I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 638
To require owners of covered federally assisted rental dwelling units to install
temperature sensors in such units, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY22, 2025
Mr. T
ORRESof New York introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To require owners of covered federally assisted rental dwell-
ing units to install temperature sensors in such units,
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 ‘‘Housing Temperature 4
Safety Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. TEMPERATURE SENSOR PILOT PROGRAM. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish a 7
temperature sensor 3-year pilot program to provide grants 8
to public housing agencies and owners of covered federally 9
assisted rental dwelling units to install and test the effi-10
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•HR 638 IH
cacy of temperature sensors in residential dwelling units 1
to ensure such units remain in compliance with tempera-2
ture requirements. 3
(b) A
PPLICATION.—The Secretary shall, not later 4
than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, 5
establish eligibility criteria for participation in the pilot 6
program established pursuant to subsection (a) and such 7
criteria shall be designed to ensure— 8
(1) the pilot program includes a diverse range 9
of participants that represent different geographic 10
regions, climate regions, unit sizes and types of 11
housing; and 12
(2) the functionality of the temperature sensors 13
that will be tested, including internet connectivity re-14
quirements. 15
(c) I
NSTALLATION.—Each public housing agency or 16
owner of a covered federally assisted rental dwelling unit 17
that receives one or more temperature sensors under this 18
Act shall, after receiving written permission from the resi-19
dent of a dwelling unit, install such temperature sensor 20
and monitor the data from such temperature sensor. 21
(d) C
OLLECTION OFCOMPLAINTRECORDS.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Each public housing agency 23
or owner of a covered federally assisted rental dwell-24
ing unit that receives one or more temperature sen-25
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sors under this Act shall collect and retain informa-1
tion about temperature-related complaints and viola-2
tions. 3
(2) D
EFINITIONS.—The Secretary shall, not 4
later than 180 days after the date of the enactment 5
of this Act, define the terms temperature-related 6
complaints and temperature-related violations for 7
the purposes of this Act. 8
(e) D
ATACOLLECTION.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Data collected from tem-10
perature sensors provided to public housing agencies 11
and owners of covered federally assisted rental dwell-12
ing units under this Act shall be retained until the 13
Secretary notifies the public housing agency or 14
owner that the pilot program and the evaluation of 15
the pilot program are complete. 16
(2) P
ERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMA -17
TION.—The Secretary shall, not later than 180 days 18
after the date of the enactment of this Act, establish 19
standards for the protection of personally identifi-20
ably information collected during the pilot program 21
by public housing agencies, owners of federally as-22
sisted rental dwelling units, and the Secretary. 23
(f) P
ILOTPROGRAMEVALUATION.— 24
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(1) INTERIM EVALUATION .—Not later than 12 1
months after the establishment of the pilot program 2
under this Act, the Secretary shall publicly publish 3
and submit to the Congress a report that— 4
(A) examines the number of temperature- 5
related complaints and violations in federally 6
assisted rental dwelling units with temperature 7
sensors, disaggregated by temperature sensor 8
technology and climate region— 9
(i) that occurred before the installa-10
tion of such sensor, if known; and 11
(ii) that occurred after the installation 12
of such sensor; and 13
(B) identifies any barriers to full utility of 14
temperature sensor capabilities, including 15
broadband internet access and tenant participa-16
tion. 17
(2) F
INAL EVALUATION.—Not later than 36 18
months after the conclusion of the pilot program es-19
tablished by the Secretary under this Act, the Sec-20
retary shall publicly publish and submit to the Con-21
gress a report that— 22
(A) examines the number of temperature- 23
related complaints and violations in federally 24
assisted rental dwelling units with temperature 25
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sensors, disaggregated by temperature sensor 1
technology and climate region— 2
(i) that occurred before the installa-3
tion of such sensor; and 4
(ii) that occurred after the installation 5
of such sensor; 6
(B) identifies any barriers to full utility of 7
temperature sensor capabilities, including 8
broadband internet access and tenant participa-9
tion; and 10
(C) compare the utility of various tempera-11
ture sensor technologies based on— 12
(i) climate zones; 13
(ii) cost; 14
(iii) features; and 15
(iv) any other factors identified by the 16
Secretary. 17
(g) D
EFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this Act: 18
(1) T
EMPERATURE SENSOR .—The term ‘‘tem-19
perature sensor’’ means an internet capable tem-20
perature reporting device able to measure ambient 21
air temperature to the tenth degree Fahrenheit and 22
Celsius. 23
(2) C
OVERED FEDERALLY ASSISTED HOUS -24
ING.—The term ‘‘covered federally assisted rental 25
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dwelling unit’’ means a residential dwelling unit that 1
is made available for rental and for which assistance 2
is provided, or that is part of a housing project for 3
which assistance is provided, under— 4
(A) the program for project-based rental 5
assistance under section 8 of the United States 6
Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f); 7
(B) the public housing program under the 8
United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 9
1437 et seq.); 10
(C) the program for supportive housing for 11
the elderly under section 202 of the Housing 12
Act of 1959 (12 U.S.C. 1701q); or 13
(D) the program for supportive housing for 14
persons with disabilities under section 811 of 15
the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable 16
Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 8013). 17
(3) O
WNER.—The term ‘‘owner’’ means— 18
(A) with respect to the program for 19
project-based rental assistance under section 8 20
of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 21
U.S.C. 1437f), any private person or entity, in-22
cluding a cooperative, an agency of the Federal 23
Government, or a public housing agency, having 24
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the legal right to lease or sublease dwelling 1
units; 2
(B) with respect to public housing program 3
under the United States Housing Act of 1937 4
(42 U.S.C. 1437 et seq.), a public housing 5
agency or an owner entity of public housing 6
units as defined in section 905.108 of title 24, 7
Code of Federal Regulations; 8
(C) with respect to the program for sup-9
portive housing for the elderly under section 10
202 of the Housing Act of 1959 (12 U.S.C. 11
1701q), a private nonprofit organization as de-12
fined under section 202(k)(4) of the Housing 13
Act of 1959; and 14
(D) with respect to the program for sup-15
portive housing for persons with disabilities 16
under section 811 of the Cranston-Gonzalez 17
National Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 18
8013), a private nonprofit organization as de-19
fined under section 811(k)(5) of section 811 of 20
the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable 21
Housing Act. 22
(4) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 23
the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 24
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(h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 1
are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary— 2
(1) such sums as may be necessary for the Sec-3
retary to provide grants to owners of covered feder-4
ally assisted rental dwelling units participating in 5
the pilot program established under this Act; 6
(2) such sums as may be necessary for the Sec-7
retary to administer the pilot program established 8
under this Act; and 9
(3) such sums as may be necessary for the Sec-10
retary to provide technical assistance to owners of 11
covered federally assisted rental dwelling units that 12
are participating in the pilot program established 13
under this Act. 14
Æ
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