I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1696
To amend the definition of extremely low-income families under the United
States Housing Act of 1937.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. H
ERNA´NDEZ(for himself and Mr. TORRESof New York) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To amend the definition of extremely low-income families
under the United States Housing Act of 1937.
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 ‘‘Puerto Rico Low-In-4
come Housing Support Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITION OF EXTREMELY LOW-INCOME FAMI-6
LIES. 7
Clause (i) of section 3(b)(2)(C) of the United States 8
Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)(2)(C)(i)) is 9
amended— 10
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•HR 1696 IH
(1) by striking ‘‘Puerto Rico or any other’’ and 1
inserting ‘‘any’’; and 2
(2) by inserting before the closing parentheses 3
the following: ‘‘other than Puerto Rico and in the 4
case of public housing agencies and projects located 5
in Puerto Rico, the same poverty guidelines as used 6
for the contiguous 48 States and the District of Co-7
lumbia shall apply’’. 8
SEC. 3. REPORT ON LOW INCOME HOUSING ACCESS IN 9
PUERTO RICO. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Comptroller General shall, 11
not later than 180 day after the date of the enactment 12
of this section, submit a report to the Congress about ef-13
forts made by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Devel-14
opment, in collaboration with the Government of Puerto 15
Rico, to connect low-income families residing in Puerto 16
Rico with— 17
(1) housing assistance available in Puerto Rico; 18
and 19
(2) affordable dwelling units, including dwelling 20
units that are part of a housing project assisted 21
under the United States Housing Act of 1937. 22
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The report required under sub-23
section (a) shall include— 24
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(1) an assessment of how the Secretary of 1
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the 2
Puerto Rico Public Housing Administration 3
(PRPHA) identify and address housing needs for ex-4
tremely low-income families that reside in Puerto 5
Rico; 6
(2) an assessment how the Secretary of Hous-7
ing and Urban Development uses Federal disaster 8
recovery funds to rebuild and expand low-income 9
housing after natural disasters in Puerto Rico, in-10
cluding hurricanes and earthquakes; and 11
(3) recommendations to improve the effective-12
ness of Federal and local housing programs that 13
serve extremely low-income families that reside in 14
Puerto Rico. 15
Æ
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