II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 553 

To require the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to reform 

policies and issue guidance related to health and safety accountability, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 28, 2023 

Mr. RUBIO (for himself and Mr. SCOTT of Florida) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, 

Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 

to reform policies and issue guidance related to health 

and safety accountability, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘HUD Health and Safe5 ty Accountability Act of 2023’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 


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1 (1) DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 

2 means the Department of Housing and Urban De3 velopment. 

4 (2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

5 the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 

6 SEC. 3. REFORMS TO MANAGEMENT AND OCCUPANCY RE7 VIEWS. 

8 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 

9 of this Act, the Secretary shall make the following reforms 

10 to management and occupancy reviews conducted by the 

11 Office of Multifamily Housing Programs: 

12 (1) Form 9843 shall be restructured to include 

13 the following as graded factors: 

14 (A) Responsiveness of local code violations. 

15 (B) Remediation of health and sanitation 

16 and structural integrity issues outlined in uni17 form physical condition standards inspections. 

18 (C) Remediation of deficiencies outlined in 

19 any demand for corrective actions. 

20 (D) Restoration of the resident satisfaction 

21 section and inclusion of feedback from tenants 

22 to contribute to the grading. 

23 (2) Rebalance existing grading methodology to 

24 prioritize— 


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1 (A) health, safety, and sanitation condi2 tions; 

3 (B) general physical condition is compliant 

4 with contractual standards; and 

5 (C) remediation of tenant concerns regard6 ing unit conditions, particularly health, safety, 

7 and sanitation. 

8 (3) The Performance Based Contract Adminis9 trator may formally recommend abatement or cure 

10 period for properties and resident units that do not 

11 meet contractual or Federal, State, or local stand12 ards. 

13 (4) Owner-reported notices of local code viola14 tions, security and incident reports, and uniform 

15 physical condition standards inspection reports from 

16 the Department shall be included in the review for 

17 the category for overall assessment and score re18 sults. 

19 (5) During the review, Performance Based Con20 tract Administrators may assess conditions of both 

21 occupied (with resident consent) and unoccupied 

22 units. 

23 (6) If a property that has not received a uni24 form physical condition standards inspection within 

25 1 year receives an ‘‘unsatisfactory’’ rating on a reVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:29 Mar 07, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S553.IS S553

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1 view, a uniform physical condition standards inspec2 tion shall be automatically required within 120 days. 

3 (7) Allows the Secretary to allocate revenue 

4 from civil money penalties on owners as a result of 

5 housing assistance payment contract violations to 

6 fund the reviews and uniform physical condition 

7 standards inspections. 

8 SEC. 4. REFORMS TO LOCAL CODE ENFORCEMENT. 

9 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 

10 of this Act, the Secretary shall issue guidance to reform 

11 local code enforcement by the Department, including by 

12 requiring owners, or designated property managers, of 

13 properties receiving project-based rental assistance under 

14 section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 

15 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) to— 

16 (1) report to the appropriate Performance 

17 Based Contract Administrator and regional office of 

18 the Department within 14 days of receiving official 

19 notice— 

20 (A) local code enforcement findings of defi21 cient conditions at properties both generally 

22 and at resident units, including— 

23 (i) a copy of the official notice; 

24 (ii) a summary of the deficiency find25 ings; and 


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1 (iii) a priority summary of health and 

2 safety conditions cited and compliance re3 quirements; and 

4 (2) report to the local code enforcement entity 

5 that the owner or designated property manager, as 

6 applicable, has submitted the information under 

7 paragraph (1). 

8 SEC. 5. REFORMS TO HUD OVERSIGHT. 

9 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 

10 of this Act, the Secretary shall issue guidance to— 

11 (1) reform the scoring methodology for uniform 

12 physical condition standards inspections to prioritize 

13 health and safety conditions, including interior unit 

14 conditions; 

15 (2) require the Secretary to verify in person 

16 that owners have taken action to address health and 

17 safety deficiencies outlined in a demand for correc18 tive action; 

19 (3) requires property owners to report all defi20 ciencies listed in a demand for corrective action to 

21 the applicable Performance Based Contract Admin22 istrator; and 

23 (4) allow for the Department to abate indi24 vidual units assisted under section 8 of the United 

25 States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f) from 


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1 contractual financial payments for exigent health 

2 and safety reasons, provided that tenants of such 

3 units shall not be required to pay contributions to4 ward rent for during the abatement periods. 

5 SEC. 6. REFORMS TO TENANT SURVEYS. 

6 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 

7 of this Act, the Secretary shall develop a process by which 

8 a Performance Based Contract Administrator shall issue 

9 tenant surveys, as follows: 

10 (1) For properties receiving a uniform physical 

11 condition standards inspection score of not less than 

12 60/100 and not more than 80/100, tenant surveys 

13 shall be made available to a sampling of not less 

14 than 20 percent of residents of each structure under 

15 a housing assistance payments contract, and will be 

16 required on the next inspection, and ongoing for 

17 each inspection until the property receives a score 

18 that is more than 80/100. 

19 (2) For properties receiving a uniform physical 

20 condition standards inspection score of not more 

21 than 59/100, tenant surveys shall be made available 

22 for 100 percent of tenants of each structure covered 

23 under a housing assistance payments contract for 

24 the purpose of identifying consistent or persistent 


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1 problems with the physical condition of the structure 

2 or performance of the manager of the structure. 

3 (3) The tenant surveys shall be reviewed by the 

4 Performance Based Contract Administrator and in5 cluded as graded factors in uniform physical condi6 tion standards inspections, with priority provided for 

7 health and safety deficiencies. 

8 SEC. 7. CONTACT INFORMATION. 

9 Each owner of a property receiving assistance under 

10 section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 

11 U.S.C. 1437f) shall, on an annual basis, provide to tenants 

12 contact information for the applicable— 

13 (1) regional office of the Department; 

14 (2) local field office of the Department; 

15 (3) public housing agency, as defined in section 

16 3(b) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 

17 U.S.C. 1437a(b)); and 

18 (4) Performance Based Contract Administrator. 

19 SEC. 8. REPORT. 

20 Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 

21 of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a re22 port that— 

23 (1) examines the capital reserves of each struc24 ture under a housing assistance payment contract 

25 under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 


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1 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f) with a uniform physical 

2 condition standards inspection score of 59/100 or 

3 below, including the use of funds derived from the 

4 housing assistance payment contract for purposes 

5 unrelated to the maintenance and capitalization of 

6 the structure, and the remediation of health and 

7 safety issues outlined in uniform physical condition 

8 standards inspections, demands for corrective ac9 tions, and notices of default; 

10 (2) includes a list of each structure under a 

11 housing assistance payment contract under section 8 

12 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 

13 U.S.C. 1437f) that has received a demand for cor14 rective action from the Department but has not 

15 complied with compliance or remediation require16 ments; 

17 (3) a list of each structure under a housing as18 sistance payment contract under section 8 of the 

19 United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 

20 1437f) that has not received a uniform physical con21 dition standards inspection according to the applica22 ble timeline requirements under section 200.857(b) 

23 of title 24, Code of Federal Regulations (or any suc24 cessor regulation) during the 5-year period preceding 

25 the date of the report, and a detailed explanation for 


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1 why each such structure was not inspected in ac2 cording to the applicable timelines; 

3 (4) a detailed list of all crimes of violence (as 

4 defined in section 16 of title 18, United States 

5 Code) that have taken place at each structure under 

6 a housing assistance payment contract under section 

7 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 

8 U.S.C. 1437f) during the 5-year period preceding 

9 the date of the report, and recommendations for im10 proving safety and precautionary security efforts to 

11 keep tenants safe from crimes of violence; and 

12 (5) a detailed list of programmatic rec13 ommendations regarding assistance provided under 

14 section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 

15 (42 U.S.C. 1437f), including— 

16 (A) improving health, sanitation, and safe17 ty conditions; 

18 (B) physical rehabilitation of properties for 

19 long-term sustainability; and 

20 (C) improving enforcement mechanisms on 

21 both property owners and contracted managers 

22 to remediate deficiencies. 

Æ 


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