I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5884 
To establish a grant program to provide legal assistance to eligible tenants 
at risk of or subject to eviction, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 13, 2020 
Mr. CLYBURN (for himself, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Ms. CLARKE of New 
York, Mr. KHANNA, and Mrs. HAYES) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To establish a grant program to provide legal assistance 
to eligible tenants at risk of or subject to eviction, 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 ‘‘Legal Assistance to 
Prevent Evictions Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. EVICTIONS ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Housing and 
Urban Development shall establish a competitive grant 
program to provide grants to eligible recipients to provide 
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rates of eviction. In making such determinations, the 
Secretary shall use data determined by the Secretary 
to be the best available, or if no appropriate data is 
available, shall make reasonable inferences to deter-
mine the rate of eviction in a census tract. The Sec-
retary may not require applicants to provide data on 
the rates of eviction in the census tract in which the 
applicant intends to provide services or award more 
points to applicants who provide such data than to 
applicants who do not. 
(2) CAPACITY PREFERENCE.—If the Secretary 
determines that the applicant has a greater capacity 
to produce more favorable outcomes regarding evic-
tion for eligible tenants. In making such determina-
tions, the Secretary may consider the applicant’s— 
(A) past experience in producing favorable 
outcomes for households facing eviction; 
(B) proposed use of grant funds to in-
crease staff resources to provide legal assist-
ance; 
(C) demonstrated past effective use of re-
sources to provide legal assistance; 
(D) ability to provide services to eligible 
tenants with limited English proficiency; and 
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(E) ability to effectively communicate with 
eligible tenants with disabilities. 
(3) PREFERENCE FOR GOVERNMENT ENTITIES 
THAT PROMOTE TENANT RIGHTS.—With respect to 
any applicant that is a governmental entity, if the 
applicant has in effect laws or regulations that pro-
mote tenant rights. In making such determinations, 
the Secretary— 
(A) shall consider laws or regulations es-
tablishing a tenant’s right to— 
(i) counsel in evictions cases; 
(ii) withhold rent if a landlord fails to 
provide essential services to ensure habit-
ability of the premises; 
(iii) deduct appliance repair costs 
from rent owed; 
(iv) notice of failure to pay rent or 
other lease violation with the right to cure; 
(v) a maximum security deposit equal 
to one month’s rent; and 
(vi) the expeditious return of any se-
curity deposit after terminating a lease; 
and 
(B) may consider, with lesser weight given 
than the weight given to those rights described 
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in subsection (A), laws or regulations estab-
lishing a tenant’s right to— 
(i) advance notice of rent increases; 
(ii) advance notice of landlord entry to 
the property; or 
(iii) adequate time to recover aban-
doned property after eviction. 
Points awarded under this paragraph shall not re-
sult in an applicant governmental entity being 
awarded a grant that, in the absence of this para-
graph, would have been awarded to either an appli-
cant nonprofit entity or an applicant governmental 
entity lacking the legal authority to enact laws or 
regulations described in this paragraph because such 
entity is subject to legal restrictions enacted by an-
other governmental entity. 
(e) RURAL EQUITY.—In awarding grants under this 
section, the Secretary— 
(1) shall, to the extent practicable, ensure that 
the proportion of eligible tenants living in rural 
areas who will receive legal assistance with grant 
funds awarded under this section is not less than the 
overall proportion of eligible tenants who live in 
rural areas; and 
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(2) may consider geographic diversity and an 
applicant’s capacity to serve eligible tenants living in 
rural areas. 
(f) SUPPLEMENT, NOT SUPPLANT.—Grant funds re-
ceived under this Act shall be used to supplement and not 
supplant other funds used by the grantee to provide the 
legal assistance described in subsection (a). 
(g) REPORT.—For each year that an eligible recipient 
receives grant funds under this section, such eligible re-
cipient shall submit to the Secretary a report which main-
tains attorney-client confidentiality and which excludes 
personally identifiable information about eligible tenants. 
Such report shall contain— 
(1) the total number of eligible tenants that 
were provided legal assistance using such funds; 
(2) the estimated number of evictions avoided, 
delayed, or resolved with other outcomes (such as 
negotiated settlements) that are more favorable to 
the eligible tenant than the outcomes that would 
have been expected in the absence of counsel, and a 
brief description of the circumstances of each case; 
(3) the number of eligible tenants that received 
legal assistance that reside in a dwelling unit for 
which any subsidy or assistance for occupancy in the 
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dwelling unit is provided under a program adminis-
tered by Federal, State, or local authorities; and 
(4) demographic information about eligible ten-
ants that received legal assistance, including race, 
national origin, sex, disability status, household in-
come, household size, household familial status, age 
of the head of household, and whether tenants live 
in an urban area, suburban area, or rural area. 
(h) DEFINITIONS.— 
(1) ELIGIBLE RECIPIENT.—The term ‘‘eligible 
recipient’’ means any nonprofit or governmental en-
tity that has experience providing no-cost legal as-
sistance to low-income individuals. 
(2) ELIGIBLE
TENANT.—The term ‘‘eligible 
tenant’’ means an individual who has an annual 
household income of— 
(A) not more than 135 percent of the Fed-
eral poverty guidelines issued by the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services; or 
(B) less than 333 percent of average fair 
market rent in the county of the individual— 
(i) in the case of a household com-
prised of one individual, for an efficiency; 
and 
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(ii) in the case of a household com-
prised of more than one individual, for a 
residence in which the number of bedrooms 
would not require— 
(I) more than two members of 
the household to share a bedroom; 
(II) children of different genders 
to share a bedroom with one another; 
or 
(III) a household member with a 
disability requiring medical equipment 
to share a bedroom. 
(3) RURAL
AREA.—The term ‘‘rural area’’ 
means a census tract that is— 
(A) outside of a metropolitan statistical 
area, as designated by the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget; or 
(B) within a metropolitan statistical area, 
as designated by the Office of Management and 
Budget, that is outside of the metropolitan sta-
tistical area’s urbanized areas as designated by 
the rural-urban commuting area code 1 (as de-
termined by the Secretary of Agriculture), and 
outside of tracts with a housing density of over 
64 housing units per square mile located in the 
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rural-urban commuting area code 2 (as deter-
mined by the Secretary of Agriculture). 
(4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 
the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. 
(5) SUBURBAN
AREA.—The term ‘‘suburban 
area’’ means a census tract with a population den-
sity of less than 2,500 inhabitants per square mile 
that is not a rural area. 
(6) URBAN
AREA.—The term ‘‘urban area’’ 
means a census tract with a population density of at 
least 2,500 inhabitants per square mile. 
Æ 
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