II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 885
To establish a permanent rural housing preservation and revitalization
program, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH6, 2025
Mrs. S
HAHEEN(for herself and Mr. MORAN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Hous-
ing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To establish a permanent rural housing preservation and
revitalization program, 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 ‘‘Strategy and Invest-4
ment in Rural Housing Preservation Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. PERMANENT ESTABLISHMENT OF HOUSING PRES-6
ERVATION AND REVITALIZATION PROGRAM. 7
Title V of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1471 8
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 9
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‘‘SEC. 545. HOUSING PRESERVATION AND REVITALIZATION 1
PROGRAM. 2
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall carry 3
out a program under this section for the preservation and 4
revitalization of multifamily rental housing projects fi-5
nanced under section 514, 515, or 516. 6
‘‘(b) N
OTICE OFMATURINGLOANS.— 7
‘‘(1) T
O OWNERS.—On an annual basis, the 8
Secretary shall provide written notice to each owner 9
of a property financed under section 514, 515, or 10
516 that will mature within the 4-year period begin-11
ning upon the provision of the notice, setting forth 12
the options and financial incentives that are avail-13
able to facilitate the extension of the loan term or 14
the option to decouple a rental assistance contract 15
pursuant to subsection (f). 16
‘‘(2) T
O TENANTS.— 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For each property fi-18
nanced under section 514, 515, or 516, begin-19
ning not later than the date that is 3 years be-20
fore the date on which the loan will mature, the 21
Secretary shall, on an annual basis, provide 22
written notice to each household residing in the 23
property that informs them of — 24
‘‘(i) the date of the loan maturity; 25
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‘‘(ii) the possible actions that may 1
happen with respect to the property upon 2
that maturity; and 3
‘‘(iii) how to protect their right to re-4
side in federally assisted housing or secure 5
a voucher under section 542 of this Act or 6
section 8 of the United States Housing Act 7
of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f) after that ma-8
turity. 9
‘‘(B) L
ANGUAGE.—Notice under this para-10
graph shall be provided in plain English and 11
shall be translated to other languages in the 12
case of any property that has a significant 13
number of residents who speak those other lan-14
guages. 15
‘‘(c) L
OANRESTRUCTURING.—Under the program 16
under this section, in any circumstance in which the Sec-17
retary proposes a restructuring to an owner or an owner 18
proposes a restructuring to the Secretary, the Secretary 19
may restructure such existing housing loans, as the Sec-20
retary considers appropriate, for the purpose of ensuring 21
that those projects have sufficient resources to preserve 22
the projects to provide safe and affordable housing for low- 23
income residents and farm laborers, by— 24
‘‘(1) reducing or eliminating interest; 25
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‘‘(2) deferring loan payments; 1
‘‘(3) subordinating, reducing, or reamortizing 2
loan debt; and 3
‘‘(4) providing other financial assistance, in-4
cluding advances, payments, and incentives (includ-5
ing the ability of owners to obtain reasonable re-6
turns on investment) required by the Secretary. 7
‘‘(d) R
ENEWAL OFRENTALASSISTANCE.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—When the Secretary pro-9
poses to restructure a loan or agrees to the proposal 10
of an owner to restructure a loan pursuant to sub-11
section (c), the Secretary shall offer to renew the 12
rental assistance contract under section 521(a)(2) 13
for the shorter of the term of the loan or a 20-year 14
term that is subject to annual appropriations, pro-15
vided that the owner agrees to bring the property up 16
to or maintain the property at such standards that 17
will ensure maintenance of the property as decent, 18
safe, and sanitary housing for the full term of the 19
rental assistance contract. 20
‘‘(2) A
DDITIONAL RENTAL ASSISTANCE .—With 21
respect to a project described in paragraph (1), if 22
rental assistance is not available for all households 23
in the project for which the loan is being restruc-24
tured pursuant to subsection (c), the Secretary may 25
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extend such additional rental assistance to unas-1
sisted households at that project as is necessary to 2
make the project safe and affordable to low-income 3
households. 4
‘‘(e) R
ESTRICTIVEUSEAGREEMENTS.— 5
‘‘(1) R
EQUIREMENT.—As part of the preserva-6
tion and revitalization agreement for a project, the 7
Secretary shall obtain a restrictive use agreement 8
that is recorded and obligates the owner to operate 9
the project in accordance with this title. 10
‘‘(2) T
ERM.— 11
‘‘(A) N
O EXTENSION OF RENTAL ASSIST -12
ANCE CONTRACT.—Except when the Secretary 13
enters into a 20-year extension of the rental as-14
sistance contract for a project, the term of the 15
restrictive use agreement for the project shall 16
be consistent with the term of the restructured 17
loan for the project. 18
‘‘(B) E
XTENSION OF RENTAL ASSISTANCE 19
CONTRACT.—If the Secretary enters into a 20- 20
year extension of the rental assistance contract 21
for a project, the term of the restrictive use 22
agreement for the project shall be for the longer 23
of 20 years or the remaining term of the loan. 24
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‘‘(C) TERMINATION.—The Secretary may 1
terminate the 20-year restrictive use agreement 2
for a project before the end of the term of the 3
agreement if the 20-year rental assistance con-4
tract for the project with the owner is termi-5
nated at any time for reasons outside the con-6
trol of the owner. 7
‘‘(f) D
ECOUPLING OFRENTALASSISTANCE.— 8
‘‘(1) R
ENEWAL OF RENTAL ASSISTANCE CON -9
TRACT.—If the Secretary determines that a matur-10
ing loan for a project that matures within the 4-year 11
notification period described in subsection (b)(1) 12
cannot reasonably be restructured in accordance 13
with subsection (c) because it is not financially fea-14
sible or the owner does not agree with the proposed 15
restructuring, and the project was operating with 16
rental assistance under section 521, the Secretary 17
may renew the rental assistance contract, notwith-18
standing any provision of section 521 that the recipi-19
ent may be a borrower under section 514 or 515, for 20
a term, subject to annual appropriations, of 20 21
years, provided that the owner enters into a restric-22
tive use agreement. 23
‘‘(2) A
DDITIONAL RENTAL ASSISTANCE .—With 24
respect to a project described in paragraph (1), if 25
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rental assistance is not available for all households 1
in the project, the Secretary may extend such addi-2
tional rental assistance to unassisted households at 3
that project as is necessary to make the project safe 4
and affordable to low-income households. 5
‘‘(3) R
ENTS.—Any agreement to extend the 6
term of the rental assistance contract under section 7
521 for a project shall obligate the owner to con-8
tinue to maintain the project as decent, safe and 9
sanitary housing and to operate the development in 10
accordance with this title, except that rents shall be 11
based on the lesser of— 12
‘‘(A) the budget-based needs of the project; 13
or 14
‘‘(B) the operating cost adjustment factor 15
as a payment standard as provided under sec-16
tion 524 of the Multifamily Assisted Housing 17
Reform and Affordability Act of 1997 (42 18
U.S.C. 1437 note). 19
‘‘(4) C
ONDITIONS FOR APPROVAL .— 20
‘‘(A) P
LAN.—Before the approval of a 21
rental assistance contract authorized under this 22
section, the Secretary shall require the owner to 23
submit to the Secretary a plan that identifies fi-24
nancing sources and a timetable for renovations 25
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and improvements determined to be necessary 1
by the Secretary to maintain and preserve the 2
project. 3
‘‘(B) A
UTOMATIC APPROVAL .—If a plan 4
submitted under subparagraph (A) is not acted 5
upon by the Secretary within 30 days of the 6
submission, the rental assistance contract is 7
automatically approved for not more than a 1- 8
year period. 9
‘‘(g) M
ULTIFAMILYHOUSINGTRANSFERTECHNICAL 10
A
SSISTANCE.—Under the program under this section, the 11
Secretary may provide grants to qualified nonprofit orga-12
nizations and public housing agencies to provide technical 13
assistance, including financial and legal services, to bor-14
rowers under loans under this title for multifamily housing 15
to facilitate the acquisition or preservation of such multi-16
family housing properties in areas where the Secretary de-17
termines there is a risk of loss of affordable housing. 18
‘‘(h) T
RANSFER OFRENTALASSISTANCE.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall develop 20
a process— 21
‘‘(A) to support tenants residing in a rent-22
al project originally financed under section 514, 23
515, or 516— 24
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‘‘(i) with a loan or loans that have 1
matured or have been prepaid; and 2
‘‘(ii) the owner of which will not re-3
structure the loan or continue a rental as-4
sistance contract under this section; 5
‘‘(B) that expedites the ability of those 6
tenants to transfer rental assistance to another 7
property financed under section 514, 515, or 8
516, or obtain a housing voucher; 9
‘‘(C) that allows those tenants to pre-reg-10
ister to transfer rental assistance; and 11
‘‘(D) that provides time frames for proc-12
essing transfer or voucher requests for those 13
tenants. 14
‘‘(i) A
DMINISTRATIVEEXPENSES.—Of any amounts 15
made available for the program under this section for any 16
fiscal year, the Secretary may use not more than 17
$1,000,000 for administrative expenses for carrying out 18
such program. 19
‘‘(j) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 20
is authorized to be appropriated for the program under 21
this section $200,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 22
through 2030. 23
‘‘(k) R
ULEMAKING.— 24
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 1
after the date of enactment of the Strategy and In-2
vestment in Rural Housing Preservation Act of 3
2025, the Secretary shall— 4
‘‘(A) publish an advance notice of proposed 5
rulemaking; and 6
‘‘(B) consult with appropriate stake-7
holders. 8
‘‘(2) I
NTERIM FINAL RULE .—Not later than 1 9
year after the date of enactment of the Strategy and 10
Investment in Rural Housing Preservation Act of 11
2025, the Secretary shall publish an interim final 12
rule to carry out this section.’’. 13
SEC. 3. ELIGIBILITY FOR RURAL HOUSING VOUCHERS. 14
Section 542 of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 15
1490r) is amended by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(c) E
LIGIBILITY OFHOUSEHOLDS IN SECTIONS 17
514, 515,
AND516 PROJECTS.—The Secretary may pro-18
vide rural housing vouchers under this section for any low- 19
income household (including those not receiving rental as-20
sistance) residing for the remaining term of their lease in 21
effect just prior to prepayment, in a property financed 22
with a loan made or insured under section 514 or 515, 23
or a grant under section 516, that has— 24
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‘‘(1) been prepaid without restrictions imposed 1
by the Secretary pursuant to section 2
502(c)(5)(G)(ii)(I); 3
‘‘(2) been foreclosed; or 4
‘‘(3) matured after September 30, 2005 and the 5
property is not receiving rental assistance under sec-6
tion 545(f).’’. 7
SEC. 4. AMOUNT OF VOUCHER ASSISTANCE. 8
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in the 9
case of any rural housing voucher provided pursuant to 10
section 542 of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 11
1490r), the amount of the monthly assistance payment for 12
the household on whose behalf the assistance is provided 13
shall be determined as provided in subsection (a) of such 14
section 542. 15
SEC. 5. RENTAL ASSISTANCE CONTRACT AUTHORITY. 16
Section 521(d) of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 17
U.S.C. 1490a(d)) is amended— 18
(1) in paragraph (1)— 19
(A) by redesignating subparagraphs (B) 20
and (C) as subparagraphs (C) and (D), respec-21
tively; 22
(B) by inserting after subparagraph (A) 23
the following: 24
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‘‘(B) upon request of an owner of a project 1
financed under section 514 or 515 or an owner 2
who has entered into a restrictive use agree-3
ment under section 545(e), the Secretary is au-4
thorized to enter into a renewal of such agree-5
ments for a period of 20 years or the term of 6
the loan, whichever is shorter, subject to 7
amounts made available in appropriations 8
Acts;’’; 9
(C) in subparagraph (C), as so redesig-10
nated, by striking ‘‘subparagraph (A)’’ and in-11
serting ‘‘subparagraphs (A) and (B)’’; and 12
(D) in subparagraph (D), as so redesig-13
nated, by striking ‘‘subparagraphs (A) and 14
(B)’’ and inserting ‘‘subparagraphs (A), (B), 15
and (C)’’; 16
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘shall’’ and 17
inserting ‘‘may’’; and 18
(3) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(3) In the case of any rental assistance con-20
tract authority that becomes available due to the ter-21
mination of assistance on behalf of an assisted ten-22
ant, the Secretary shall provide the owner with a pe-23
riod of not less than 1 year to provide that assist-24
ance on behalf of an eligible unassisted tenant who 25
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will reside in the same rental project in which the 1
assisted tenant resided.’’. 2
SEC. 6. FUNDING FOR MULTIFAMILY TECHNICAL IMPROVE-3
MENTS. 4
(a) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is 5
authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Agri-6
culture $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 for improving the 7
technology of the Department of Agriculture used to proc-8
ess and service loans for multifamily housing and other-9
wise managing that housing. 10
(b) T
IMELINE.—The improvements required under 11
subsection (a) shall be made within the 5-year period be-12
ginning upon the appropriation of amounts under sub-13
section (a), and those amounts shall remain available until 14
the expiration of that 5-year period. 15
SEC. 7. PLAN FOR PRESERVING AFFORDABILITY OF RENT-16
AL PROJECTS. 17
(a) P
LAN.—Not later than 6 months after the date 18
of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture (in 19
this section referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall submit 20
to Congress a written plan for preserving the affordability 21
for low-income families of rental projects for which loans 22
were made under section 514 or 515 of the Housing Act 23
of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1484, 1485) and avoiding the displace-24
ment of tenant households, which shall— 25
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(1) set forth specific performance goals and 1
measures; 2
(2) set forth the specific actions and mecha-3
nisms by which those goals will be achieved; 4
(3) set forth specific measurements by which 5
progress towards achievement of each goal can be 6
measured; 7
(4) provide for detailed reporting on outcomes; 8
and 9
(5) include any legislative recommendations to 10
assist in achievement of the goals under the plan. 11
(b) A
DVISORYCOMMITTEE.— 12
(1) E
STABLISHMENT; PURPOSE.—The Sec-13
retary shall establish an advisory committee (in this 14
section referred to as the ‘‘advisory committee’’) to 15
assist the Secretary in— 16
(A) preserving properties assisted under 17
section 514 or 515 of the Housing Act of 1949 18
(42 U.S.C. 1484, 1485) through the multi-19
family housing preservation and revitalization 20
program under section 545 of such Act, as 21
added by section 2 of this Act; and 22
(B) implementing the plan required under 23
subsection (a). 24
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(2) MEMBERSHIP.—The advisory committee 1
shall consist of 16 members, appointed by the Sec-2
retary, as follows: 3
(A) A designee of the Rural Housing Serv-4
ice selected by the Multifamily Housing Deputy 5
Administrator of the Rural Housing Service. 6
(B) The Administrator for Rural Housing 7
Service of the Department of Agriculture. 8
(C) Two representatives of for-profit devel-9
opers or owners of multifamily rural rental 10
housing. 11
(D) Two representatives of nonprofit devel-12
opers or owners of multifamily rural rental 13
housing. 14
(E) Two representatives of State housing 15
finance agencies. 16
(F) Two representatives of tenants of mul-17
tifamily rural rental housing. 18
(G) One representative of a community de-19
velopment financial institution that is involved 20
in preserving the affordability of housing as-21
sisted under section 514, 515, or 516 of the 22
Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1484, 1485, 23
1486). 24
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(H) One representative of a nonprofit or-1
ganization that operates nationally and has ac-2
tively participated in the preservation of hous-3
ing assisted by the Rural Housing Service by 4
conducting research regarding, and providing fi-5
nancing and technical assistance for, preserving 6
the affordability of that housing. 7
(I) One representative of low-income hous-8
ing tax credit investors. 9
(J) One representative of regulated finan-10
cial institutions that finance affordable multi-11
family rural rental housing developments. 12
(K) Two representatives from nonprofit or-13
ganizations representing farmworkers, including 14
1 organization representing farmworker women. 15
(3) M
EETINGS.—The advisory committee shall 16
meet not less often than once each calendar quarter. 17
(4) F
UNCTIONS.—In providing assistance to the 18
Secretary to carry out the purpose of the advisory 19
committee, the advisory committee shall carry out 20
the following functions: 21
(A) Assisting the Rural Housing Service of 22
the Department of Agriculture to improve esti-23
mates of the size, scope, and condition of the 24
rental housing portfolio of the Rural Housing 25
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Service, including the time frames for maturity 1
of mortgages and costs for preserving the port-2
folio as affordable housing. 3
(B) Reviewing policies and procedures of 4
the Rural Housing Service regarding preserva-5
tion of affordable rental housing financed under 6
section 514, 515, 516, or 538 of the Housing 7
Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1484, 1485, 1486, 8
1490p–2), the Multifamily Preservation and 9
Revitalization Demonstration program, and the 10
rental assistance program and making rec-11
ommendations regarding improvements and 12
modifications to those policies and procedures. 13
(C) Providing ongoing review of Rural 14
Housing Service program results. 15
(D) Providing reports to Congress and the 16
public on meetings, recommendations, and other 17
findings of the advisory committee. 18
(5) T
RAVEL COSTS.—Any amounts made avail-19
able for administrative costs of the Department of 20
Agriculture may be used for costs of travel by mem-21
bers of the advisory committee to meetings of the 22
advisory committee. 23
Æ
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