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103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1733

To amend title II of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing

Act to reserve amounts made available to participating jurisdictions under

subtitle A of such title to provide smoke detectors and other fire safety

devices in single room occupancy housing that qualifies as affordable

rental housing.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 20, 1993

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

Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs

A BILL

To amend title II of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to reserve amounts made available

to participating jurisdictions under subtitle A of such

title to provide smoke detectors and other fire safety

devices in single room occupancy housing that qualifies

as affordable rental housing.

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 ‘‘Single Room Occu5 pancy Housing Fire Safety Enhancement Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. ELIGIBLE USES OF INVESTMENT.

2 Section 212(a) of the Cranston-Gonzalez National

3 Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12742(a)) is amend4 ed—

5 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and to pro6 vide tenant-based rental assistance’’ and inserting

7 ‘‘to provide tenant-based rental assistance, and to

8 provide fire safety devices in single room occupancy

9 rental housing that qualifies as affordable housing’’;

10 and

11 (2) by inserting after paragraph (3) the follow12 ing new paragraph:

13 ‘‘(4) FIRE SAFETY DEVICES IN SRO HOUSING.—

14 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A participating juris15 diction may use funds provided under this sub16 title for providing fire safety devices for, and in17 stalling such devices in, single room occupancy

18 housing for rental that qualifies as affordable

19 housing under this title.

20 ‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this

21 paragraph:

22 ‘‘(i) The term ‘fire safety devices’

23 means (I) automatic sprinkler systems, as

24 such term is defined in section 31(a) of the

25 Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act

26 of 1974, (II) smoke detectors, as such
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1 term is defined in such section, including

2 hard-wired or battery-operated smoke de3 tectors, or (III) mechanical devices to

4 automatically close doors.

5 ‘‘(ii) The term ‘single room occupancy

6 housing’ means housing composed pri7 marily or exclusively of dwelling units for

8 occupancy by 1 person, including units

9 containing food preparation or sanitary fa10 cilities, or both.’’.

11 SEC. 3. RESERVATION OF AMOUNTS.

12 Section 218 of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Af13 fordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12748) is amended—

14 (1) in subsection (h), by inserting before the pe15 riod at the end the following: ‘‘and the status of any

16 amounts reserved under subsection (h)’’;

17 (2) by redesignating subsection (h) (as amended

18 by paragraph (1)) as subsection (i); and

19 (3) by inserting after subsection (g) the follow20 ing new subsection:

21 ‘‘(h) RESERVATION OF AMOUNTS FOR FIRE SAFETY

22 IN SRO HOUSING.—

23 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For any participating juris24 diction whose approved housing strategy or annual

25 update for a fiscal year does not include a certifi-
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1 cation under section 105(b)(20), the Secretary shall

2 reserve 0.5 percent of any amounts allocated to the

3 HOME Investment Trust Fund of the jurisdiction

4 for the fiscal year for use only for the purpose under

5 section 212(a)(4) and may permit a participating ju6 risdiction to draw funds from such amounts reserved

7 only after providing certification under subsection

8 (d) that the funds will be used for such purpose.

9 ‘‘(2) EXPIRATION OF RESERVATION.—Any

10 amounts reserved under this subsection that are not

11 placed under binding commitment for use under sec12 tion 212(a)(4) within 6 months after the last day of

13 the month in which such funds are deposited in the

14 participating jurisdiction’s HOME Investment Trust

15 Fund shall be available for use by the participating

16 jurisdiction for any purpose authorized under section

17 212(a), subject to the other provisions of this title.’’.

18 SEC. 4. COMPREHENSIVE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY

19 STRATEGY.

20 Section 105(b) of the Cranston-Gonzalez National

21 Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 12705(b)) is amended

22 by adding after paragraph (17) (as added by section

23 220(b)(3) of the Housing and Community Development

24 Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–550; 106 Stat. 3761) and
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1 redesignated by section 220(c)(1) of such Act (106 Stat.

2 3762)), the following new paragraph:

3 ‘‘(20) in the case of any jurisdiction in which

4 any single room occupancy rental housing in the ju5 risdiction that qualifies as affordable housing is ade6 quately protected by fire safety devices (as such

7 term is defined in section 212(a)(4)(B)) or any ju8 risdiction having no single room occupancy housing,

9 a certification that such housing is so protected and

10 that reservation of amounts under section 218(h) is

11 unnecessary.’’.

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