II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 970
To establish a pilot program to improve the family self-sufficiency program,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH11 (legislative day, MARCH10), 2025
Mr. R
EED(for himself and Mrs. BRITT) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and
Urban Affairs
A BILL
To establish a pilot program to improve the family self-
sufficiency 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 ‘‘Helping More Families 4
Save Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FAMILY SELF-SUFFICIENCY ESCROW EXPANSION 6
PILOT PROGRAM. 7
Section 23 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 8
(42 U.S.C. 1437u) is amended by adding at the end the 9
following: 10
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‘‘(p) ESCROWEXPANSIONPILOTPROGRAM.— 1
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 2
‘‘(A) C
OVERED FAMILY.—The term ‘cov-3
ered family’ means a family that receives assist-4
ance under section 8 or 9 of this Act and is en-5
rolled in the pilot program. 6
‘‘(B) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligi-7
ble entity’ means an entity described in sub-8
section (c)(2). 9
‘‘(C) P
ILOT PROGRAM.—The term ‘pilot 10
program’ means the pilot program established 11
under paragraph (2). 12
‘‘(D) W
ELFARE ASSISTANCE .—The term 13
‘welfare assistance’ has the meaning given the 14
term in section 984.103 of title 24, Code of 15
Federal Regulations, or any successor regula-16
tion. 17
‘‘(2) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es-18
tablish a pilot program under which the Secretary 19
shall select not more than 25 eligible entities to es-20
tablish and manage escrow accounts for not more 21
than 5,000 covered families, in accordance with this 22
subsection. 23
‘‘(3) E
SCROW ACCOUNTS.— 24
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—An eligible entity se-1
lected to participate in the pilot program— 2
‘‘(i) shall establish an interest-bearing 3
escrow account and place into the account 4
an amount equal to any increase in the 5
amount of rent paid by each covered family 6
in accordance with the provisions of section 7
3, 8(o), or 8(y), as applicable, that is at-8
tributable to increases in earned income by 9
the covered families during the participa-10
tion of each covered family in the pilot pro-11
gram; and 12
‘‘(ii) notwithstanding any other provi-13
sion of law, may use funds it controls 14
under section 8 or 9 for purposes of mak-15
ing the escrow deposit for covered families 16
assisted under, or residing in units assisted 17
under, section 8 or 9 of this title, respec-18
tively, provided such funds are offset by 19
the increase in the amount of rent paid by 20
the covered family. 21
‘‘(B) I
NCOME LIMITATION.—An eligible en-22
tity may not escrow any amounts for any cov-23
ered family whose adjusted income exceeds 80 24
percent of the area median income. 25
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‘‘(C) WITHDRAWALS.—A covered family 1
shall be able to withdraw funds, including inter-2
est earned, from an escrow account established 3
by an eligible entity under the pilot program— 4
‘‘(i) after the covered family ceases to 5
receive welfare assistance; and 6
‘‘(ii)(I) not earlier than the date that 7
is 5 years after the date on which the eligi-8
ble entity establishes the escrow account 9
under this subsection; 10
‘‘(II) not later than the date that is 7 11
years after the date on which the eligible 12
entity establishes the escrow account under 13
this subsection, if the covered family choos-14
es to continue to participate in the pilot 15
program after the date that is 5 years 16
after the date on which the eligible entity 17
establishes the escrow account; 18
‘‘(III) on the date the covered family 19
ceases to receive housing assistance under 20
section 8 or 9, if such date is earlier than 21
5 years after the date on which the eligible 22
entity establishes the escrow account; 23
‘‘(IV) earlier than 5 years after the 24
date on which the eligible entity establishes 25
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the escrow account, if the covered family is 1
using the funds to advance a self-suffi-2
ciency goal as approved by the eligible enti-3
ty; or 4
‘‘(V) under other circumstances in 5
which the Secretary determines an exemp-6
tion for good cause is warranted. 7
‘‘(D) I
NTERIM RECERTIFICATION .—For 8
purposes of the pilot program, a covered family 9
may recertify the income of the covered family 10
multiple times per year, as determined by the 11
Secretary, and not fewer than once per year. 12
‘‘(E) C
ONTRACT OR PLAN .—A covered 13
family is not required to complete a standard 14
contract of participation or an individual train-15
ing and services plan in order to participate in 16
the pilot program. 17
‘‘(4) E
FFECT OF INCREASES IN FAMILY IN -18
COME.—Any increase in the earned income of a cov-19
ered family during the enrollment of the family in 20
the pilot program may not be considered as income 21
or a resource for purposes of eligibility of the family 22
for other benefits, or amount of benefits payable to 23
the family, under any program administered by the 24
Secretary. 25
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‘‘(5) APPLICATION.— 1
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An eligible entity 2
seeking to participate in the pilot program shall 3
submit to the Secretary an application— 4
‘‘(i) at such time, in such manner, 5
and containing such information as the 6
Secretary may require by notice; and 7
‘‘(ii) that includes the number of pro-8
posed covered families to be served by the 9
eligible entity under this subsection. 10
‘‘(B) G
EOGRAPHIC AND ENTITY VARI -11
ETY.—The Secretary shall ensure that eligible 12
entities selected to participate in the pilot pro-13
gram— 14
‘‘(i) are located across various States 15
and in both urban and rural areas; and 16
‘‘(ii) vary by size and type, including 17
both public housing agencies and private 18
owners of projects receiving project-based 19
rental assistance under section 8. 20
‘‘(6) N
OTIFICATION AND OPT-OUT.—An eligible 21
entity participating in the pilot program shall— 22
‘‘(A) notify covered families of their enroll-23
ment in the pilot program; 24
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‘‘(B) provide covered families with a de-1
tailed description of the pilot program, includ-2
ing how the pilot program will impact their rent 3
and finances; 4
‘‘(C) inform covered families that the fami-5
lies cannot simultaneously participate in the 6
pilot program and the Family Self-Sufficiency 7
program under this section; and 8
‘‘(D) provide covered families with the abil-9
ity to elect not to participate in the pilot pro-10
gram— 11
‘‘(i) not less than 2 weeks before the 12
date on which the escrow account is estab-13
lished under paragraph (3); and 14
‘‘(ii) at any point during the duration 15
of the pilot program. 16
‘‘(7) M
AXIMUM RENTS.—During the term of 17
participation by a covered family in the pilot pro-18
gram, the amount of rent paid by the covered family 19
shall be calculated under the rental provisions of sec-20
tion 3 or 8(o), as applicable. 21
‘‘(8) P
ILOT PROGRAM TIMELINE .— 22
‘‘(A) A
WARDS.—Not later than 18 months 23
after the date of enactment of this subsection, 24
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the Secretary shall select the eligible entities to 1
participate in the pilot program. 2
‘‘(B) E
STABLISHMENT AND TERM OF AC -3
COUNTS.—An eligible entity selected to partici-4
pate in the pilot program shall— 5
‘‘(i) not later than 6 months after se-6
lection, establish escrow accounts under 7
paragraph (3) for covered families; and 8
‘‘(ii) maintain those escrow accounts 9
for not less than 5 years, or until the date 10
the family ceases to receive assistance 11
under section 8 or 9, and, at the discretion 12
of the covered family, not more than 7 13
years after the date on which the escrow 14
account is established. 15
‘‘(9) N
ONPARTICIPATION AND HOUSING ASSIST -16
ANCE.— 17
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Assistance under sec-18
tion 8 or 9 for a family that elects not to par-19
ticipate in the pilot program shall not be de-20
layed or denied by reason of such election. 21
‘‘(B) N
O TERMINATION.—Housing assist-22
ance may not be terminated as a consequence 23
of participating, or not participating, in the 24
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pilot program under this subsection for any pe-1
riod of time. 2
‘‘(10) S
TUDY.—Not later than 8 years after the 3
date the Secretary selects eligible entities to partici-4
pate in the pilot program under this subsection, the 5
Secretary shall conduct a study and submit to the 6
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 7
of the Senate and the Committee on Financial Serv-8
ices of the House of Representatives a report on out-9
comes for covered families under the pilot program, 10
which shall evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot 11
program in assisting families to achieve economic 12
independence and self-sufficiency, and the impact 13
coaching and supportive services, or the lack thereof, 14
had on individual incomes. 15
‘‘(11) W
AIVERS.—To allow selected eligible en-16
tities to effectively administer the pilot program and 17
make the required escrow account deposits under 18
this subsection, the Secretary may waive require-19
ments under this section. 20
‘‘(12) T
ERMINATION.—The pilot program under 21
this subsection shall terminate on the date that is 10 22
years after the date of enactment of this subsection. 23
‘‘(13) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS .— 24
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to 1
be appropriated to the Secretary for fiscal year 2
2026 $5,000,000— 3
‘‘(i) for technical assistance related to 4
implementation of the pilot program; and 5
‘‘(ii) to carry out an evaluation of the 6
pilot program under paragraph (10). 7
‘‘(B) A
VAILABILITY.—Any amounts appro-8
priated under this subsection shall remain avail-9
able until expended.’’. 10
Æ
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