I

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 4159

To encourage gainful employment among the residents of public housing,

and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 24, 1994

Ms. WATERS (for herself and Mr. BISHOP) introduced the following bill; which

was referred to the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs

A BILL

To encourage gainful employment among the residents of

public housing, 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 ‘‘Public Housing Rent

5 Reform Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. PUBLIC HOUSING CEILING RENTS.

7 Section 3(a)(2) of the United States Housing Act of

8 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(a)(2)) is amended—

9 (1) in subparagraph (A), by striking clause (iii)

10 and inserting the following new clause:
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1 ‘‘(iii) at the election of such agency and subject

2 to approval by the Secretary, is—

3 ‘‘(I) not less than the average monthly

4 amount of debt service and operating expenses

5 attributable to dwelling units of similar size in

6 public housing projects owned and operated by

7 such agency;

8 ‘‘(II) not less than the rental paid by a

9 family the amount of whose rent is such that,

10 on the date upon which a public housing agency

11 adopts ceiling rents under this subclause for the

12 project in which such family resides, not less

13 than 10 percent nor more than 20 percent (as

14 determined by the Secretary from time to time

15 by regulation) of the families residing in such

16 project pay a higher rent; any ceiling rents so

17 adopted and approved by the Secretary shall be

18 redetermined annually by application of the

19 automatic annual adjustment factors issued

20 from time to time by the Secretary pursuant to

21 section 8(c)(2)(A); or

22 ‘‘(III) not less than the fair market rent

23 determined by the agency for comparable units

24 of similar size pursuant to the procedures pre25 scribed by the Secretary for determining rent
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1 reasonableness under the program for rental

2 certificate assistance under section 8(b); the

3 Secretary may, not more frequently than annu4 ally, review the ceiling rents determined under

5 this subclause by each agency and each agen6 cy’s application of the procedures for determin7 ing rent reasonableness used in establishing

8 such rents and if, pursuant to such review, the

9 Secretary determines on the record after oppor10 tunity for an agency hearing, that the ceiling

11 rents adopted by an agency pursuant to this

12 subclause are deliberately and materially under13 stated, the Secretary may impose such correc14 tive actions as the Secretary considers appro15 priate, which may include payment to the Sec16 retary of some or all of the aggregate amounts

17 by which such rents are understated; the Sec18 retary may at any time require that the deter19 mination of ceiling rents pursuant to this

20 subclause be conducted by a qualified independ21 ent third party in accordance with regulations

22 issued by the Secretary.’’; and

23 (2) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub24 paragraph (I) and inserting after subparagraph (A)

25 the following new subparagraphs:
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1 ‘‘(B) A waiver by the Secretary shall not be necessary

2 for a public housing agency to adopt ceiling rents under

3 this paragraph. The discretion of the Secretary in approv4 ing an election by a public housing agency to adopt ceiling

5 rents shall be limited to ensuring that the election meets

6 the requirements of this paragraph. Without limiting any

7 other provision of this subparagraph, the Secretary shall

8 not (except as otherwise specifically provided in subpara9 graph (C)) hold or exercise any discretion with respect to

10 the method under subparagraph (A)(iii) that an agency

11 may elect to determine its ceiling rents, and such election

12 shall be within the sole discretion of the agency.

13 ‘‘(C) Unless otherwise approved by the Secretary, a

14 public housing agency shall utilize the same method for

15 determining ceiling rents for all projects with respect to

16 which such agency elects to adopt ceiling rents; except

17 that, with respect to single family scattered site housing

18 or projects consisting of 10 or less units, a public housing

19 agency may elect, or the Secretary may require, that ceil20 ing rents applicable to such units be calculated using the

21 method under subparagraph (A)(iii)(III), notwithstanding

22 that ceiling rents applicable to the agency’s other projects

23 are calculated using another method. After the initial

24 adoption of ceiling rents by a public housing agency and

25 approval thereof by the Secretary, the agency may not
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1 thereafter elect a different method of calculating such

2 rents except as approved by the Secretary.

3 ‘‘(D) Subject to the limitations under subparagraph

4 (C), different ceiling rents may be adopted by a public

5 housing agency and approved by the Secretary for each

6 project owned by the public housing agency. A public

7 housing agency may adopt and the Secretary may approve

8 maximum rents for some or all of the projects owned by

9 such agency.

10 ‘‘(E) Any ceiling rents adopted shall be redetermined

11 annually, for each project for which such rents are adopt12 ed, by the public housing agency and, subject to subse13 quent readjustment if the Secretary determines after re14 view that such rents are improper, such redetermined ceil15 ing rents shall be effective without further approval by the

16 Secretary.

17 ‘‘(F) Notwithstanding any other provision of this

18 paragraph—

19 ‘‘(i) not more than 25 percent of the total num20 ber of dwelling units contained in any project

21 (rounded upward to the nearest whole unit) may be

22 occupied by families whose rents are limited in

23 amount by the ceiling rents adopted for such project;

24 if, at any time, families occupying more than 25 per25 cent of the units in a project are eligible for ceiling
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1 rents, then, at the time of the next annual redeter2 mination of ceiling rents for such project, the public

3 housing agency shall increase the applicable ceiling

4 rents so that, at the time of such redetermination,

5 not more than 25 percent of the dwelling units in

6 the project are occupied by families whose rent is

7 limited by ceiling rents; and

8 ‘‘(ii) the total continuous period during which

9 any family’s rent may be limited by the full applica10 tion of ceiling rents shall not exceed 3 years; if at

11 any time commencing before the expiration of the 3-

12 year period, the rent payable by a family is less than

13 the applicable ceiling rent for a period in excess of

14 12 consecutive months, because of a reduction in the

15 family’s adjusted income or an increase in ceiling

16 rents, or both, then a new 3-year period shall com17 mence when such family’s rent again would exceed

18 the applicable ceiling rents; after the expiration of

19 any 3-year continuous period during which ceiling

20 rents are fully applied to limit a family’s rent, the

21 reduction in such family’s rent that would otherwise

22 result from full application of the ceiling rents shall

23 be successively decreased so that (I) during the 4th

24 year, the family shall receive 85 percent of the re25 duction that would result if the ceiling rents were
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1 fully applied; (II) during the 5th year, the family

2 shall receive 65 percent of such reduction; (III) dur3 ing the 6th year, the family shall receive 40 percent

4 of such reduction; and (IV) during the 7th and sub5 sequent years the family shall not receive any reduc6 tion in rent as a result of the adoption of ceiling

7 rents; the commencement of a family’s initial 3-year

8 eligibility or subsequent 3-year reeligibility for full

9 ceiling rent limitations and the commencement of

10 each reduction in the full application of ceiling rents

11 as provided in this clause shall, in the case of each

12 family, occur not later than the effective date of

13 such family’s annual redetermination of rent and

14 family composition in accordance with its public

15 housing lease.

16 ‘‘(G) Ceiling rents authorized under this paragraph

17 shall not be applicable to any project which is designated

18 as housing for elderly persons.

19 ‘‘(H) For purposes of this paragraph—

20 ‘‘(i) the term ‘ceiling rent’ means the maximum

21 amount of rent, adopted by a public housing agency

22 and approved by the Secretary pursuant to this sub23 paragraph, that may be charged to a family; and

24 ‘‘(ii) the term ‘project’ means a building or

25 group of buildings containing public housing units
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1 and having a common identity and management, as

2 determined by the public housing agency; a project

3 need not contain buildings or sets of buildings hav4 ing the same project number assigned by the Sec5 retary or all of the buildings or sets of buildings

6 having the same such number.’’.

7 SEC. 3. EARNED INCOME EXCLUSIONS.

8 Section 3(b)(5) of the United States Housing Act of

9 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)(5)) is amended—

10 (1) in subparagraph (C)—

11 (A) by striking ‘‘and’’ before ‘‘(ii)’’; and

12 (B) by inserting before the semicolon at

13 the end the following; ‘‘; and (iii) to the extent

14 documented, the amount actually paid by the

15 family for health insurance coverage for any

16 members of the family residing in the household

17 who, at the time, are not receiving or approved

18 to receive any assistance for health care from

19 the Federal Government or any State govern20 ment’’;

21 (2) by striking subparagraph (E) and inserting

22 the following new subparagraph:

23 ‘‘(E) in the case of an elderly family, 10 per24 cent of the earned income of the family, and, in the
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1 case of a nonelderly family, 20 percent of the earned

2 income of the family;’’;

3 (3) in subparagraph (F), by striking ‘‘and’’ at

4 the end;

5 (4) in subparagraph (G), by striking the period

6 at the end and inserting a semicolon; and

7 (5) by adding at the end the following new sub8 paragraphs:

9 ‘‘(H) in the case of 2-parent families with chil10 dren (as defined by the Secretary by regulation), an

11 amount not to exceed an additional 10 percent of

12 the earned income of the family; and

13 ‘‘(I) in the case of a family residing in public

14 housing, of any earned income of any formerly de15 pendent child who is a member of the family—

16 ‘‘(i) 100 percent of such earned income

17 during the period beginning on the date of the

18 first redetermination of the rent for and family

19 composition of the family that occurs after the

20 child reaches 18 years of age and ending upon

21 the commencement of the period under clause

22 (ii);

23 ‘‘(ii) 85 percent of such earned income

24 during the period beginning on the date of the

25 first redetermination of the rent for and family
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1 composition of the family that occurs after the

2 child reaches 21 years of age and ending upon

3 the commencement of the period under clause

4 (iii);

5 ‘‘(iii) 65 percent of such earned income

6 during the period beginning on the date of the

7 first redetermination of the rent for and family

8 composition of the family that occurs after the

9 child reaches 22 years of age and ending upon

10 the commencement of the period under clause

11 (iv);

12 ‘‘(iv) 40 percent of such earned income

13 during the 1-year period beginning on the date

14 of the first redetermination of the rent for and

15 family composition of the family that occurs

16 after the child reaches 23 years of age.’’.

17 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

18 The amendments made by this Act shall take effect

19 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

20 SEC. 5. IMPLEMENTATION.

21 The Secretary shall issue any final regulations nec22 essary to implement the amendments made by this Act,

23 which shall take effect not later than the effective date

24 under section 4 for the amendments. The regulations shall

25 be issued after notice and opportunity for public comment
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1 in accordance with the procedures under section 553 of

2 title 5, United States Code, applicable to substantive rules

3 (notwithstanding subsections (a)(2), (b)(B), and (d)(3) of

4 such section).

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