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104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 486

To amend the United States Housing Act of 1937 to reform the manner

of determining rent paid for public housing dwelling units, and for

other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 11, 1995

Mr. KNOLLENBERG introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Banking and Financial Services

A BILL

To amend the United States Housing Act of 1937 to reform

the manner of determining rent paid for public housing

dwelling units, 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 ‘‘Rent Reform and

5 Empowerment Act of 1995’’.

6 SEC. 2. CEILING RENTS.

7 Section 3(a)(2) of the United States Housing Act of

8 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(a)(2)) is amended—

9 (1) in subparagraph (A)—
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1 (A) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and ap2 proved by the Secretary’’; and

3 (B) by striking clause (iii) and inserting

4 the following new clause:

5 ‘‘(iii) at the election of such agency, is—

6 ‘‘(I) not less than the average monthly

7 amount of debt service and operating expenses

8 attributable to dwelling units of similar size in

9 public housing projects owned and operated by

10 such agency;

11 ‘‘(II) not less than the reasonable rental

12 value of the unit, as determined by the agency;

13 or

14 ‘‘(III) not less than the local market rent

15 determined by the agency for comparable units

16 of similar size pursuant to the procedures pre17 scribed by the Secretary for determining rent

18 reasonableness under the program for rental

19 certificate assistance under section 8(b).’’;

20 (2) by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub21 paragraph (D); and

22 (3) by inserting after subparagraph (A) the fol23 lowing new subparagraphs:
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1 ‘‘(B) Any ceiling rents established by a public housing

2 agency pursuant to this paragraph may be adjusted by

3 the agency.

4 ‘‘(C)(i) Any ceiling rents established pursuant to

5 subclause (I) or (III) of subparagraph (A)(iii) shall take

6 effect at the discretion of the public housing agency.

7 ‘‘(ii) Any ceiling rents established pursuant to

8 subclause (II) of subparagraph (A)(iii) may not take effect

9 before the issuance of regulations to carry out such

10 subclause, which shall be issued by the Secretary not later

11 than 180 days after the date of the enactment of the Rent

12 Reform and Empowerment Act of 1995.

13 ‘‘(iii) Before the effectiveness of regulations under

14 clause (ii), an agency shall determine the reasonable rental

15 value of unit for purposes of subclause (II) of subpara16 graph (A)(iii) based upon (I) in a project of 50 or more

17 units for which such ceiling rents are being established,

18 the 95th percentile of rents paid for all units in the

19 project, (II) in a group of comparable projects for which

20 such ceiling rents are being established that consists of

21 a total of 50 or more units, all units in the projects, and

22 (III) in a group of at least 50 comparable units for which

23 such ceiling rents are being established, all units in the

24 group.’’.
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1 SEC. 3. EXCLUSIONS FROM ADJUSTED INCOME.

2 Section 3(b)(5) of the United States Housing Act of

3 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)(5)) is amended—

4 (1) in subparagraph (C)—

5 (A) by striking ‘‘and’’ before ‘‘(ii)’’; and

6 (B) by inserting before the semicolon at

7 the end the following; ‘‘; and (iii) to the extent

8 documented by the family, the amount paid by

9 the family for health insurance coverage and

10 any other nonreimbursed out-of-pocket medical

11 expenses for any members of the family resid12 ing in the household who, at the time, are not

13 receiving or approved to receive any assistance

14 for health care from the Federal Government or

15 any State government, except that this clause

16 shall apply only to families residing in public

17 housing’’;

18 (2) in subparagraph (E), by inserting before the

19 semicolon at the end the following: ‘‘, except that in

20 the case of a family residing in public housing the

21 amount excluded under this subparagraph shall be

22 20 percent of the earned income of the family re23 maining after excluding any amounts pursuant to

24 subparagraph (H)’’;

25 (3) in subparagraph (F), by striking ‘‘and’’ at

26 the end;
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1 (4) in subparagraph (G), by striking the period

2 at the end and inserting a semicolon; and

3 (5) by adding at the end the following new sub4 paragraphs:

5 ‘‘(H) in the case of a family residing in public

6 housing, any earned income of any formerly depend7 ent child who is a member of the family residing in

8 the family’s dwelling unit during the period begin9 ning on the date of the first redetermination of the

10 rent for and family composition of the family that

11 occurs after the child reaches 18 years of age and

12 ending upon the date of the first such redetermina13 tion occurring after he or she reaches 21 years of

14 age, except that, effective during and after the first

15 fiscal year that commences after the expiration of

16 the 4-year period beginning on the date of the enact17 ment of the Rent Reform and Empowerment Act of

18 1995, amounts earned by a child may not be ex19 cluded under this subparagraph unless (i) the child

20 is enrolled in and attending high school (or a recog21 nized equivalency program), or has received a high

22 school diploma (or the recognized equivalent there23 of), or (ii) the public housing agency has determined

24 that requiring the child to comply with clause (i)

25 would significantly interfere with the sole source of
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1 financial support of the family or would otherwise

2 create a significant hardship for the family of the

3 child; and

4 ‘‘(I) in the case of 2-parent families with chil5 dren (as defined by the Secretary by regulation) who

6 reside in public housing, an amount (in addition to

7 any amounts excluded under subparagraphs (E) and

8 (H)) not to exceed 10 percent of any earned income

9 of the family.’’.

10 SEC. 4. EXCLUSION OF EARNED INCOME OF RESIDENTS

11 WHO OBTAIN EMPLOYMENT FROM RENT DE12 TERMINATIONS.

13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3(a) of the United States

14 Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(a)) is amended—

15 (1) in the third sentence of paragraph (1), by

16 striking ‘‘paragraph (2)’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraphs

17 (2) and (3)’’; and

18 (2) by adding at the end the following new

19 paragraph:

20 ‘‘(3) OPTIONAL EXCLUSION OF EARNED INCOME

21 FROM RENT DETERMINATION FOR FAMILIES PRE22 VIOUSLY UNEMPLOYED.—Notwithstanding any other pro23 vision of law, a public housing agency may provide (at the

24 option of a public housing agency) that, for all units in

25 public housing administered by the agency, the rent pay-
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1 able under subsection (b) for any such unit occupied by

2 a family whose income increases as a result of employment

3 of a member of the family who was previously unemployed

4 for 1 or more years, may not—

5 ‘‘(A) be increased as a result of the increased

6 income due to such employment during the period

7 that begins upon the commencement of such employ8 ment and ends upon the second annual redetermina9 tion of the rent for and family composition of the

10 family occurring thereafter;

11 ‘‘(B) during any 12-month period occurring

12 during the 36 months succeeding the expiration of

13 the period under subparagraph (A) for the family,

14 be increased due to the continued employment of

15 such family member by more than one-third of the

16 difference between (i) the rent being paid by the

17 family upon expiration of such period, and (ii) the

18 amount of rent that the family would pay but for

19 the applicability of this paragraph; and

20 ‘‘(C) in any case, exceed the amount determined

21 under paragraph (1) or (2).’’.
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1 SEC. 5. EXCLUSION FROM INCOME OF EARNINGS FROM

2 JOB TRAINING AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY PRO3 GRAMS.

4 Section 3 of the United States Housing Act of 1937

5 (42 U.S.C. 1437a) is amended—

6 (1) in subsection (b)(4), by inserting before the

7 period at the end the following: ‘‘, and except that

8 the earnings of and benefits to any public housing

9 resident resulting from enrollment and participation

10 in a program providing employment training and

11 supportive services in accordance with the Family

12 Support Act of 1988, section 22 of this Act, the Job

13 Training Partnership Act, subtitle D of title IV of

14 the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing

15 Act, part F of title IV of the Social Security Act,

16 or any comparable Federal, State, or local law shall

17 not be considered as income for the purposes of de18 termining a limitation on the amount of rent paid by

19 the resident during the period that the resident en20 rolls and participates in such program’’; and

21 (2) by striking the undesignated paragraph at

22 the end of subsection (c)(3) (as added by section

23 515(b) of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Afford24 able Housing Act).
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1 SEC. 6. APPLICABILITY.

2 Notwithstanding the amendments made by this Act,

3 any resident of public housing participating in the pro4 gram under the authority contained in the undesignated

5 paragraph at the end of section 3(c)(3) of the United

6 States Housing Act of 1937 (as added by section 515(b)

7 of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing

8 Act (Public Law 101–625; 104 Stat. 4199)), as such para9 graph existed before the date of enactment of this Act,

10 shall continue to be governed by such authority.

11 SEC. 7. PERFORMANCE FUNDING SYSTEM.

12 Section 9(a)(3)(B) of the United States Housing Act

13 of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437g(a)(3)(B)) is amended—

14 (1) in clause (iv), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end;

15 (2) in clause (v), by striking the period at the

16 end and inserting a semicolon; and

17 (3) by adding at the end the following new

18 clause:

19 ‘‘(vi) the amount of any reduced revenue result20 ing from the exclusion of income of public housing

21 residents pursuant to section 3(b)(5)(E) shall be cal22 culated and included in the amount of the payment

23 received under this section by the public housing

24 agency administering the public housing in which

25 such residents reside;’’.
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1 SEC. 8. EFFECTIVE DATE.

2 The amendments under this Act shall be made and

3 shall take effect on the earlier of—

4 (1) the date of the effectiveness of the regula5 tions under section 9; or

6 (2) the expiration of the 120-day period begin7 ning on the date of the enactment of this Act.

8 SEC. 9. REGULATIONS.

9 The Secretary shall issue any final regulations nec10 essary to implement the amendments made by this Act,

11 which shall take effect not later than the expiration of the

12 120-day period beginning on the date of the enactment

13 of this Act. The regulations shall be issued after notice

14 and opportunity for public comment in accordance with

15 the procedures under section 553 of title 5, United States

16 Code, applicable to substantive rules (notwithstanding

17 subsections (a)(2), (b)(B), and (d)(3) of such section).

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