I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1981
To increase the number of landlords participating in the Housing Choice
Voucher program.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH10, 2025
Mr. C
LEAVER(for himself, Mr. LAWLER, Mr. CASTEN, Mr. GOODEN, Mr.
L
YNCH, and Mr. CISCOMANI) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred 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 2025’’. 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)); 2
(2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 3
of Housing and Urban Development; and 4
(3) the term ‘‘Tribal Housing and Urban Devel-5
opment-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing pro-6
gram’’ means the demonstration program estab-7
lished under paragraph (5) under the heading ‘‘
TEN-8
ANT-BASED RENTAL ASSISTANCE ’’ under the heading 9
‘‘P
UBLIC ANDINDIANHOUSING’’ in title II of divi-10
sion K of the Consolidated and Further Continuing 11
Appropriations Act, 2015 (Public Law 113–235; 12
128 Stat. 2732) (commonly known as ‘‘Tribal 13
HUD–VASH’’). 14
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 15
Congress finds the following: 16
(1) The Housing Choice Voucher program is 17
the Federal Government’s largest program helping 18
low-income families, the elderly, and persons with 19
disabilities to afford decent, safe, and sanitary hous-20
ing in the private market. 21
(2) The Housing Choice Voucher program is 22
proven to have positive impacts on voucher holders, 23
including increased housing stability, reduced home-24
lessness, and children lifted out of poverty. 25
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(3) As a public-private partnership, the Hous-1
ing Choice Voucher program relies on the willingness 2
of private landlords to accept vouchers. 3
(4) Landlord participation is declining in the 4
Housing Choice Voucher program, with an average 5
of 10,000 housing providers leaving the program 6
each year between 2010 and 2016. 7
(5) Landlord participation is especially lacking 8
in ‘‘high-opportunity neighborhoods’’ that have low 9
poverty rates and good access to quality schools, 10
jobs, and public transportation. 11
(6) The Secretary has conducted and continues 12
to conduct research on landlord participation in the 13
Housing Choice Voucher program. 14
(7) The Moving to Work demonstration pro-15
gram of the Department of Housing and Urban De-16
velopment has given participating public housing 17
agencies the ability to test innovative strategies to 18
incentivize landlords to accept vouchers. 19
(8) Indian Tribes and tribally designated hous-20
ing entities, which do not participate in the Housing 21
Choice Voucher program, benefit from the Tribal 22
Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs 23
Supportive Housing program, which provides rental 24
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assistance to Native American veterans who are ex-1
periencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. 2
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 3
It is the sense of Congress that the Housing Choice 4
Voucher program should be improved to increase the num-5
ber of landlords, particularly landlords with units in high- 6
opportunity neighborhoods, who accept vouchers in order 7
to expand housing choice and opportunity, and further fair 8
housing. 9
SEC. 5. INCENTIVIZING LANDLORD PARTICIPATION IN 10
HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM. 11
(a) O
NE-TIMEINCENTIVEPAYMENTS.—Section 8(o) 12
of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 13
1437f(o)) is amended by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(23) O
NE-TIME INCENTIVE PAYMENTS .— 15
‘‘(A) D
EFINITION.—In this paragraph, the 16
term ‘eligible unit’ means a dwelling unit 17
that— 18
‘‘(i) is located in a census tract with 19
a poverty rate of less than 20 percent; and 20
‘‘(ii) has not previously been subject 21
to a housing assistance payment contract 22
under this subsection. 23
‘‘(B) I
NCENTIVE PAYMENT AUTHORITY .— 24
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—To incentivize 1
landlords who own dwelling units in low- 2
poverty areas to enter into housing assist-3
ance payment contracts under this sub-4
section, the Secretary shall provide assist-5
ance under this paragraph to public hous-6
ing agencies to be used to offer a one-time 7
payment directly to the owner of an eligi-8
ble unit entering into a housing assistance 9
payment contract with the public housing 10
agency for the eligible unit. 11
‘‘(ii) A
MOUNT.—The amount of an in-12
centive payment made to an eligible owner 13
under clause (i) may not exceed 200 per-14
cent of the monthly housing assistance 15
payment made to the eligible owner for the 16
eligible unit. 17
‘‘(iii) C
ONDITIONS PERMITTED .—Sub-18
ject to paragraph (7), a public housing 19
agency may require the owner of an eligi-20
ble unit, as a condition of receiving an in-21
centive payment under clause (i), to com-22
mit to lease the eligible unit to tenants as-23
sisted under this subsection for more than 24
1 year. 25
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‘‘(iv) LIMIT.—The owner of an eligible 1
unit may not receive more than 1 incentive 2
payment under clause (i), regardless of— 3
‘‘(I) the number of eligible units 4
owned by the owner; or 5
‘‘(II) the number of public hous-6
ing agencies with which the owner has 7
entered into housing assistance pay-8
ment contracts.’’. 9
(b) S
ECURITYDEPOSITPAYMENTS.—Section 8(o) of 10
the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 11
1437f(o)), as amended by subsection (a), is amended by 12
adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(24) S
ECURITY DEPOSIT PAYMENTS .— 14
‘‘(A) S
ECURITY DEPOSIT PAYMENT AU -15
THORITY.—The Secretary shall provide assist-16
ance to public housing agencies to be used to 17
pay the owner of a dwelling unit assisted under 18
this subsection for a security deposit, or a sub-19
stantial portion thereof, on behalf of the tenant 20
of the dwelling unit in accordance with subpara-21
graph (B). 22
‘‘(B) M
INIMUM PHA REQUIREMENTS .—A 23
public housing agency that receives assistance 24
from the Secretary under subparagraph (A) 25
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shall administer the assistance in accordance 1
with the following conditions: 2
‘‘(i) The public housing agency shall 3
pay the owners of dwelling units assisted 4
under this subsection for a security de-5
posit, or a substantial portion thereof, in 6
an amount determined by the public hous-7
ing agency, on behalf of the tenants of the 8
dwelling units. 9
‘‘(ii) In making payments to owners of 10
dwelling units under clause (i), the public 11
housing agency shall give priority to own-12
ers of dwelling units occupied by extremely 13
low-income families. 14
‘‘(iii) The owner of a dwelling unit 15
may deduct amounts from a security de-16
posit payment received under clause (i) to 17
cover damages beyond normal wear and 18
tear caused by the tenant of the dwelling 19
unit, any member of the tenant’s house-20
hold, or any guest or other person under 21
the tenant’s control. 22
‘‘(iv) The public housing agency shall 23
conduct a damage claims process where-24
by— 25
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‘‘(I) in order to deduct amounts 1
from a security deposit payment re-2
ceived under clause (i), the owner of 3
a covered dwelling unit must submit a 4
claim to the public housing agency 5
with an itemized list of damages and 6
evidence and request reimbursement; 7
and 8
‘‘(II) the tenant of a covered 9
dwelling unit may refute a claim sub-10
mitted under subclause (I). 11
‘‘(v) The public housing agency 12
shall— 13
‘‘(I) establish an amount of re-14
pair costs for which a tenant will be 15
responsible; and 16
‘‘(II) notify a tenant, upon the 17
tenant entering into a lease for a 18
dwelling unit assisted under this sub-19
section, of the amount described in 20
subclause (I). 21
‘‘(vi) The public housing agency may 22
determine what action to take if a tenant 23
demonstrates an inability to pay the 24
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amount of repair costs for which the ten-1
ant is responsible under clause (v). 2
‘‘(vii) At the end of a tenant’s occu-3
pancy of a dwelling unit assisted under 4
this subsection, the landlord shall return to 5
the public housing agency any unused 6
amount of a security deposit payment re-7
ceived under clause (i). 8
‘‘(C) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing 9
in subparagraph (B) shall be construed to pro-10
hibit a public housing agency from establishing 11
additional conditions for the administration of 12
assistance received under subparagraph (A) in 13
accordance with applicable State and local 14
laws.’’. 15
(c) L
ANDLORDLIAISONBONUSPAYMENTS.—Section 16
8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 17
1437f(o)), as amended by subsection (b), is amended by 18
adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(25) L
ANDLORD LIAISON BONUS PAYMENTS .— 20
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each year, the Sec-21
retary shall award 1 bonus payment to each 22
public housing agency that employs, contracts 23
with a service partner that employs, or dem-24
onstrates an intent to employ or contract with 25
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a service partner that employs, not less than 1 1
dedicated landlord liaison whose duties include, 2
with respect to the tenant-based assistance pro-3
gram under subsection (o)— 4
‘‘(i) conducting landlord outreach, re-5
cruitment, and retention; 6
‘‘(ii) educating and training landlords 7
regarding the program; and 8
‘‘(iii) operating a phone hotline, online 9
portal, monitored email address, or other 10
mechanism designated by the Secretary for 11
landlord questions and concerns regarding 12
the program. 13
‘‘(B) D
EMONSTRATING COMPLIANCE .—The 14
Secretary shall determine how a public housing 15
agency may demonstrate that it offers or in-16
tends to offer a landlord liaison service for pur-17
poses of subparagraph (A). 18
‘‘(C) A
MOUNT.—The Secretary shall estab-19
lish an amount for the landlord liaison bonus 20
payment authorized under subparagraph (A) 21
that— 22
‘‘(i) may vary by region; 23
‘‘(ii) does not exceed the 150 percent 24
of the average cost of employing, or con-25
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tracting with a service partner that em-1
ploys, such a landlord liaison, based on 2
local market conditions; and 3
‘‘(iii) is sufficient to incentivize public 4
housing agencies to employ, or contact 5
with a service partner that employs, such 6
a landlord liaison.’’. 7
(d) H
OUSINGPARTNERSHIPFUND.—Section 8 of the 8
United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f) is 9
amended by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(ee) H
ERSCHELLASHKOWITZHOUSINGPARTNER-11
SHIPFUND.— 12
‘‘(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es-13
tablish a fund, to be known as the ‘Herschel 14
Lashkowitz Housing Partnership Fund’, for the pur-15
pose of incentivizing landlords to participate in the 16
tenant-based assistance program under subsection 17
(o) in accordance with paragraph (2) of this sub-18
section. 19
‘‘(2) A
UTHORIZED USES.—The Secretary shall 20
use amounts from the Housing Partnership Fund 21
for— 22
‘‘(A) incentive payments under subsection 23
(o)(23); 24
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‘‘(B) security deposit payments under sub-1
section (o)(24); 2
‘‘(C) landlord liaison bonus payments 3
under subsection (o)(25); and 4
‘‘(D) other uses, as determined by a public 5
housing agency and approved by the Secretary, 6
designed primarily— 7
‘‘(i) to recruit owners of dwelling 8
units, particularly dwelling units in census 9
tracts with a poverty rate of less than 20 10
percent, to enter into housing assistance 11
payment contracts under subsection (o); 12
and 13
‘‘(ii) to ensure that owners that enter 14
into housing assistance payment contracts 15
as described in clause (i) of this subpara-16
graph continue to lease their dwelling units 17
to tenants assisted under subsection (o). 18
‘‘(3) R
EPORTS.—The Secretary shall require a 19
public housing agency that receives assistance from 20
the Herschel Lashkowitz Housing Partnership Fund 21
to submit an annual report to the Secretary on the 22
use of the assistance. 23
‘‘(4) A
UTHORIZATION OF ADDITIONAL APPRO -24
PRIATIONS.—There is authorized to be appropriated 25
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for deposit in the Herschel Lashkowitz Housing 1
Partnership Fund $100,000,000 for each of fiscal 2
years 2025 through 2029, to remain available until 3
expended.’’. 4
SEC. 6. HOUSING QUALITY STANDARDS. 5
(a) S
ATISFACTION OFINSPECTIONREQUIREMENTS 6
T
HROUGHPARTICIPATION IN OTHERHOUSINGPRO-7
GRAMS.—Section 8(o)(8) of the United States Housing 8
Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)(8)), as amended by sec-9
tion 101(a) of the Housing Opportunity Through Mod-10
ernization Act of 2016 (Public Law 114–201; 130 Stat. 11
783), is amended by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(I) S
ATISFACTION OF INSPECTION RE -13
QUIREMENTS THROUGH PARTICIPATION IN 14
OTHER HOUSING PROGRAMS .— 15
‘‘(i) L
OW-INCOME HOUSING TAX 16
CREDIT-FINANCED BUILDINGS .—A dwell-17
ing unit shall be deemed to meet the in-18
spection requirements under this para-19
graph if— 20
‘‘(I) the dwelling unit is in a 21
building, the acquisition, rehabilita-22
tion, or construction of which was fi-23
nanced by a person who received a 24
low-income housing tax credit under 25
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section 42 of the Internal Revenue 1
Code of 1986 in exchange for that fi-2
nancing; 3
‘‘(II) the dwelling unit was phys-4
ically inspected and passed inspection 5
as part of the low-income housing tax 6
credit program described in subclause 7
(I) during the preceding 12-month pe-8
riod; and 9
‘‘(III) the applicable public hous-10
ing agency is able to obtain the re-11
sults of the inspection described in 12
subclause (II). 13
‘‘(ii) HOME
INVESTMENT PARTNER -14
SHIPS PROGRAM .—A dwelling shall be 15
deemed to meet the inspection require-16
ments under this paragraph if— 17
‘‘(I) the dwelling unit is assisted 18
under the HOME Investment Part-19
nerships Program under title II of the 20
Cranston-Gonzalez National Afford-21
able Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12721 et 22
seq.); 23
‘‘(II) the dwelling unit was phys-24
ically inspected and passed inspection 25
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as part of the program described in 1
subclause (I) during the preceding 12- 2
month period; and 3
‘‘(III) the applicable public hous-4
ing agency is able to obtain the re-5
sults of the inspection described in 6
subclause (II). 7
‘‘(iii) R
URAL HOUSING SERVICE .—A 8
dwelling unit shall be deemed to meet the 9
inspection requirements under this para-10
graph if— 11
‘‘(I) the dwelling unit is assisted 12
by the Rural Housing Service of the 13
Department of Agriculture; 14
‘‘(II) the dwelling unit was phys-15
ically inspected and passed inspection 16
in connection with the assistance de-17
scribed in subclause (I) during the 18
preceding 12-month period; and 19
‘‘(III) the applicable public hous-20
ing agency is able to obtain the re-21
sults of the inspection described in 22
subclause (II). 23
‘‘(iv) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .— 24
Nothing in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) shall be 25
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construed to affect the operation of a hous-1
ing program described in, or authorized 2
under a provision of law described in, that 3
clause.’’. 4
(b) P
RE-APPROVAL OFUNITS.—Section 8(o)(8)(A) 5
of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 6
1437f(o)(8)(A)) is amended by adding at the end the fol-7
lowing: 8
‘‘(iv) I
NITIAL INSPECTION PRIOR TO 9
LEASE AGREEMENT .— 10
‘‘(I) D
EFINITION.—In this 11
clause, the term ‘new landlord’ means 12
an owner of a dwelling unit who has 13
not previously entered into a housing 14
assistance payment contract with a 15
public housing agency under this sub-16
section for any dwelling unit. 17
‘‘(II) E
ARLY INSPECTION.—Upon 18
the request of a new landlord, a public 19
housing agency may inspect the dwell-20
ing unit owned by the new landlord to 21
determine whether the unit meets the 22
housing quality standards under sub-23
paragraph (B) before the unit is se-24
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lected by a tenant assisted under this 1
subsection. 2
‘‘(III) E
FFECT.—An inspection 3
conducted under subclause (II) that 4
determines that the dwelling unit 5
meets the housing quality standards 6
under subparagraph (B) shall satisfy 7
this subparagraph and subparagraph 8
(C) if the new landlord enters into a 9
lease agreement with a tenant assisted 10
under this subsection not later than 11
60 days after the date of the inspec-12
tion. 13
‘‘(IV) I
NFORMATION WHEN FAM -14
ILY IS SELECTED.—When a public 15
housing agency selects a family to 16
participate in the tenant-based assist-17
ance program under this subsection, 18
the public housing agency shall in-19
clude in the information provided to 20
the family a list of dwelling units that 21
have been inspected under subclause 22
(II) and determined to meet the hous-23
ing quality standards under subpara-24
graph (B).’’. 25
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SEC. 7. SMALL AREA FAIR MARKET RENT. 1
(a) U
SE OFSMALLAREAFAIRMARKETRENT.— 2
Section 8(o)(1) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 3
(42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)(1)) is amended by adding at the end 4
the following: 5
‘‘(F) S
MALL AREA FAIR MARKET RENT .— 6
‘‘(i) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subpara-7
graph— 8
‘‘(I) the term ‘metropolitan area’ 9
means a metropolitan statistical area, 10
as defined by the Office of Manage-11
ment and Budget; and 12
‘‘(II) the term ‘small area fair 13
market rent’ means the fair market 14
rent established for a ZIP Code area 15
within a metropolitan area. 16
‘‘(ii) U
SE OF SMALL AREA FAIR MAR -17
KET RENT.—Notwithstanding subsection 18
(c) or any other provision of this sub-19
section, not later than 3 years after the 20
date of enactment of this subparagraph, 21
the Secretary shall designate a number of 22
metropolitan areas in which public housing 23
agencies are required to use the small area 24
fair market rent to determine the fair mar-25
ket rental for dwelling units for purposes 26
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of tenant-based assistance under this sub-1
section that is not less than 3 times the 2
number of metropolitan areas so des-3
ignated in the final rule of the Secretary 4
entitled ‘Establishing a More Effective 5
Fair Market Rent System; Using Small 6
Area Fair Market Rents in the Housing 7
Choice Voucher Program Instead of the 8
Current 50th Percentile FMRs’, published 9
in the Federal Register on November 16, 10
2016 (81 Fed. Reg. 80567). 11
‘‘(iii) H
OLD HARMLESS.—If the appli-12
cation of clause (ii) would cause a decrease 13
in the payment standard used to calculate 14
the amount of tenant-based assistance pro-15
vided to a family under this subsection, a 16
public housing agency shall continue to use 17
the existing higher payment standard to 18
calculate the amount of such assistance for 19
the family for as long as the family con-20
tinues to receive such assistance in the 21
same dwelling unit.’’. 22
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 8(o)(1)(B) 23
of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 24
1437f(o)(1)(B)) is amended by inserting after ‘‘subsection 25
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(c)’’ the following: ‘‘(subject to subparagraph (F) of this 1
paragraph)’’. 2
SEC. 8. SECTION 8 MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT PROGRAM. 3
(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘Section 4
8 Management Assessment Program’’ means the program 5
set forth in part 985 of title 24, Code of Federal Regula-6
tions (or any successor regulation). 7
(b) D
ECONCENTRATION OF PARTICIPATINGDWELL-8
INGUNITS.—The Secretary shall explore ways to reform 9
and modernize the Section 8 Management Assessment 10
Program to assess public housing agencies in a manner 11
that promotes— 12
(1) positive interactions with landlords, includ-13
ing timely payment of rent and identification of the 14
dwelling unit for which a subsidy payment is being 15
made; and 16
(2) an increase in the diversity of areas where 17
dwelling units are leased to support voucher holders 18
who want to access to low-poverty, integrated neigh-19
borhoods. 20
(c) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in sub-21
section (b) shall be construed to prevent the Secretary 22
from— 23
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(1) reforming the Section 8 Management As-1
sessment Program to assess public housing agencies 2
in other areas of performance; or 3
(2) reforming the Section 8 Management As-4
sessment Program in any other manner, at the dis-5
cretion of the Secretary. 6
SEC. 9. ANNUAL REPORT ON EFFECTIVENESS OF ACT. 7
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 8
(1) the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-9
mittees’’ means— 10
(A) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 11
and Urban Affairs of the Senate; 12
(B) the Subcommittee on Transportation, 13
Housing and Urban Development, and Related 14
Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of 15
the Senate; 16
(C) the Committee on Financial Services of 17
the House of Representatives; and 18
(D) the Subcommittee on Transportation, 19
Housing and Urban Development, and Related 20
Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of 21
the House of Representatives; and 22
(2) the term ‘‘high-opportunity area’’— 23
(A) shall be defined by the Secretary for 24
purposes of this section; and 25
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(B) does not include any census tract in 1
which the poverty rate is equal to or greater 2
than 20 percent. 3
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 4
of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter for 5 5
total years, the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate 6
congressional committees and make publicly available a re-7
port that— 8
(1) evaluates the effectiveness of this Act and 9
the amendments made by this Act in recruiting and 10
retaining landlords who accept vouchers under the 11
Housing Choice Voucher program, particularly land-12
lords with dwelling units in high-opportunity neigh-13
borhoods; and 14
(2) includes— 15
(A) the number of landlords in the United 16
States who accept housing choice vouchers 17
under the Housing Choice Voucher program 18
and the number of dwelling units assisted under 19
the Housing Choice Voucher program; 20
(B) any net changes to the number of 21
landlords or dwelling units described in sub-22
paragraph (A) during the preceding year; 23
(C) the number of landlords described in 24
subparagraph (A) who own disability-accessible 25
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•HR 1981 IH
dwelling units assisted under the Housing 1
Choice Voucher program and the number of 2
those dwelling units; and 3
(D) the number of landlords described in 4
subparagraph (A) who own dwelling units as-5
sisted under the Housing Choice Voucher pro-6
gram in high-opportunity areas and the number 7
of those dwelling units. 8
Æ
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