I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 5816 

To establish an Office of Eviction Prevention in the Department of Housing 

and Urban Development and to authorize funding for the Eviction Protection Grant Program of such Department, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023 

Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. MULLIN, Ms. CHU, Mr. 

GOMEZ, Ms. NORTON, and Ms. TLAIB) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To establish an Office of Eviction Prevention in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and to authorize funding for the Eviction Protection Grant Program 

of such Department, 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 ‘‘Eviction Protection 

5 Act of 2023’’. 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
2 

•HR 5816 IH

1 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF EVICTION PREVEN2 TION. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 4 of the Department of 

4 Housing and Urban Development Act (42 U.S.C. 3533) 

5 is amended by adding at the end the following new sub6 section: 

7 ‘‘(i) OFFICE OF EVICTION PREVENTION.— 

8 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established in 

9 the Department, in the Office of the Secretary, the 

10 Office of Eviction Prevention. 

11 ‘‘(2) DIRECTOR.—There is established the posi12 tion of Director of the Office of Eviction Prevention. 

13 The Director shall be the head of the Office of Evic14 tion Prevention and shall be appointed by, and shall 

15 report to, the Secretary. Such position shall be a ca16 reer-reserved position in the Senior Executive Serv17 ice. 

18 ‘‘(3) MISSION.—The mission of the Office of 

19 Eviction Prevention shall be to prevent evictions 

20 from rental housing and to protect tenants of such 

21 housing from the harm of evictions and eviction fil22 ings. 

23 ‘‘(4) FUNCTIONS.—The Director shall have pri24 mary responsibility within the Department for all ac25 tivities and matters relating to eviction prevention, 

26 including the following: 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
3 

•HR 5816 IH

1 ‘‘(A) Administering the Eviction Protection 

2 Grant Program of the Department, including— 

3 ‘‘(i) conducting a robust evaluation of 

4 grantees under the program and the activi5 ties undertaken under the program by 

6 grantees, and assessing whether such ac7 tivities improved outcomes for tenants 

8 served by a grant, taking into consider9 ation the differing tenant protections in 

10 States and localities; 

11 ‘‘(ii) identifying, and reporting to the 

12 Congress on, best practices and activities 

13 for eviction protection, including identi14 fying resources and funding needed to con15 tinue and replicate best practices and ac16 tivities; and 

17 ‘‘(iii) providing technical assistance 

18 and support to grantees under the pro19 gram to provide them with training, exper20 tise, best practices, and problem-solving 

21 strategies. 

22 ‘‘(B) Analyzing and reporting on informa23 tion gathered through the Eviction Protection 

24 Grant Program and other programs adminis25 tered by the Office. 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
4 

•HR 5816 IH

1 ‘‘(C) Coordinating with the Office of Policy 

2 Development and Research of the Department 

3 in establishing a database on evictions, which 

4 shall be administered by such Office and shall 

5 include such measures as may be necessary to 

6 protect against the release of personally identi7 fiable information regarding tenants, analyzing 

8 information collected by such database, and re9 porting to the Congress regarding such anal10 yses. 

11 ‘‘(D) Coordinating strategies to prevent 

12 evictions and early lease terminations in hous13 ing programs administered by the Department, 

14 including through— 

15 ‘‘(i) training offices and personnel of 

16 the Department on eviction prevention 

17 policies and programs and tenants rights; 

18 and 

19 ‘‘(ii) coordinating with other offices of 

20 the Department, including the Office of 

21 Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity and 

22 the Office of Gender-Based Violence. 

23 ‘‘(E) Collaborating with other Federal 

24 agencies, including the Office of Access to Jus25 tice of the Department of Justice, the Bureau 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
5 

•HR 5816 IH

1 of Consumer Financial Protection, the Depart2 ment of Agriculture, the Department of the 

3 Treasury, the Department of Veterans Affairs, 

4 and the Department of Defense, to develop best 

5 practices for eviction prevention strategies with6 in Federal programs and the private rental 

7 market. 

8 ‘‘(F) Identifying strategies to prevent and 

9 reduce evictions across the United States, in10 cluding— 

11 ‘‘(i) collaborating with Federal agen12 cies whose activities impact tenants in fed13 erally subsidized housing and housing in 

14 the private rental market, including the 

15 Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Bu16 reau of Consumer Financial Protection, 

17 the Department of Justice, the Federal 

18 Trade Commission, the Department of 

19 Health and Human Services, the Depart20 ment of Transportation, the United States 

21 Domestic Policy Council, and the National 

22 Economic Council; 

23 ‘‘(ii) establishing a working group on 

24 eviction prevention to study and develop 

25 solutions to the national eviction crisis, 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
6 

•HR 5816 IH

1 which working group shalll include rep2 resentatives of agencies referred to in 

3 clause (i), tenant representatives, rep4 resentatives of legal services providers, and 

5 grantees under the Eviction Protection 

6 Grant Program; 

7 ‘‘(iii) providing technical assistance to 

8 housing providers, State and local govern9 ments, and other agencies on issues related 

10 to evictions and tenant protections; and 

11 ‘‘(iv) coordinating with State and local 

12 governments and agencies, including State 

13 housing finance agencies, on such issues. 

14 ‘‘(G) Conducting outreach to and engage15 ment with tenants to— 

16 ‘‘(i) provide education and informa17 tion about tenant protections and available 

18 eviction prevention programs, including by 

19 developing resources and materials for ten20 ants; 

21 ‘‘(ii) collect complaints and feedback 

22 from tenants and community members on 

23 evictions and eviction-prevention programs; 

24 and 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
7 

•HR 5816 IH

1 ‘‘(iii) refer complaints regarding evic2 tions to appropriate Federal, State, and 

3 local agencies or organizations, including 

4 legal and other advocacy organizations, ap5 propriate to address housing-related issues. 

6 ‘‘(5) COVERED EVICTIONS.—For purposes of 

7 this subsection the term ‘eviction’ includes the vari8 ety of processes and means by which landlords re9 move tenants from rental properties, including— 

10 ‘‘(A) court-ordered evictions, including 

11 eviction filings, court-ordered eviction rulings, 

12 and any eviction actions that take place 

13 through the judicial system; 

14 ‘‘(B) extra-legal evictions that do not in15 volve the judicial system, commonly known as 

16 illegal, unlawful, informal, or self-help evictions, 

17 including threatening tenants, changing the 

18 locks on rental units, shutting off the utilities 

19 to such units, and paying tenants to surrender 

20 occupancy of a unit; 

21 ‘‘(C) administrative actions by public hous22 ing agencies to evict residents of public housing; 

23 and 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
8 

•HR 5816 IH

1 ‘‘(D) early lease terminations by housing 

2 providers receiving assistance from the Depart3 ment of Housing and Urban Development.’’. 

4 (b) TRANSFER.—The Secretary of Housing and 

5 Urban Development shall provide for the transfer of the 

6 administration of the Eviction Protection Grant Program 

7 of the Department, which as of the date of the enactment 

8 of this Act is the responsibility of the Office of Policy De9 velopment and Research, to the Director of the Office of 

10 Eviction Prevention established under section 4(i) of the 

11 Department of Housing and Urban Development Act, as 

12 added by the amendment made by subsection (a) of this 

13 section. 

14 SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

15 There is authorized to be appropriated— 

16 (1) $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 

17 through 2028 for grants under the Eviction Protec18 tion Grant Program of the Department of Housing 

19 and Urban Development; and 

20 (2) $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 

21 through 2028 for costs of personnel for and activi22 ties of the Office of Eviction Prevention. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB