Housing Homeless Veterans Act of 2019

To give priority in allocation of rental assistance vouchers under the Veterans Affairs Supported Housing program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to areas having the largest populations of homeless veterans, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Housing Homeless Veterans Act of 2019 2. Allocation of HUD–VASH vouchers (a) Amendment to VASH program Paragraph (19) of section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 ( 42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)(19) (D) Allocation criteria Notwithstanding any other provision of law (including paragraph (6) under the heading Public and Indian Housing—Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Public Law 115–31 (i) serve areas having the highest numbers of homeless veterans; and (ii) have fully utilized their available funds under this paragraph for the preceding fiscal year and have a demonstrated need for incremental assistance under this paragraph. (E) Reallocation of unused vouchers for VASH assistance (i) Recapture and reallocation Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary shall— (I) recapture from any public housing agency described in clause (ii) any amounts of assistance provided under this paragraph to the agency that are not— (aa) under lease after 24 months; (bb) committed under an agreement to enter into a housing assistance payments contract; or (cc) committed, under a commitment of award letter that has been approved by the board of governors or other similar governing body of the public housing agency, for project-based voucher assistance for a project; and (II) reallocate any recaptured amounts to public housing authorities that have leased their entire allocation of assistance under this paragraph. (ii) Agencies subject to recapture An agency described in this clause is an agency whose jurisdiction is located within an area within which the homeless population has decreased, according to the point-in-time information of the Secretary for the two most recent reporting periods for such information. . (b) Applicability The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply to amounts made available— (1) by paragraph (6) under the heading Public and Indian Housing—Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Public Law 115–31 (2) by any other provision of law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act.

Summary: Housing Homeless Veterans Act of 2019 This bill establishes certain priorities for funding distributed under the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program and requires the reallocation of certain unused funds under the program. Specifically, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in making VASH program funds available among public housing agencies (PHAs) for rental voucher assistance for homeless veterans who have chronic mental illnesses or chronic substance-use disorders, must give priority to PHAs that (1) serve areas that have the highest numbers of homeless veterans, (2) have fully utilized their available HUD-VASH funds for the preceding fiscal year, and (2) have demonstrated need for such incremental assistance. Additionally, HUD must (1) recapture certain unused HUD-VASH assistance from PHAs in jurisdictions with decreasing homeless populations, and (2) reallocate the recaptured amounts to PHAs that have used their entire allocations of HUD-VASH assistance.