164
(1) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.—
There are authorized to be appropriated for grants
under this section $500,000,000 for each of fiscal
years 1998, 1999, and 2000.
(2) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—Of the amount ap-
propriated pursuant to paragraph (1) for any fiscal
year, the Secretary may use not more than 0.50 per-
cent for technical assistance. Such assistance may be
provided directly or indirectly by grants, contracts, or
cooperative agreements, and shall include training,
and the cost of necessary travel for participants in
such training, by or to officials of the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, of public housing
agencies, and of residents.
(m) SUNSET.—No assistance may be provided under
this section after September 30, 2000.
SEC. 263. VOLUNTARY VOUCHER SYSTEM FOR PUBLIC
HOUSING.
(a) IN GENERAL.—A public housing agency may con-
vert any public housing development (or portion thereof)
owned and operated by the agency to a system of choice-
based rental housing assistance under title III, in accord-
ance with this section.
(b) ASSESSMENT AND PLAN REQUIREMENT.—In con-
verting under this section to a choice-based rental housing
165
assistance system, the public housing agency shall develop
a conversion assessment and plan under this subsection, in
consultation with the appropriate public officials and with
significant participation by the residents of the development
(or portion thereof), which assessment and plan shall—
(1) be consistent with and part of the local hous-
ing management plan for the agency;
(2) describe the conversion and future use or dis-
position of the public housing development, including
an impact analysis on the affected community;
(3) include a cost analysis that demonstrates
whether or not the cost (both on a net present value
basis and in terms of new budget authority require-
ments) of providing choice-based rental housing as-
sistance under title III for the same families in sub-
stantially similar dwellings over the same period of
time is less expensive than continuing public housing
assistance in the public housing development proposed
for conversion for the remaining useful life of the de-
velopment;
(4) identify the actions, if any, that the public
housing agency will take with regard to converting
any public housing development or developments (or
portions thereof) of the agency to a system of choice-
based rental housing assistance under title III;
166
(5) require the public housing agency to—
(A) notify the families residing in the pub-
lic housing development subject to the conversion,
in accordance with any guidelines issued by the
Secretary governing such notifications, that—
(i) the development will be removed
from the inventory of the public housing
agency; and
(ii) the families displaced by such ac-
tion will receive choice-based housing assist-
ance;
(B) provide any necessary counseling for
families displaced by such action to facilitate re-
location; and
(C) provide any reasonable relocation ex-
penses for families displaced by such action; and
(6) ensure that each family that is a resident of
the development is relocated to other safe, clean, and
healthy affordable housing, which is, to the maximum
extent practicable, housing of the family’s choice, in-
cluding choice-based assistance under title III (pro-
vided that with respect to choice-based assistance, the
preceding requirement shall be fulfilled only upon the
relocation of such family into such housing).
167
(c) STREAMLINED ASSESSMENT AND PLAN.—At the
discretion of the Secretary or at the request of a public hous-
ing agency, the Secretary may waive any or all of the re-
quirements of subsection (b) or otherwise require a stream-
lined assessment with respect to any public housing develop-
ment or class of public housing developments.
(d) IMPLEMENTATION OF CONVERSION PLAN.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—A public housing agency may
implement a conversion plan only if the conversion
assessment under this section demonstrates that the
conversion—
(A) will not be more expensive than con-
tinuing to operate the public housing develop-
ment (or portion thereof) as public housing; and
(B) will principally benefit the residents of
the public housing development (or portion there-
of) to be converted, the public housing agency,
and the community.
(2) DISAPPROVAL.—The Secretary shall dis-
approve a conversion plan only if the plan is plainly
inconsistent with the conversion assessment under
subsection (b) or there is reliable information and
data available to the Secretary that contradicts that
conversion assessment.
168
(e) OTHER REQUIREMENTS.—To the extent approved
by the Secretary, the funds used by the public housing agen-
cy to provide choice-based rental housing assistance under
title III shall be added to the housing assistance payment
contract administered by the public housing agency or any
entity administering the contract on behalf of the public
housing agency.
(f) SAVINGS PROVISION.—This section does not affect
any contract or other agreement entered into under section
22 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (as such sec-
tion existed before the effective date of the repeal under sec-
tion 601(b) of this Act).
Subtitle F—Mixed-Finance Public
Housing
SEC. 271. AUTHORITY.
Notwithstanding sections 203 and 262, the Secretary
may, upon such terms and conditions as the Secretary may
prescribe, authorize a public housing agency to provide for
the use of grant amounts allocated and provided from the
capital fund or from a grant under section 262, to produce
mixed- finance housing developments, or replace or revital-
ize existing public housing dwelling units with mixed-fi-
nance housing developments, but only if the agency submits
to the Secretary a plan for such housing that is approved
pursuant to section 273 by the Secretary.
169
SEC. 272. MIXED-FINANCE HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this subtitle, the
term ‘‘mixed-finance housing’’ means low-income housing
or mixed-income housing (as described in section 221(c)(2))
for which the financing for production or revitalization is
provided, in part, from entities other than the public hous-
ing agency.
(b) PRODUCTION.—A mixed-finance housing develop-
ment shall be produced or revitalized, and owned—
(1) by a public housing agency or by an entity
affiliated with a public housing agency;
(2) by a partnership, a limited liability com-
pany, or other entity in which the public housing
agency (or an entity affiliated with a public housing
agency) is a general partner, is a managing member,
or otherwise participates in the activities of the en-
tity;
(3) by any entity that grants to the public hous-
ing agency the option to purchase the public housing
project during the 20-year period beginning on the
date of initial occupancy of the public housing project
in accordance with section 42(l)(7) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986; or
(4) in accordance with such other terms and con-
ditions as the Secretary may prescribe by regulation.