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104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 247

To improve senior citizen housing safety.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JANUARY 19 (legislative day, JANUARY 10), 1995

Mr. GREGG introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

A BILL

To improve senior citizen housing safety.

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 ‘‘Senior Citizen Housing

5 Safety Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. SENIOR CITIZEN HOUSING SAFETY.

7 (a) LIMITATION ON OCCUPANCY IN PUBLIC HOUSING

8 DESIGNATED FOR ELDERLY FAMILIES.—

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 7(a) of the United

10 States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437e(a)) is

11 amended—
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1 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Not2 withstanding any other provision of law’’ and

3 inserting ‘‘Subject only to the provisions of this

4 subsection’’;

5 (B) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘, ex6 cept as provided in paragraph (5)’’ before the

7 period at the end; and

8 (C) by adding at the end the following new

9 paragraph:

10 ‘‘(5) LIMITATION ON OCCUPANCY IN PROJECTS

11 FOR ELDERLY FAMILIES.—

12 ‘‘(A) OCCUPANCY LIMITATION.—Notwith13 standing any other provision of law, a dwelling

14 unit in a project (or portion of a project) that

15 is designated under paragraph (1) for occu16 pancy by only elderly families or by only elderly

17 and disabled families shall not be occupied by—

18 ‘‘(i) any person with disabilities who

19 is not an elderly person and whose history

20 of use of alcohol or drugs constitutes a dis21 ability; or

22 ‘‘(ii) any person who is not an elderly

23 person and whose history of use of alcohol

24 or drugs provides reasonable cause for the

25 public housing agency to believe that the
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1 occupancy by such person may interfere

2 with the health, safety, or right to peaceful

3 enjoyment of the premises by other ten4 ants.

5 ‘‘(B) REQUIRED STATEMENT.—A public

6 housing agency may not make a dwelling unit

7 in such a project available for occupancy to any

8 person or family who is not an elderly family,

9 unless the agency acquires from the person or

10 family a signed statement that no person who

11 will be occupying the unit—

12 ‘‘(i) uses (or has a history of use of)

13 alcohol; or

14 ‘‘(ii) uses (or has a history of use of)

15 drugs;

16 that would interfere with the health, safety, or

17 right to peaceful enjoyment of the premises by

18 other tenants.’’.

19 (2) LEASE PROVISIONS.—Section 6(l) of the

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

21 1437d(l)) is amended—

22 (A) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘and’’ at

23 the end;

24 (B) by redesignating paragraph (6) as

25 paragraph (7); and
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1 (C) by inserting after paragraph (5) fol2 lowing new paragraph:

3 ‘‘(6) provide that any occupancy in violation of

4 the provisions of section 7(a)(5)(A) or the furnishing

5 of any false or misleading information pursuant to

6 section 7(a)(5)(B) shall be cause for termination of

7 tenancy; and’’.

8 (b) EVICTION OF NONELDERLY TENANTS HAVING

9 DRUG OR ALCOHOL USE PROBLEMS FROM PUBLIC

10 HOUSING DESIGNATED FOR ELDERLY FAMILIES.—Sec11 tion 7(c) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42

12 U.S.C. 1437e(c)) is amended to read as follows:

13 ‘‘(c) STANDARDS REGARDING EVICTIONS.—

14 ‘‘(1) LIMITATION.—Any tenant who is lawfully

15 residing in a dwelling unit in a public housing

16 project may not be evicted or otherwise required to

17 vacate such unit because of the designation of the

18 project (or a portion of the project) pursuant to this

19 section or because of any action taken by the Sec20 retary or any public housing agency pursuant to this

21 section.

22 ‘‘(2) REQUIREMENT TO EVICT NONELDERLY

23 TENANTS FOR 3 INSTANCES OF PROHIBITED ACTIV24 ITY INVOLVING DRUGS OR ALCOHOL.—With respect

25 to a project (or portion of a project) described in
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1 subsection (a)(5)(A), the public housing agency ad2 ministering the project shall evict any person who is

3 not an elderly person and who, during occupancy in

4 the project (or portion thereof), engages on 3 sepa5 rate occasions (occurring after the date of the enact6 ment of this Act) in any activity that threatens the

7 health, safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of the

8 premises by other tenants and involves the use of al9 cohol or drugs.

10 ‘‘(3) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—The provisions

11 of paragraph (2) requiring eviction of a person may

12 not be construed to require a public housing agency

13 to evict any other persons who occupy the same

14 dwelling unit as the person required to be evicted.’’.

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