II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3237 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to include affordable housing 

incentives in certain capital investment grants, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 18, 2021 

Mr. SCHATZ (for himself and Mr. BRAUN) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and 

Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend title 49, United States Code, to include affordable 

housing incentives in certain capital investment grants, 

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 ‘‘Build More Housing 

5 Near Transit Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. AFFORDABLE HOUSING INCENTIVES IN CAPITAL IN7 VESTMENT GRANTS. 

8 Section 5309 of title 49, United States Code, is 

9 amended— 


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1 (1) in subsection (g)— 

2 (A) in paragraph (2)(B)— 

3 (i) in clause (i) by striking ‘‘; and’’ 

4 and inserting a semicolon; 

5 (ii) in clause (ii) by striking the pe6 riod and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

7 (iii) by adding at the end the fol8 lowing: 

9 ‘‘(iii) allow a weighting of up to five 

10 percentage points greater to the criteria re11 lating to economic development under sub12 section (d)(2)(A)(iii) or (e)(2)(A)(iv), as 

13 applicable, and up to five percentage points 

14 lesser to the lowest scoring criteria under 

15 either such subsection, if the applicant 

16 demonstrates substantial effort to preserve 

17 or encourage affordable housing near the 

18 project by— 

19 ‘‘(I) conducting a housing feasi20 bility assessment; 

21 ‘‘(II) providing documentation of 

22 policies that allow for the approval of 

23 multi-family housing, single room oc24 cupancy units, and accessory dwelling 


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1 units without a discretionary review 

2 process; 

3 ‘‘(III) providing local capital 

4 sources for transit-oriented develop5 ment; or 

6 ‘‘(IV) other methods to preserve 

7 or encourage affordable housing near 

8 the project, as determined appropriate 

9 by the Secretary.’’; and 

10 (B) by adding at the end the following: 

11 ‘‘(9) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 

12 ‘housing feasibility assessment’ means an analysis of 

13 the physical, legal, and financial viability of devel14 oping additional housing along a project corridor, in15 cluding affordable housing.’’; and 

16 (2) in subsection (l), by adding at the end the 

17 following: 

18 ‘‘(9) INCLUSION OF CERTAIN COSTS.—In deter19 mining net project costs for purposes of determining 

20 the Government share of the cost of a project under 

21 this section, a project sponsor may— 

22 ‘‘(A) include costs related to the planning 

23 or development of affordable housing located 

24 within one-half of a mile of a new defined sta25 tion funded by amounts made available under 


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1 section 103 of the Housing and Community De2 velopment Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5303) or sec3 tion 201 of the Public Works and Economic 

4 Development Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3141); 

5 and 

6 ‘‘(B) count the costs described in subpara7 graph (A) toward the remainder of the net cap8 ital project costs under paragraph (4).’’. 

Æ 


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