I
104TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2340
To amend the United States Housing Act of 1937 to provide for more
expeditious evictions from public housing, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 14, 1995
Ms. MOLINARI 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 provide
for more expeditious evictions from public housing, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Housing Safety
Act of 1995’’.
SEC. 2. EXCLUSION OF EVICTIONS FROM GRIEVANCE PRO-
CEDURE.
Section 6(k) of the United States Housing Act of
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437d(k)) is amended by striking the
first sentence of the matter following paragraph (6) and
inserting the following:
‘‘A public housing agency shall exclude from its procedure
any grievance concerning an eviction or termination of
tenancy in any jurisdiction that requires that, prior to
eviction, a tenant be given a hearing in court which the
Secretary determines provides the basic elements of due
process. The Secretary shall establish such basic elements
of due process by rule under section 553 of title 5, United
States Code.’’.
SEC. 3. GROUNDS FOR EVICTION.
Section 6(l)(5) of the United States Housing Act of
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437d(l)(5)) is amended—
(1) by striking ‘‘criminal’’ the first place it ap-
pears; and
(2) by striking ‘‘on or near such premises’’.
SEC. 4. REQUIRED EVICTIONS FOR CRIMINAL CONVIC-
TIONS.
(a) REQUIREMENT.—Section 6(n) of the United
States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437d(n)) is
amended—
(1) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(n)’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new
paragraph:
‘‘(2) Each public housing agency administering a
public housing project shall terminate the tenancy of, and
evict, any tenant of the project who, at any time during
the tenant’s tenancy in the project that is after the date
of the enactment of the Public Housing Safety Act of
1995, is convicted of a felony. This paragraph may not
be construed to require a public housing agency to evict
any other persons who occupy the same dwelling unit as
the person required to be evicted.’’.
(b) LEASE PROVISIONS.—Section 6(l) of the United
States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437d(l)) is
amended—
(1) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the
end;
(2) in paragraph (6), by striking the period at
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’;
(3) by adding at the end the following new
paragraph:
‘‘(7) require the public housing agency to termi-
nate the tenancy of, and evict, any tenant convicted
of a felony as provided in subsection (n)(2).’’.
SEC. 5. AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS FOR SCREENING AND
EVICTION.
Section 6 of the United States Housing Act of 1937
(42 U.S.C. 1437d) is amended by adding at the end the
following new subsection:
‘‘(q) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS.—
‘‘(1) PROVISION
OF
INFORMATION.—Notwith-
standing any other provision of law, except as pro-
vided in paragraph (2), the National Crime Informa-
tion Center, a police department, and any other law
enforcement agency shall, upon request, provide in-
formation to public housing agencies regarding the
criminal conviction records of adult applicants for,
or residents of, public housing for purposes of appli-
cant screening, lease enforcement, and eviction.
‘‘(2) EXCEPTION.—No law enforcement agency
described in paragraph (1) shall provide information
under this paragraph relating to any criminal con-
viction if the date of such conviction occurred 5 or
more years prior to the date on which the request
for the information is made.
‘‘(3) OPPORTUNITY
TO
DISPUTE.—Before an
adverse action is taken on the basis of a criminal
record, the public housing agency shall provide the
resident or applicant with a copy of the criminal
record and an opportunity to dispute the accuracy
and relevance of the record.
‘‘(4) FEE.—A public housing agency may be
charged a reasonable fee for information provided
under paragraph (1).
‘‘(5) RECORDS
MANAGEMENT.—Each public
housing agency shall establish and implement a sys-
tem of records management that ensures that any
criminal record received by the public housing agen-
cy is—
‘‘(A) maintained confidentially;
‘‘(B) not misused or improperly dissemi-
nated; and
‘‘(C) destroyed, once the purpose for which
the record was requested has been accom-
plished.
‘‘(6) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this sub-
section, the term ‘adult’ means a person who is 18
years of age or older, or who has been convicted of
a crime as an adult under any Federal or State
law.’’.
SEC. 6. APPLICABILITY.
The amendments made by this Act shall apply not-
withstanding any consent judgment entered before the
date of the enactment of this Act relating to actions and
procedures subject to the provisions of law amended by
this Act.
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