IB 

Union Calendar No. 628 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5793 

[Report No. 115–809] 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 15, 2018 

Mr. DUFFY (for himself and Mr. CLEAVER) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

JULY 10, 2018 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 

and ordered to be printed 


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A BILL 

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. 


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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 ‘‘Housing Choice Vouch5 er Mobility Demonstration Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER MOBILITY DEM7 ONSTRATION. 

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

9 Urban Development (in this section referred to as the 

10 ‘‘Secretary’’) may carry out a mobility demonstration pro11 gram to enable public housing agencies to administer 

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

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

14 1437f(o)) in a manner designed to encourage families re15 ceiving such voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty 

16 areas and expand access to opportunity areas. 

17 (b) SELECTION OF PHAS.— 

18 (1) REQUIREMENTS.—The Secretary shall es19 tablish requirements for public housing agencies to 

20 participate in the demonstration program under this 

21 section, which shall provide that the following public 

22 housing agencies may participate: 

23 (A) Public housing agencies that to24 gether— 


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1 (i) serve areas with high concentra2 tions of holders of rental assistance vouch3 ers under section 8(o) of the United States 

4 Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) 

5 in poor, low-opportunity neighborhoods; 

6 and 

7 (ii) have an adequate number of mod8 erately priced rental units in higher-oppor9 tunity areas. 

10 (B) Planned consortia or partial consortia 

11 of public housing agencies that— 

12 (i) include at least one agency with a 

13 high-performing Family Self-Sufficiency 

14 (FSS) program; and 

15 (ii) will enable participating families 

16 to continue in such program if they relo17 cate to the jurisdiction served by any other 

18 agency of the consortium. 

19 (C) Planned consortia or partial consortia 

20 of public housing agencies that— 

21 (i) serve jurisdictions within a single 

22 region; 

23 (ii) include one or more small agen24 cies; and 


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1 (iii) will consolidate mobility focused 

2 operations. 

3 (D) Such other public housing agencies as 

4 the Secretary considers appropriate. 

5 (2) SELECTION CRITERIA.—The Secretary shall 

6 establish competitive selection criteria for public 

7 housing agencies eligible under paragraph (1) to 

8 participate in the demonstration program under this 

9 section. 

10 (3) RANDOM SELECTION OF FAMILIES.—The 

11 Secretary may require participating agencies to use 

12 a randomized selection process to select among the 

13 families eligible to receive mobility assistance under 

14 the demonstration program. 

15 (c) REGIONAL HOUSING MOBILITY PLAN.—The Sec16 retary shall require each public housing agency applying 

17 to participate in the demonstration program under this 

18 section to submit a Regional Housing Mobility Plan (in 

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

20 (1) identify the public housing agencies that 

21 will participate under the Plan and the number of 

22 vouchers each participating agency will make avail23 able out of their existing programs in connection 

24 with the demonstration; 


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1 (2) identify any community-based organizations, 

2 nonprofit organizations, businesses, and other enti3 ties that will participate under the Plan and describe 

4 the commitments for such participation made by 

5 each such entity; 

6 (3) identify any waivers or alternative require7 ments requested for the execution of the Plan; 

8 (4) identify any specific actions that the public 

9 housing agencies and other entities will undertake to 

10 accomplish the goals of the demonstration, which 

11 shall include a comprehensive approach to enable a 

12 successful transition to opportunity areas and may 

13 include counseling and continued support for fami14 lies; 

15 (5) specify the criteria that the public housing 

16 agencies would use to identify opportunity areas 

17 under the plan; 

18 (6) provide for establishment of priority and 

19 preferences for participating families, including a 

20 preference for families with young children, as such 

21 term is defined by the Secretary, based on regional 

22 housing needs and priorities; and 

23 (7) comply with any other requirements estab24 lished by the Secretary. 

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


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1 (1) USE OF ADMINISTRATIVE FEES.—Public 

2 housing agencies participating in the demonstration 

3 program under this section may use administrative 

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

5 Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(q)), their administra6 tive fee reserves, and funding from private entities 

7 to provide mobility-related services in connection 

8 with the demonstration program, including services 

9 such as counseling, portability coordination, landlord 

10 outreach, security deposits, and administrative ac11 tivities associated with establishing and operating re12 gional mobility programs. 

13 (2) USE OF HOUSING ASSISTANCE FUNDS.— 

14 Public housing agencies participating in the dem15 onstration under this section may use housing as16 sistance payments funds under section 8(o) of the 

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

18 1437f(o)) for security deposits if necessary to enable 

19 families to lease units with vouchers in designated 

20 opportunity areas. 

21 (e) WAIVERS; ALTERNATIVE REQUIREMENTS.— 

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

23 agencies to implement and administer their Regional 

24 Housing Mobility Plans, the Secretary may waive or 

25 specify alternative requirements for the following 


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1 provisions of the United States Housing Act of 

2 1937: 

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

4 (relating to the term of a lease and mobility re5 quirements). 

6 (B) Section 8(o)(13)(C)(i) (relating to the 

7 public housing plan for an agency). 

8 (C) Section 8(r)(2) (relating to the respon9 sibility of a public housing agency to administer 

10 ported assistance). 

11 (2) ALTERNATIVE REQUIREMENTS.—The Sec12 retary shall provide additional authority for public 

13 housing agencies in a selected region to form a con14 sortium that has a single housing choice voucher 

15 funding contract, or to enter into a partial consor16 tium to operate all or portions of the Regional Hous17 ing Mobility Plan, including agencies participating in 

18 the Moving To Work Demonstration program. 

19 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Any waiver or alter20 native requirements pursuant to this subsection shall 

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

22 period beginning upon publication of notice of such 

23 waiver or alternative requirement in the Federal 

24 Register. 


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1 (f) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary may imple2 ment the demonstration, including its terms, procedures, 

3 requirements, and conditions, by notice. 

4 (g) EVALUATION.—Not later than five years after im5 plementation of the regional housing mobility programs 

6 under the demonstration program under this section, the 

7 Secretary shall submit to the Congress and publish in the 

8 Federal Register a report evaluating the effectiveness of 

9 the strategies pursued under the demonstration, subject 

10 to the availability of funding to conduct the evaluation. 

11 Through official websites and other methods, the Sec12 retary shall disseminate interim findings as they become 

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

14 notify the Congress of the amount of funds that would 

15 be required to expand the testing of these strategies in 

16 additional types of public housing agencies and housing 

17 markets. 


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Union Calendar No. 628 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5793 

[Report No. 115–809] 

A BILL 

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 

JULY 10, 2018 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 

State of the Union and ordered to be printed 


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