SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; REFERENCES. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 
2008’’. 
(b) REFERENCES.—Except as otherwise expressly 
provided, wherever in this Act an amendment or repeal 
is expressed in terms of an amendment to, or repeal of, 
section 811 or any other provision of section 811, the ref-
erence shall be considered to be made to section 811 of 
the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act 
(42 U.S.C. 8013). 
SEC. 2. TENANT-BASED RENTAL ASSISTANCE THROUGH 
CERTIFICATE FUND. 
(a) TERMINATION OF MAINSTREAM TENANT-BASED 
RENTAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.—Section 811 is amend-
ed— 
(1) in subsection (b)— 
(A) by striking the first subsection des-
ignation and all that follows through the end of 
subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) and insert-
ing the following: 
‘‘(b) AUTHORITY TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE.—The 
Secretary is authorized to provide assistance to private 
nonprofit organizations to expand the supply of supportive 
housing for persons with disabilities, which shall be pro-
vided as—
‘‘(1) capital advances in accordance with sub-
section (d)(1), and 
‘‘(2) contracts for project rental assistance in 
accordance with subsection (d)(2).’’; and 
(B) by striking ‘‘assistance under this 
paragraph’’ and inserting ‘‘Assistance under 
this subsection’’; 
(2) in subsection (d), by striking paragraph (4); 
and 
(3) in subsection (l), by striking paragraph (1). 
(b) RENEWAL THROUGH SECTION 8.—Section 811 
is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section: 
‘‘(p) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR SEC-
TION 8 ASSISTANCE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 
appropriated for tenant-based rental assistance 
under section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act 
of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) for persons with dis-
abilities in fiscal year 2009 the amount necessary to 
provide a number of incremental vouchers under 
such section that is equal to the number of vouchers 
provided in fiscal year 2008 under the tenant-based 
rental assistance program under subsection (d)(4) of 
this section (as in effect before the date of the enact-
ment of the Frank Melville Supportive Housing In-
vestment Act of 2008). 
‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS
UPON
TURNOVER.—The 
Secretary shall develop and issue, to public housing 
agencies that receive voucher assistance made avail-
able under this subsection and to public housing 
agencies that received voucher assistance under sec-
tion 8(o) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 
(42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) for non-elderly disabled fami-
lies pursuant to appropriation Acts for fiscal years 
1997 through 2002 or any other subsequent appro-
priations for incremental vouchers for non-elderly 
disabled families, guidance to ensure that, to the 
maximum extent possible, such vouchers continue to 
be provided upon turnover to qualified persons with 
disabilities or to qualified non-elderly disabled fami-
lies, respectively.’’. 
SEC. 3. MODERNIZED CAPITAL ADVANCE PROGRAM. 
(a) PROJECT RENTAL ASSISTANCE CONTRACTS.— 
Section 811 is amended— 
(1) in subsection (d)(2)— 
(A) by inserting ‘‘(A) INITIAL
PROJECT 
RENTAL
ASSISTANCE
CONTRACT.—’’ 
after 
‘‘PROJECT RENTAL ASSISTANCE.—’’
(B) in the first sentence, by inserting after 
‘‘shall’’ the following: ‘‘comply with subsection 
(e)(2) and shall’’; 
(C) by striking ‘‘annual contract amount’’ 
each place such term appears and inserting 
‘‘amount provided under the contract for each 
year covered by the contract’’; and 
(D) by adding at the end the following new 
subparagraph: 
‘‘(B) RENEWAL OF AND INCREASES IN CON-
TRACT AMOUNTS.— 
‘‘(i) EXPIRATION OF CONTRACT TERM.— 
Upon the expiration of each contract term, sub-
ject to the availability of amounts made avail-
able in appropriation Acts, the Secretary shall 
adjust the annual contract amount to provide 
for reasonable project costs, and any increases, 
including adequate reserves and service coordi-
nators, except that any contract amounts not 
used by a project during a contract term shall 
not be available for such adjustments upon re-
newal. 
‘‘(ii) EMERGENCY
SITUATIONS.—In the 
event of emergency situations that are outside 
the control of the owner, the Secretary shall in-
crease the annual contract amount, subject to 
reasonable review and limitations as the Sec-
retary shall provide.’’. 
(2) in subsection (e)(2)— 
(A) in the first sentence, by inserting be-
fore the period at the end the following: ‘‘, ex-
cept that, in the case of the sponsor of a project 
assisted with any low-income housing tax credit 
pursuant to section 42 of the Internal Revenue 
Code of 1986 or with any tax-exempt housing 
bonds, the contract shall have an initial term of 
not be less than 360 months and shall provide 
funding for a term of 60 months’’; and 
(B) by striking ‘‘extend any expiring con-
tract’’ and insert ‘‘upon expiration of a contract 
(or any renewed contract), renew such con-
tract’’. 
(b) PROGRAM
REQUIREMENTS.—Section 811 is 
amended— 
(1) in subsection (e)— 
(A) by striking the subsection heading and 
inserting the following: ‘‘PROGRAM REQUIRE-
MENTS’’; 
(B) by striking paragraph (1) and insert-
ing the following new paragraph:
‘‘(1) USE RESTRICTIONS.— 
‘‘(A) TERM.—Any project for which a cap-
ital advance is provided under subsection (d)(1) 
shall be operated for not less than 40 years as 
supportive housing for persons with disabilities, 
in accordance with the application for the 
project approved by the Secretary and shall, 
during such period, be made available for occu-
pancy only by very low-income persons with dis-
abilities. 
‘‘(B) CONVERSION.—If the owner of a 
project requests the use of the project for the 
direct benefit of very low-income persons with 
disabilities and, pursuant to such request the 
Secretary determines that a project is no longer 
needed for use as supportive housing for per-
sons with disabilities, the Secretary may ap-
prove the request and authorize the owner to 
convert the project to such use.’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraphs: 
‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON USE OF FUNDS.—No as-
sistance received under this section (or any State or 
local government funds used to supplement such as-
sistance) may be used to replace other State or local
funds previously used, or designated for use, to as-
sist persons with disabilities. 
‘‘(4) MULTIFAMILY PROJECTS.— 
‘‘(A) LIMITATION.—Except as provided in 
subparagraph (B), of the total number of dwell-
ing units in any multifamily housing project 
(including any condominium or cooperative 
housing project) containing any unit for which 
assistance is provided from a capital grant 
under subsection (d)(1) made after the date of 
the enactment of the Frank Melville Supportive 
Housing Investment Act of 2008, the aggregate 
number that are used for persons with disabil-
ities, including supportive housing for persons 
with disabilities, or to which any occupancy 
preference for persons with disabilities applies, 
may not exceed 25 percent of such total. 
‘‘(B) 
EXCEPTION.—Subparagraph 
(A) 
shall not apply in the case of any project that 
is a group home or independent living facility.’’; 
and 
(2) in subsection (l), by striking paragraph (4). 
(c) DELEGATED PROCESSING.—Subsection (g) of 
section 811 (42 U.S.C. 8013(g)) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘SELECTION CRITERIA.—’’ and 
inserting 
‘‘SELECTION
CRITERIA
AND
PROC-
ESSING.—(1) SELECTION CRITERIA.—’’; 
(2) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), (3), 
(4), (5), (6), and (7) as subparagraphs (A), (B), 
(C), (D), (E), (G), and (H), respectively; 
(3) by adding at the end the following new 
paragraph: 
‘‘(2) DELEGATED PROCESSING.— 
‘‘(A) In issuing a capital advance under sub-
section (d)(1) for any multifamily project (but not 
including any project that is a group home or inde-
pendent living facility) for which financing for the 
purposes described in the last sentence of subsection 
(b) is provided by a combination of the capital ad-
vance and sources other than this section, within 30 
days of award of the capital advance, the Secretary 
shall delegate review and processing of such projects 
to a State or local housing agency that— 
‘‘(i) is in geographic proximity to the prop-
erty; 
‘‘(ii) has demonstrated experience in and 
capacity for underwriting multifamily housing 
loans that provide housing and supportive serv-
ices;
‘‘(iii) may or may not be providing low-in-
come housing tax credits in combination with 
the capital advance under this section; and 
‘‘(iv) agrees to issue a firm commitment 
within 12 months of delegation. 
‘‘(B) The Secretary shall retain the authority to 
process capital advances in cases in which no State 
or local housing agency has applied to provide dele-
gated processing pursuant to this paragraph or no 
such agency has entered into an agreement with the 
Secretary to serve as a delegated processing agency. 
‘‘(C) An agency to which review and processing 
is delegated pursuant to subparagraph (A) may as-
sess a reasonable fee which shall be included in the 
capital advance amounts and may recommend 
project rental assistance amounts in excess of those 
initially awarded by the Secretary. The Secretary 
shall develop a schedule for reasonable fees under 
this subparagraph to be paid to delegated processing 
agencies, which shall take into consideration any 
other fees to be paid to the agency for other funding 
provided to the project by the agency, including 
bonds, tax credits, and other gap funding. 
‘‘(D) Under such delegated system, the Sec-
retary shall retain the authority to approve rents
and development costs and to execute a capital ad-
vance within 60 days of receipt of the commitment 
from the State or local agency. The Secretary shall 
provide to such agency and the project sponsor, in 
writing, the reasons for any reduction in capital ad-
vance amounts or project rental assistance and such 
reductions shall be subject to appeal.’’. 
(d) LEVERAGING OTHER RESOURCES.—Paragraph 
(1) of section 811(g) (as so designated by subsection 
(c)(1) of this section) is amended by inserting after sub-
paragraph (E) (as so redesignated by subsection (c)(2) of 
this section) the following new subparagraph: 
‘‘(F) the extent to which the per-unit cost 
of units to be assisted under this section will be 
supplemented with resources from other public 
and private sources;’’. 
(e) TENANT PROTECTIONS AND ELIGIBILITY FOR 
OCCUPANCY.—Section 811 is amended by striking sub-
section (i) and inserting the following new subsection: 
‘‘(i) ADMISSION AND OCCUPANCY.— 
‘‘(1) TENANT SELECTION.— 
‘‘(A) PROCEDURES.—An owner shall adopt 
written tenant selection procedures that are sat-
isfactory to the Secretary as (i) consistent with 
the purpose of improving housing opportunities
for very low-income persons with disabilities; 
and (ii) reasonably related to program eligibility 
and an applicant’s ability to perform the obliga-
tions of the lease. Owners shall promptly notify 
in writing any rejected applicant of the grounds 
for any rejection. 
‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT
FOR
OCCUPANCY.— 
Occupancy in dwelling units provided assistance 
under this section shall be available only to per-
sons with disabilities and households that in-
clude at least one person with a disability. 
‘‘(C) AVAILABILITY.—Except only as pro-
vided in subparagraph (D), occupancy in dwell-
ing units in housing provided with assistance 
under this section shall be available to all per-
sons with disabilities eligible for such occupancy 
without regard to the particular disability in-
volved. 
‘‘(D) LIMITATION
ON
OCCUPANCY.—Not-
withstanding any other provision of law, the 
owner of housing developed under this section 
may, with the approval of the Secretary, limit 
occupancy within the housing to persons with 
disabilities who can benefit from the supportive 
services offered in connection with the housing.
‘‘(2) TENANT PROTECTIONS.— 
‘‘(A) LEASE.—The lease between a tenant 
and an owner of housing assisted under this 
section shall be for not less than one year, and 
shall contain such terms and conditions as the 
Secretary shall determine to be appropriate. 
‘‘(B) TERMINATION
OF
TENANCY.—An 
owner may not terminate the tenancy or refuse 
to renew the lease of a tenant of a rental dwell-
ing unit assisted under this section except— 
‘‘(i) for serious or repeated violation 
of the terms and conditions of the lease, 
for violation of applicable Federal, State, 
or local law, or for other good cause; and 
‘‘(ii) by providing the tenant, not less 
than 30 days before such termination or 
refusal to renew, with written notice speci-
fying the grounds for such action. 
‘‘(C) VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION IN SERV-
ICES.—A supportive service plan for housing 
assisted under this section shall permit each 
resident to take responsibility for choosing and 
acquiring their own services, to receive any sup-
portive services made available directly or indi-
nity organizations that provide sup-
portive services to persons with dis-
abilities.’’. 
(g) REPEAL OF AUTHORITY TO WAIVE SIZE LIMITA-
TIONS.—Paragraph (1) of section 811(k) is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking the second 
sentence; and 
(2) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘(or such 
higher number of persons’’ and all that follows 
through ‘‘subsection (h)(6))’’. 
(h) MINIMUM
ALLOCATION
FOR
MULTIFAMILY 
PROJECTS.—Subsection (l) of section 811, as amended by 
the preceding provisions of this Act, is further amended 
by inserting before paragraph (2) the following new para-
graph: 
‘‘(1) MINIMUM ALLOCATION FOR MULTIFAMILY 
PROJECTS.—The Secretary shall establish a min-
imum percentage of the amount made available for 
each fiscal year for capital advances under sub-
section (d)(1) that shall be used for multifamily 
projects subject to subsection (e)(4).’’. 
SEC. 4. PROJECT RENTAL ASSISTANCE COMPETITIVE DEM-
ONSTRATION PROGRAM. 
Section 811, as amended by the preceding provisions 
of this Act, is further amended—
(1) by redesignating subsections (k) through 
(n) as subsections (l) through (o), respectively; and 
(2) by inserting after subsection (j) the fol-
lowing new subsection: 
‘‘(k) PROJECT RENTAL ASSISTANCE-ONLY COMPETI-
TIVE DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM.— 
‘‘(1) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary shall carry 
out a demonstration program under this subsection 
to expand the supply of supportive housing for non- 
elderly adults with disabilities, under which the Sec-
retary shall make funds available for project rental 
assistance pursuant to paragraph (2) for eligible 
projects under paragraph (3). The Secretary shall 
provide for State housing finance agencies and other 
appropriate entities to apply to the Secretary for 
such project rental assistance funds, which shall be 
made available by such agencies and entities for 
dwelling units in eligible projects based upon criteria 
established by the Secretary for the demonstration 
program under this subsection. The Secretary may 
not require any State housing finance agency or 
other entity applying for project rental assistance 
funds under the demonstration program to identify 
in such application the eligible projects for which 
such funds will be used, and shall allow such agen-
cies and applicants to subsequently identify such eli-
gible projects pursuant to the making of commit-
ments described in paragraph (3)(B). 
‘‘(2) PROJECT RENTAL ASSISTANCE.— 
‘‘(A) CONTRACT
TERMS.—Project rental 
assistance under the demonstration program 
under this subsection shall be provided— 
‘‘(i) in accordance with subsection 
(d)(2); and 
‘‘(ii) under a contract having an ini-
tial term of not less than 180 months that 
provides funding for a term 60 months, 
which funding shall be renewed upon expi-
ration, subject to the availability of suffi-
cient amounts in appropriation Acts. 
‘‘(B) LIMITATION ON UNITS ASSISTED.— 
Of the total number of dwelling units in any 
multifamily housing project containing any unit 
for which project rental assistance under the 
demonstration program under this subsection is 
provided, the aggregate number that are pro-
vided such project rental assistance, that are 
used for supportive housing for persons with 
disabilities, or to which any occupancy pref-
erence for persons with disabilities applies, may 
not exceed 25 percent of such total. 
‘‘(C) 
PROHIBITION
OF
CAPITAL
AD-
VANCES.—The Secretary may not provide a 
capital advance under subsection (d)(1) for any 
project for which assistance is provided under 
the demonstration program. 
‘‘(D) 
ELIGIBLE
POPULATION.—Project 
rental assistance under the demonstration pro-
gram under this subsection may be provided 
only for dwelling units for extremely low-income 
persons with disabilities and extremely low-in-
come households that include at least one per-
son with a disability. 
‘‘(3) ELIGIBLE PROJECTS.—An eligible project 
under this paragraph is a new or existing multi-
family housing project for which— 
‘‘(A) the development costs are paid with 
resources from other public or private sources; 
and 
‘‘(B) a commitment has been made— 
‘‘(i) by the applicable State agency re-
sponsible for allocation of low-income hous-
ing tax credits under section 42 of the In-
ternal Revenue Code of 1986, for an allo-
cation of such credits; 
‘‘(ii) by the applicable participating 
jurisdiction that receives assistance under 
the HOME Investment Partnership Act, 
for assistance from such jurisdiction; or 
‘‘(iii) by any Federal agency or any 
State or local government, for funding for 
the project from funds from any other 
sources. 
‘‘(4) STATE
AGENCY
INVOLVEMENT.—Assist-
ance under the demonstration may be provided only 
for projects for which the applicable State agency re-
sponsible for health and human services programs, 
and the applicable State agency designated to ad-
minister or supervise the administration of the State 
plan for medical assistance under title XIX of the 
Social Security Act, have entered into such agree-
ments as the Secretary considers appropriate— 
‘‘(A) to identify the target populations to 
be served by the project; 
‘‘(B) to set forth methods for outreach and 
referral; and 
‘‘(C) to make available appropriate services 
for tenants of the project.
‘‘(5) USE REQUIREMENTS.—In the case of any 
project for which project rental assistance is pro-
vided under the demonstration program under this 
subsection, the dwelling units assisted pursuant to 
paragraph (2) shall be operated for not less than 30 
years as supportive housing for persons with disabil-
ities, in accordance with the application for the 
project approved by the Secretary, and such dwelling 
units shall, during such period, be made available for 
occupancy only by persons and households described 
in paragraph (2)(D). 
‘‘(6) REPORT.—Upon the expiration of the 5- 
year period beginning on the date of the enactment 
of the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Invest-
ment Act of 2008, the Secretary shall submit to the 
Congress a report describing the demonstration pro-
gram under this subsection, analyzing the effective-
ness of the program, including the effectiveness of 
the program compared to the program for capital 
advances in accordance with subsection (d)(1) (as in 
effect pursuant to the amendments made by such 
Act), and making recommendations regarding future 
models for assistance under this section based upon 
the experiences under the program.’’.
disabilities’ includes two or more persons with dis-
abilities living together, one or more such persons 
living with another person who is determined (under 
regulations prescribed by the Secretary) to be impor-
tant to their care or well-being, and the surviving 
member or members of any household described in 
subparagraph (A) who were living, in a unit assisted 
under this section, with the deceased member of the 
household at the time of his or her death.’’; 
(C) by striking paragraph (3) and insert-
ing the following new paragraph: 
‘‘(3) The term ‘supportive housing for persons 
with disabilities’ means dwelling units that— 
‘‘(A) are designed to meet the permanent 
housing needs of very low-income persons with 
disabilities; and 
‘‘(B) are located in housing that make 
available supportive services that address the 
individual health, mental health, or other needs 
of such persons.’’; 
(D) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘a 
project for’’; and 
(E) in paragraph (6)— 
(i) by inserting after and below sub-
paragraph (D) the matter to be inserted by