116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1122 

AN ACT 

To authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry out a housing choice voucher mobility 

demonstration to encourage families receiving such 

voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty areas and 

expand access to opportunity areas. 

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

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Housing Choice Vouch3 er Mobility Demonstration Act of 2019’’. 

4 SEC. 2. HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER MOBILITY DEM5 ONSTRATION. 

6 (a) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of Housing and 

7 Urban Development (in this section referred to as the 

8 ‘‘Secretary’’) may carry out a mobility demonstration pro9 gram to enable public housing agencies to administer 

10 housing choice voucher assistance under section 8(o) of 

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

12 1437f(o)) in a manner designed to encourage families re13 ceiving such voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty 

14 areas and expand access to opportunity areas. 

15 (b) SELECTION OF PHAS.— 

16 (1) REQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary shall es17 tablish requirements for public housing agencies to 

18 participate in the demonstration program under this 

19 section, which shall provide that the following public 

20 housing agencies may participate: 

21 (A) Public housing agencies that to22 gether— 

23 (i) serve areas with high concentra24 tions of holders of rental assistance vouch25 ers under section 8(o) of the United States 

26 Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) 
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1 in poor, low-opportunity neighborhoods; 

2 and 

3 (ii) have an adequate number of mod4 erately priced rental units in higher-oppor5 tunity areas. 

6 (B) Planned consortia or partial consortia 

7 of public housing agencies that— 

8 (i) include at least one agency with a 

9 high-performing Family Self-Sufficiency 

10 (FSS) program; and 

11 (ii) will enable participating families 

12 to continue in such program if they relo13 cate to the jurisdiction served by any other 

14 agency of the consortium. 

15 (C) Planned consortia or partial consortia 

16 of public housing agencies that— 

17 (i) serve jurisdictions within a single 

18 region; 

19 (ii) include one or more small agen20 cies; and 

21 (iii) will consolidate mobility focused 

22 operations. 

23 (D) Such other public housing agencies as 

24 the Secretary considers appropriate. 
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1 (2) SELECTION CRITERIA.—The Secretary shall 

2 establish competitive selection criteria for public 

3 housing agencies eligible under paragraph (1) to 

4 participate in the demonstration program under this 

5 section. 

6 (3) RANDOM SELECTION OF FAMILIES.—The 

7 Secretary may require participating agencies to use 

8 a randomized selection process to select among the 

9 families eligible to receive mobility assistance under 

10 the demonstration program. 

11 (c) REGIONAL HOUSING MOBILITY PLAN.—The Sec12 retary shall require each public housing agency applying 

13 to participate in the demonstration program under this 

14 section to submit a Regional Housing Mobility Plan (in 

15 this section referred to as a ‘‘Plan’’), which shall— 

16 (1) identify the public housing agencies that 

17 will participate under the Plan and the number of 

18 vouchers each participating agency will make avail19 able out of their existing programs in connection 

20 with the demonstration; 

21 (2) identify any community-based organizations, 

22 nonprofit organizations, businesses, and other enti23 ties that will participate under the Plan and describe 

24 the commitments for such participation made by 

25 each such entity; 
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1 (3) identify any waivers or alternative require2 ments requested for the execution of the Plan; 

3 (4) identify any specific actions that the public 

4 housing agencies and other entities will undertake to 

5 accomplish the goals of the demonstration, which 

6 shall include a comprehensive approach to enable a 

7 successful transition to opportunity areas and may 

8 include counseling and continued support for fami9 lies; 

10 (5) specify the criteria that the public housing 

11 agencies would use to identify opportunity areas 

12 under the plan; 

13 (6) provide for establishment of priority and 

14 preferences for participating families, including a 

15 preference for families with young children, as such 

16 term is defined by the Secretary, based on regional 

17 housing needs and priorities; and 

18 (7) comply with any other requirements estab19 lished by the Secretary. 

20 (d) FUNDING FOR MOBILITY-RELATED SERVICES.— 

21 (1) USE OF ADMINISTRATIVE FEES.—Public 

22 housing agencies participating in the demonstration 

23 program under this section may use administrative 

24 fees under section 8(q) of the United States Housing 

25 Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(q)), their administra-
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1 tive fee reserves, and funding from private entities 

2 to provide mobility-related services in connection 

3 with the demonstration program, including services 

4 such as counseling, portability coordination, landlord 

5 outreach, security deposits, and administrative ac6 tivities associated with establishing and operating re7 gional mobility programs. 

8 (2) USE OF HOUSING ASSISTANCE FUNDS.— 

9 Public housing agencies participating in the dem10 onstration under this section may use housing as11 sistance payments funds under section 8(o) of the 

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

13 1437f(o)) for security deposits if necessary to enable 

14 families to lease units with vouchers in designated 

15 opportunity areas. 

16 (e) WAIVERS; ALTERNATIVE REQUIREMENTS.— 

17 (1) WAIVERS.—To allow for public housing 

18 agencies to implement and administer their Regional 

19 Housing Mobility Plans, the Secretary may waive or 

20 specify alternative requirements for the following 

21 provisions of the United States Housing Act of 

22 1937: 

23 (A) Sections 8(o)(7)(A) and 8(o)(13)(E)(i) 

24 (relating to the term of a lease and mobility re25 quirements). 
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1 (B) Section 8(o)(13)(C)(i) (relating to the 

2 public housing plan for an agency). 

3 (C) Section 8(r)(2) (relating to the respon4 sibility of a public housing agency to administer 

5 ported assistance). 

6 (2) ALTERNATIVE REQUIREMENTS.—The Sec7 retary shall provide additional authority for public 

8 housing agencies in a selected region to form a con9 sortium that has a single housing choice voucher 

10 funding contract, or to enter into a partial consor11 tium to operate all or portions of the Regional Hous12 ing Mobility Plan, including agencies participating in 

13 the Moving To Work Demonstration program. 

14 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Any waiver or alter15 native requirements pursuant to this subsection shall 

16 not take effect before the expiration of the 10-day 

17 period beginning upon publication of notice of such 

18 waiver or alternative requirement in the Federal 

19 Register. 

20 (f) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary may imple21 ment the demonstration, including its terms, procedures, 

22 requirements, and conditions, by notice. 

23 (g) EVALUATION.—Not later than 5 years after im24 plementation of the regional housing mobility programs 

25 under the demonstration program under this section, the 
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1 Secretary shall submit to the Congress and publish in the 

2 Federal Register a report evaluating the effectiveness of 

3 the strategies pursued under the demonstration, subject 

4 to the availability of funding to conduct the evaluation. 

5 Through official websites and other methods, the Sec6 retary shall disseminate interim findings as they become 

7 available, and shall, if promising strategies are identified, 

8 notify the Congress of the amount of funds that would 

9 be required to expand the testing of these strategies in 

10 additional types of public housing agencies and housing 

11 markets. 

Passed the House of Representatives March 11, 

2019. 

Attest: 

Clerk. 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1122 

AN ACT 

To authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban 

opportunity areas. move to lower-poverty areas and expand access to families receiving such voucher assistance to voucher mobility demonstration to encourage Development to carry out a housing choice