I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2206
To establish a Housing Stabilization Fund to provide emergency housing
assistance to extremely low-income renters and homeowners, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH18, 2025
Mr. L
IEU(for himself, Mr. MULLIN, and Mr. JACKSONof Illinois) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To establish a Housing Stabilization Fund to provide emer-
gency housing assistance to extremely low-income renters
and homeowners, 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 ‘‘Prevent Homelessness 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. HOUSING STABILIZATION FUND. 6
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Housing 7
and Urban Development, acting through the Office of Spe-8
cial Needs Assistance Programs of the Office of Commu-9
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nity Planning and Development, shall establish and ad-1
minister a fund to be known as the Housing Stabilization 2
Fund. 3
(b) G
RANTS.—Amounts in the Fund shall be avail-4
able, to the extent provided in advance in appropriations 5
Acts, only for making annual grants under this section, 6
in the amount determined pursuant to subsection (f), to 7
continua of care to provide short-term assistance under 8
emergency housing assistance programs that the Secretary 9
determines, pursuant to applications under subsection (e), 10
meet the requirements of subsection (c). 11
(c) E
MERGENCYHOUSINGASSISTANCEPROGRAM 12
R
EQUIREMENTS.—An emergency housing assistance pro-13
gram shall be considered to meet the requirements of this 14
subsection only if the program— 15
(1) is carried out by a continuum of care or 16
other agency, organization, or entity selected by a 17
continuum of care; 18
(2) operates within the geographical area served 19
by the continuum of care; 20
(3) provides financial assistance only on behalf 21
of extremely low-income families and very low-in-22
come families who— 23
(A) are unable to meet housing-related ob-24
ligations (as described in subsection (d) of this 25
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section) due to a financial hardship, which shall 1
include the situations described in clause (i) of 2
section 3(a)(3)(B) of the United States Hous-3
ing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(a)(3)(B)(i)), 4
a family or health crisis, unexpected expenses, 5
unsafe or unhealthy living conditions, and such 6
other situations as the Secretary may provide; 7
and 8
(B) provide evidence of such inability to 9
meet housing related obligations, which may in-10
clude past-due utilities or rent notices, eviction 11
notices, and such other evidence as the Sec-12
retary may provide, except that a continuum of 13
care may, in consultation with the Secretary, 14
provide for additional manners of identifying in-15
ability to meet housing related obligations in 16
situations in which such notices are not avail-17
able; 18
(4) provides for coordination with any local 19
homeless prioritization criteria, including the Coordi-20
nated Entry System or any other evidence-based 21
analytic targeting tool, applicable within the area in 22
which the program will be carried out, in accordance 23
with such requirements as the Secretary shall pro-24
vide; and 25
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(5) meets such other requirements as the Sec-1
retary may establish. 2
(d) E
LIGIBLEFINANCIALASSISTANCE.—Amounts 3
from grants under this section for an emergency housing 4
assistance program shall be used to provide financial as-5
sistance only to meet housing-related obligations, includ-6
ing— 7
(1) prospective rent due, except that such as-8
sistance may not— 9
(A) be provided for a family for more than 10
8 months (whether consecutive or not) within 11
the preceding 12 months; or 12
(B) exceed on a monthly basis the amount 13
that the Secretary determines is reasonable in 14
comparison with rents charged for comparable 15
dwelling units located in the same area in the 16
private, unassisted local market; 17
(2) rental arrears, with payments based on ac-18
tual rent amount due; 19
(3) mortgage payments due, including amounts 20
past due, except that such assistance may not be 21
provided for a household for more than 8 months 22
(whether consecutive or not) within the preceding 12 23
months and may not exceed on a monthly basis such 24
amount as the Secretary shall determine; 25
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(4) utility payments due, including amounts 1
past due; 2
(5) housing repairs necessary to make the 3
premises habitable, including installing insulation, 4
window repair, door repair, roof repair, and other re-5
pairs; 6
(6) costs of obtaining services for behavioral, 7
emotional, and mental health issues, domestic vio-8
lence issues, child welfare issues, employment coun-9
seling, substance abuse treatment, or other services; 10
(7) costs of obtaining housing counseling or ad-11
vice, including outreach, mediation, and case man-12
agement; 13
(8) costs of obtaining legal assistance relating 14
to eviction, foreclosure, and other issues relating to 15
a family retaining its housing; 16
(9) security deposit payments due; and 17
(10) other short-term costs the payment of 18
which increase housing stability for an extremely 19
low-income family or a very low-income family, in-20
cluding costs for gas, groceries, automotive repair, 21
public transportation, furniture, application fees, re-22
unification services, and such other costs as the Sec-23
retary may provide. 24
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(e) APPLICATIONS.—The Secretary shall require, for 1
a continuum of care to receive a grant under this section 2
for a fiscal year, that the continuum of care submit to 3
the Secretary, and the Secretary approve, an application 4
containing such information as the Secretary considers 5
necessary to ensure that grant amounts are used in ac-6
cordance with this section. 7
(f) A
MOUNT OFGRANTS.— 8
(1) A
LLOCATION.— 9
(A) F
ISCAL YEAR 2027.—For fiscal year 10
2027, any amounts made available from the 11
Fund for grants under this section shall be allo-12
cated for grants to continua of care according 13
to the formula established pursuant to para-14
graph (2). 15
(B) S
UCCEEDING FISCAL YEARS .—For 16
each fiscal year thereafter, of any amounts 17
made available from the Fund for grants under 18
this section— 19
(i) 80 percent shall be allocated for 20
grants to continua of care according to the 21
formula established pursuant to paragraph 22
(2); and 23
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(ii) 20 percent shall be allocated for 1
grants to continua of care according to a 2
competition pursuant to paragraph (3). 3
(2) F
ORMULA.— 4
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, by 5
regulation, establish a formula for use to allo-6
cate amounts in the Fund for grants for a fiscal 7
year, in accordance with paragraph (1), for 8
continua of care whose applications for such 9
year for such assistance have been approved 10
pursuant to subsection (e). 11
(B) F
ACTORS.—The formula required by 12
subparagraph (A) shall be designed to take into 13
consideration, for the area served by a con-14
tinuum of care— 15
(i) the extent of the population that 16
are extremely low-income families, includ-17
ing the homeless population that is 18
unsheltered, who are severely cost-bur-19
dened by housing-related costs, including 20
obligations described in subsection (d); 21
(ii) the extent of the population that 22
are very low-income families; and 23
(iii) such other factors as the Sec-24
retary may provide. 25
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The Secretary shall determine data to be used 1
for the factors considered under the formula 2
based on the most recently conducted Point-In- 3
Time Homeless Count administered by the Sec-4
retary. 5
(3) C
OMPETITION.—The Secretary shall, by 6
regulation, establish a competition for use to allocate 7
amounts in the Fund for grants for a fiscal year for 8
continua of care pursuant to paragraph (1)(B)(ii), 9
which shall be based on measurable criteria that— 10
(A) to the greatest extent possible, are re-11
quired to be collected and reported to the De-12
partment of Housing and Urban Development 13
or any other Federal agency under other provi-14
sions of law already in effect or otherwise do 15
not impose new burdens on continua of care; 16
(B) provide for targeting of assistance 17
made available under an emergency housing as-18
sistance program to households having the low-19
est incomes; 20
(C) encourage the leveraging of other non- 21
Federal funds for providing assistance under an 22
emergency housing assistance program; 23
(D) encourage emergency housing assist-24
ance programs assisted with grants under this 25
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section to provide preventive assistance to avoid 1
homelessness; and 2
(E) encourage problem-solving and diver-3
sion methods, including the applicant’s capacity 4
and interest in providing innovative delivery of 5
housing stability interventions and connecting 6
households to other public benefits that pro-7
mote housing stability. 8
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—For purposes of this Act, the fol-9
lowing definitions shall apply: 10
(1) C
ONTINUUM OF CARE .—The term ‘‘con-11
tinuum of care’’ means a collaborative applicant es-12
tablished and operating for a geographic area for 13
purposes of the Continuum of Care Program under 14
subtitle C of title IV of the McKinney-Vento Home-15
less Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11381 et seq.). 16
(2) E
XTREMELY LOW -INCOME FAMILY; VERY 17
LOW-INCOME FAMILY.—The terms ‘‘extremely low- 18
income family’’ and ‘‘very low-income family’’ have 19
the meanings given such terms in section 3(b) of the 20
United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 21
1437a(b)). 22
(3) F
UND.—The term ‘‘Fund’’ means the 23
Housing Stabilization Fund established under sub-24
section (a). 25
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(4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 1
the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 2
(h) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is 3
authorized to be appropriated for the Fund $100,000,000 4
for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031. 5
Æ
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