling unit is in a 11
building, the acquisition, rehabilita-12
tion, or construction of which was fi-13
nanced by a person who received a 14
low-income housing tax credit under 15
section 42 of the Internal Revenue 16
Code of 1986 in exchange for that fi-17
nancing; 18
‘‘(II) the dwelling unit was phys-19
ically inspected and passed inspection 20
as part of the low-income housing tax 21
credit program described in subclause 22
(I) during the preceding 12-month pe-23
riod; and 24
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‘‘(III) the applicable public hous-1
ing agency is able to obtain the re-2
sults of the inspection described in 3
subclause (II). 4
‘‘(ii) HOME
INVESTMENT PARTNER -5
SHIPS PROGRAM .—A dwelling shall be 6
deemed to meet the inspection require-7
ments under this paragraph if the dwelling 8
unit— 9
‘‘(I) the dwelling unit is assisted 10
under the HOME Investment Part-11
nerships Program under title II of the 12
Cranston-Gonzalez National Afford-13
able Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12721 et 14
seq.); 15
‘‘(II) the dwelling unit was phys-16
ically inspected and passed inspection 17
as part of the program described in 18
subclause (I) during the preceding 12- 19
month period; and 20
‘‘(III) the applicable public hous-21
ing agency is able to obtain the re-22
sults of the inspection described in 23
subclause (II). 24
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‘‘(iii) RURAL HOUSING SERVICE .—A 1
dwelling unit shall be deemed to meet the 2
inspection requirements under this para-3
graph if— 4
‘‘(I) the dwelling unit is assisted 5
by the Rural Housing Service of the 6
Department of Agriculture; 7
‘‘(II) the dwelling unit was phys-8
ically inspected and passed inspection 9
in connection with the assistance de-10
scribed in subclause (I) during the 11
preceding 12-month period; and 12
‘‘(III) the applicable public hous-13
ing agency is able to obtain the re-14
sults of the inspection described in 15
subclause (II). 16
‘‘(iv) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .— 17
Nothing in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) shall be 18
construed to affect the operation of a hous-19
ing program described in, or authorized 20
under a provision of law described in, that 21
clause.’’. 22
(b) P
RE-APPROVAL OFUNITS.—Section 8(o)(8)(A) 23
of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 24
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1437f(o)(8)(A)), is amended by adding at the end the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(iv) I
NITIAL INSPECTION PRIOR TO 3
LEASE AGREEMENT .— 4
‘‘(I) D
EFINITION.—In this 5
clause, the term ‘new landlord’ means 6
an owner of a dwelling unit who has 7
not previously entered into a housing 8
assistance payment contract with a 9
public housing agency under this sub-10
section for any dwelling unit. 11
‘‘(II) E
ARLY INSPECTION.—Upon 12
the request of a new landlord, a public 13
housing agency may inspect the dwell-14
ing unit owned by the new landlord to 15
determine whether the unit meets the 16
housing quality standards under sub-17
paragraph (B) before the unit is se-18
lected by a tenant assisted under this 19
subsection. 20
‘‘(III) E
FFECT.—An inspection 21
conducted under subclause (II) that 22
determines that the dwelling unit 23
meets the housing quality standards 24
under subparagraph (B) shall satisfy 25
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this subparagraph and subparagraph 1
(C) if the new landlord enters into a 2
lease agreement with a tenant assisted 3
under this subsection not later than 4
60 days after the date of the inspec-5
tion. 6
‘‘(IV) I
NFORMATION WHEN FAM -7
ILY IS SELECTED.—When a public 8
housing agency selects a family to 9
participate in the tenant-based assist-10
ance program under this subsection, 11
the public housing agency shall in-12
clude in the information provided to 13
the family a list of dwelling units that 14
have been inspected under subclause 15
(II) and determined to meet the hous-16
ing quality standards under subpara-17
graph (B).’’. 18
SEC. 7. SMALL AREA FAIR MARKET RENT. 19
(a) U
SE OFSMALLAREAFAIRMARKETRENT.— 20
Section 8(o)(1) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 21
(42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)(1)), is amended by adding at the end 22
the following: 23
‘‘(F) S
MALL AREA FAIR MARKET RENT .— 24
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‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this subpara-1
graph— 2
‘‘(I) the term ‘metropolitan area’ 3
means a metropolitan statistical area, 4
as defined by the Office of Manage-5
ment and Budget; and 6
‘‘(II) the term ‘small area fair 7
market rent’ means the fair market 8
rent established for a ZIP Code area 9
within a metropolitan area. 10
‘‘(ii) U
SE OF SMALL AREA FAIR MAR -11
KET RENT.—Notwithstanding subsection 12
(c) or any other provision of this sub-13
section, not later than 3 years after the 14
date of enactment of this subparagraph, 15
the Secretary shall designate a number of 16
metropolitan areas in which public housing 17
agencies are required to use the small area 18
fair market rent to determine the fair mar-19
ket rental for dwelling units for purposes 20
of tenant-based assistance under this sub-21
section that is not less than 3 times the 22
number of metropolitan areas so des-23
ignated in the final rule of the Secretary 24
entitled ‘Establishing a More Effective 25
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Fair Market Rent System; Using Small 1
Area Fair Market Rents in the Housing 2
Choice Voucher Program Instead of the 3
Current 50th Percentile FMRs’, published 4
in the Federal Register on November 16, 5
2016 (81 Fed. Reg. 80567). 6
‘‘(iii) H
OLD HARMLESS.—If the appli-7
cation of clause (ii) would cause a decrease 8
in the payment standard used to calculate 9
the amount of tenant-based assistance pro-10
vided to a family under this subsection, a 11
public housing agency shall continue to use 12
the existing higher payment standard to 13
calculate the amount of such assistance for 14
the family for as long as the family con-15
tinues to receive such assistance in the 16
same dwelling unit.’’. 17
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 8(o)(1)(B) 18
of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 19
1437f(o)(1)(B)), is amended by inserting after ‘‘sub-20
section (c)’’ the following: ‘‘(subject to subparagraph (F) 21
of this paragraph)’’. 22
SEC. 8. SECTION 8 MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM. 23
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘Section 24
8 Management Assessment Program’’ means the program 25
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set forth in part 985 of title 24, Code of Federal Regula-1
tions (or any successor regulation). 2
(b) D
ECONCENTRATION OF PARTICIPATINGDWELL-3
INGUNITS.—The Secretary shall explore ways to reform 4
and modernize the Section 8 Management Assessment 5
Program to assess public housing agencies in a manner 6
that promotes— 7
(1) positive interactions with landlords, includ-8
ing timely payment of rent and identification of the 9
dwelling unit for which a subsidy payment is being 10
made; and 11
(2) an increase in the diversity of areas where 12
dwelling units are leased to support voucher holders 13
who want to access to low-poverty, integrated neigh-14
borhoods. 15
(c) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in sub-16
section (b) shall be construed to prevent the Secretary 17
from— 18
(1) reforming the Section 8 Management As-19
sessment Program to assess public housing agencies 20
in other areas of performance; or 21
(2) reforming the Section 8 Management As-22
sessment Program in any other manner, at the dis-23
cretion of the Secretary. 24
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SEC. 9. ANNUAL REPORT ON EFFECTIVENESS OF ACT. 1
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 2
(1) the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-3
mittees’’ means— 4
(A) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 5
and Urban Affairs of the Senate; 6
(B) the Subcommittee on Transportation, 7
Housing and Urban Development, and Related 8
Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of 9
the Senate; 10
(C) the Committee on Financial Services of 11
the House of Representatives; and 12
(D) the Subcommittee on Transportation, 13
Housing and Urban Development, and Related 14
Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of 15
the House of Representatives; and 16
(2) the term ‘‘high-opportunity area’’— 17
(A) shall be defined by the Secretary for 18
purposes of this section; and 19
(B) does not include any census tract in 20
which the poverty rate is equal to or greater 21
than 20 percent. 22
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 23
of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter for 5 24
total years, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate 25
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congressional committees and make publicly available a re-1
port that— 2
(1) evaluates the effectiveness of this Act and 3
the amendments made by this Act in recruiting and 4
retaining landlords who accept vouchers under the 5
Housing Choice Voucher program, particularly land-6
lords with dwelling units in high-opportunity neigh-7
borhoods; and 8
(2) includes— 9
(A) the number of landlords in the United 10
States who accept housing choice vouchers 11
under the Housing Choice Voucher program 12
and the number of dwelling units assisted under 13
the Housing Choice Voucher program; 14
(B) any net changes to the number of 15
landlords or dwelling units described in sub-16
paragraph (A) during the preceding year; 17
(C) the number of landlords described in 18
subparagraph (A) who own disability-accessible 19
dwelling units assisted under the Housing 20
Choice Voucher program and the number of 21
those dwelling units; and 22
(D) the number of landlords described in 23
subparagraph (A) who own dwelling units as-24
sisted under the Housing Choice Voucher pro-25
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•HR 4606 IH
gram in high-opportunity areas and the number 1
of those dwelling units. 2
Æ
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kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS