I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 646
To establish a grant program to address the crises in accessing affordable
housing and child care through the co-location of housing and child
care, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY23, 2025
Ms. B
ONAMICI(for herself, Ms. TITUS, Ms. BARRAGA´N, Ms. SCANLON, Mr.
P
ANETTA, Mrs. MCIVER, Ms. NORTON, Ms. DEANof Pennsylvania, Mrs.
H
AYES, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Ms. SALINAS, Ms. BYNUM, Mrs.
D
INGELL, Mr. KEATING, Ms. GARCIAof Texas, Mr. EVANSof Pennsyl-
vania, Ms. J
ACOBS, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. NADLER, Mrs. WATSONCOLEMAN,
Ms. T
OKUDA, Ms. MCCLELLAN, Ms. ROSS, Ms. CLARKEof New York,
Mr. L
ANDSMAN, Ms. CASTORof Florida, Ms. ESCOBAR, Ms. HOYLEof
Oregon, and Ms. D
EXTER) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the
Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To establish a grant program to address the crises in access-
ing affordable housing and child care through the co-
location of housing and child care, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Build Housing with 2
Care Act of 2025’’. 3
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 4
The purpose of this Act is to expand access to afford-5
able housing and child care through the establishment of 6
a grant program to promote the co-location of housing and 7
child care providers. 8
SEC. 3. HOUSING AND CHILD CARE PROVIDER CO-LOCA-9
TION GRANT PROGRAM. 10
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Housing 11
and Urban Development shall establish a program (here-12
after in this section referred to as ‘‘the Program’’) to 13
award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities 14
to facilitate the design, planning, construction, conversion, 15
retrofitting, preservation, or renovation of a co-location fa-16
cility. 17
(b) C
ONSULTATION.—In developing the Program, the 18
Secretary shall consult with— 19
(1) the Secretary of Health and Human Serv-20
ices, acting through the Assistant Secretary of the 21
Administration for Children and Families; 22
(2) the Secretary of the Treasury, acting 23
through the Director of the Community Develop-24
ment Financial Institutions Fund; and 25
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(3) the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through 1
the Under Secretary for Rural Development. 2
(c) A
PPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a grant 3
under the Program, an eligible entity shall submit to the 4
Secretary an application at such time, in such manner, 5
and containing such information as the Secretary deter-6
mines appropriate, including the following: 7
(1) A certification that the eligible child care 8
provider associated with such application is eligible 9
to receive vouchers or assistance under the Child 10
Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 11
U.S.C. 9857 et seq.), or in the case of an application 12
to construct a new facility, or an application when 13
the eligible entity intends to subgrant or capitalize 14
amounts provided, a commitment to— 15
(A) establish a partnership with an eligible 16
child care provider not later than 1 year after 17
the date on which funding is received; 18
(B) submit to the Secretary a certification 19
of such eligibility of said provider to receive 20
vouchers or assistance under the Child Care 21
and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 22
U.S.C. 9857 et seq.); and 23
(C) clearly establish a project pipeline, and 24
submission of a certification to the Secretary 25
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that a child care provider associated with a co- 1
location facility project receives vouchers or as-2
sistance under the Child Care and Development 3
Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9857 et 4
seq.) or the Head Start Act (42 U.S.C. 9831 et 5
seq.). 6
(2) A certification that activities funded by 7
grant amounts will not result in the eviction of resi-8
dents of the housing facility associated with such ap-9
plication. 10
(3) A description of a plan to inform and en-11
gage residents of the housing facility associated with 12
such application about the proposed use of grant 13
amounts. 14
(4) A certification of compliance with required 15
Federal, State, and local environmental laws and 16
State and local land use policies, unless the eligible 17
entity— 18
(A) intends to use grant amounts to facili-19
tate the planning or design required for permit 20
approval; or 21
(B) demonstrates that the construction, 22
preservation, conversion, retrofitting, or renova-23
tion of an existing facility does not require envi-24
ronmental review. 25
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(5) A business plan for the eligible child care 1
provider associated with such application, submitted 2
at the time of application or not later than 1 year 3
after the date on which the application is submitted, 4
including— 5
(A) a budget or, in the case of a new eligi-6
ble child care provider, a proposed budget; 7
(B) appropriate State and local licensing 8
or, in the case of a new eligible child care pro-9
vider, a copy of the application of such provider 10
for appropriate State and local licensing; and 11
(C) copies of contracts between such pro-12
vider and a local, county, regional, State, or 13
Federal governmental entity, to facilitate— 14
(i) the business operations of such 15
provider; or 16
(ii) the enrollment of children from 17
low-income families with such provider. 18
(d) A
WARDING OFGRANTS.— 19
(1) P
RIORITY.—In awarding grants under the 20
Program, the Secretary shall give priority to each el-21
igible entity that demonstrates that the eligible child 22
care provider associated with the application of such 23
entity will— 24
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(A) operate in a child care desert, in a low- 1
income community, or a rural area as deter-2
mined by the Secretary; 3
(B) certify designation as a Head Start 4
provider, Early Head Start Provider, Migrant 5
and Seasonal Head Start Provider, American 6
Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Provider, 7
or enroll at least 10 percent of children from 8
very-low income families; or 9
(C) demonstrate a partnership with a com-10
munity development financial institution, in-11
cluding through the provision of financial or 12
technical assistance. 13
(2) G
RANT AMOUNTS.—An eligible entity may 14
be awarded not more than $10,000,000 under this 15
Act. 16
(e) U
SE OFAMOUNTS.— 17
(1) An eligible entity may only use grant 18
amounts provided under the Program to facilitate 19
the design, planning, construction, acquisition, pres-20
ervation, conversion, retrofitting, long-term leasing, 21
or renovation of a new or existing co-location facil-22
ity. 23
(2) An eligible entity receiving a grant under 24
this section may distribute grant amounts to a gov-25
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ernment entity, a nonprofit organization that devel-1
ops housing, a public housing agency, a Tribally des-2
ignated housing entity, or other appropriate entity 3
as determined by the Secretary, to carry out activi-4
ties in accordance with this section. 5
(3) A community development financial institu-6
tion receiving a grant under this section may cap-7
italize amount received to create financial products, 8
including loans, to carry out activities in accordance 9
with this section. 10
(4) An eligible entity may use— 11
(A) not more than 10 percent of amounts 12
awarded to facilitate the pre-development phase 13
of a new facility, including planning and design; 14
and 15
(B) not more than 10 percent of amounts 16
awarded to partner with a community develop-17
ment financial institution that provides tech-18
nical assistance and capacity building to help 19
the eligible entity to submit applications to the 20
Program, support an eligible child care provider 21
that is home-based with meeting relevant State 22
and local licensing and quality standards, and 23
conduct pre-development activities. 24
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(f) ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary shall provide tech-1
nical assistance and publish best practices online to facili-2
tate the operation of co-location facilities. 3
(g) R
EPORT TOCONGRESS.—Not later than 1 year 4
after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annually 5
thereafter for the duration of the Program, the Secretary 6
shall submit a report to the Committees on Financial 7
Services and Education and Workforce of the House of 8
Representatives and the Committees on Banking, Hous-9
ing, and Urban Affairs and Health, Education, Labor, and 10
Pensions of the Senate regarding the implementation of 11
the Program, including— 12
(1) the number of grants awarded; 13
(2) a description of the activities funded; 14
(3) the number of child care slots created, in-15
cluding the number of child care slots serving chil-16
dren from low-income families or children who are 17
dual language learners; 18
(4) the number of child care slots preserved 19
that were at risk of elimination due to a child care 20
center closing or proposed price increases; 21
(5) the number and percentage of residents in 22
a co-location facility that use or are employed by the 23
associated child care program; 24
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(6) the number of staff employed by the child 1
care provider; 2
(7) demographic data of residents of housing 3
facilities associated with the Program; 4
(8) the number and type of projects facilitated 5
through eligible uses of amounts described in sub-6
sections (e)(2) and (e)(3); 7
(9) the number of early childhood providers 8
supported with funds from the program; and 9
(10) the number of eligible entities of each type 10
that receive grant funding under the Program. 11
(h) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is 12
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 13
$100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2030. 14
(i) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 15
(1) C
AREGIVER.—The term ‘‘caregiver’’ has the 16
meaning given such term in section 658P of the 17
Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 18
1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858n). 19
(2) E
LIGIBLE CHILD CARE PROVIDER .—The 20
term ‘‘eligible child care provider’’ has the meaning 21
given that term under section 658P of the Child 22
Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 23
U.S.C. 9858n). 24
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(3) CHILD CARE DESERT .—The term ‘‘child 1
care desert’’ means a census tract that contains not 2
less than 3 times more children than the licensed 3
child care providers in such census tract have the ca-4
pacity to care for, or a census tract where there are 5
no licensed child care providers. 6
(4) C
O-LOCATION FACILITY.—The term ‘‘co-lo-7
cation facility’’ means a housing facility that con-8
tains an eligible child care provider within, on the 9
premises of such facility or nearby such facility, 10
where such provider serves the residents of such 11
housing facility. 12
(5) C
OMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT FINANCIAL IN -13
STITUTION.—The term ‘‘community development fi-14
nancial institution’’ has the meaning given such 15
term in section 103 of the Community Development 16
Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (12 17
U.S.C. 4702). 18
(6) C
OMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORA -19
TION.—The term ‘‘community development corpora-20
tion’’ has the same meaning as when used in the 21
Cranston-Gonzalex National Affordable Housing 22
Act. 23
(7) C
OMMUNITY HOUSING DEVELOPMENT OR -24
GANIZATION.—The term ‘‘community housing devel-25
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opment organization’’ has the meaning given in the 1
Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act 2
of 1990. 3
(8) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-4
ty’’ means— 5
(A) a community development financial in-6
stitution; 7
(B) an eligible child care provider; 8
(C) a public housing authority; 9
(D) a government entity including a public 10
housing agency; 11
(E) an Indian Tribe or a Tribal organiza-12
tion; 13
(F) a community development corporation; 14
(G) a housing developer using— 15
(i) low income housing tax credits; or 16
(ii) new market tax credits; 17
(H) a nonprofit organization that develops 18
housing; 19
(I) community housing development orga-20
nization; 21
(J) a consortia of 2 or more entities under 22
this paragraph; or 23
(K) another entity identified as appro-24
priate by the Secretary. 25
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(9) INDIAN TRIBE; TRIBAL ORGANIZATION .— 1
The terms ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ and ‘‘Tribal organiza-2
tion’’ have the meanings given such terms in section 3
4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education 4
Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304) and shall include 5
tribally designated housing entities (as such term is 6
defined in section 4 of the Native American Housing 7
Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 8
U.S.C. 4103)) and entities that serve Native Hawai-9
ians (as such term is defined in section 338K(c) of 10
the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 254s(c))). 11
(10) L
OW-INCOME FAMILY.—The term ‘‘low-in-12
come family’’ has the meaning given such term in 13
section 3(b) of the United States Housing Act of 14
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)). 15
(11) P
UBLIC HOUSING AGENCY .—The term 16
‘‘public housing agency’’ has the meaning given such 17
term in section 3(b)(6) of the United States Hous-18
ing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)(6)). 19
(12) V
ERY LOW-INCOME FAMILY.—The term 20
‘‘very low-income family’’ has the meaning given 21
such term in section 3(b) of the United States Hous-22
ing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)). 23
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SEC. 4. GAO STUDY AND REPORT REGARDING CHILD CARE 1
ACCESS FOR RESIDENTS OF PUBLIC HOUS-2
ING. 3
(a) S
TUDY.—The Comptroller General of the United 4
States shall conduct a study regarding the availability and 5
affordability of child care for residents of public housing 6
dwelling units, that shall include— 7
(1) a description of how amounts from the fol-8
lowing programs have been used by eligible child 9
care providers to establish, renovate, or improve fa-10
cilities— 11
(A) Community Development Block Grant 12
funds; 13
(B) New Market Tax Credits; 14
(C) Community Development Financial In-15
stitution Program funds; 16
(D) Low Income Housing Tax Credits; 17
(E) Capital Management Fund funds; or 18
(F) HOME Investment Partnerships Pro-19
gram funds; 20
(2) an evaluation of the effects of housing and 21
child care costs on the economic outlook of residents 22
of public housing dwelling units; 23
(3) an evaluation of what percentage of resi-24
dents of public housing dwelling units are both— 25
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(A) cost-burdened, as defined by the Sec-1
retary of Housing and Urban Development; and 2
(B) part of a household where not less 3
than 7 percent of the income of such household 4
is spent on child care; 5
(4) identification and analysis of State or local 6
laws that are barriers to building or maintaining a 7
facility for use by eligible child care providers within 8
or near a public housing dwelling unit; 9
(5) an assessment of how housing assistance 10
provided under the program for rental assistance 11
under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 12
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f) affects the ability of resi-13
dents of public housing dwelling units to afford child 14
care and other essential expenses, including— 15
(A) food; 16
(B) telecommunications services and equip-17
ment such as broadband internet connectivity 18
and cellular phones; and 19
(C) means of transportation such as auto-20
mobiles, bicycles, or public transportation; 21
(6) an evaluation of the efficacy of the Child 22
and Dependent Care Tax Credit, Earned Income 23
Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Dependent Care 24
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Flexible Spending Account for residents of public 1
housing dwelling units, including— 2
(A) the degree of public knowledge about 3
such programs; 4
(B) the degree of success of outreach or 5
public education programs regarding such pro-6
grams; and 7
(C) an assessment of the sufficiency of 8
each program to cover the costs of child care; 9
(7) an evaluation of the extent that residents of 10
public housing dwelling units receive information re-11
garding child care resources from Federal agencies 12
or public housing agencies; and 13
(8) recommendations to improve access to child 14
care within and near public housing dwelling units 15
and to improve awareness of the availability of Fed-16
eral programs to assist with the costs of housing and 17
child care. 18
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 12 months after the 19
date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 20
shall submit a report to the Committees on Financial 21
Services and Education and Workforce of the House of 22
Representatives and the Committees on Banking, Hous-23
ing, and Urban Affairs and Health, Education, Labor, and 24
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Pensions of the Senate, describing the results and conclu-1
sions of the study required in subsection (a). 2
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) E
LIGIBLE CHILD CARE PROVIDER .—The 4
term ‘‘eligible child care provider’’ has the meaning 5
given such term in section 658P of the Child Care 6
and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (42 7
U.S.C. 9858n). 8
(2) P
UBLIC HOUSING DWELLING UNIT .—The 9
term ‘‘public housing dwelling unit’’ means a dwell-10
ing unit assisted under the public housing program 11
under the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 12
U.S.C. 1437 et seq.). 13
(3) P
UBLIC HOUSING AGENCY .—The term 14
‘‘public housing agency’’ has the meaning given such 15
term in section 3(b)(6) of the United States Hous-16
ing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)(6)). 17
Æ
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