Title: Public Housing Emergency Response Act
Policy area: Housing and Community Development

Summary:
Public Housing Emergency Response Act
This bill authorizes additional assistance from the Public Housing Capital Fund to public housing agencies for the development, financing, and modernization of public housing developments and for management improvements.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3212 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3212

 To authorize additional monies to the Public Housing Capital Fund of 
    the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 16, 2020

Ms. Warren (for herself, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Durbin, and 
Mr. Blumenthal) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize additional monies to the Public Housing Capital Fund of 
    the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Public Housing Emergency Response 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Housing is a foundational determinant of health and has 
        been recognized as such since the early days of public health.
            (2) Poor housing conditions contribute to a broad range of 
        infectious diseases, chronic diseases, injuries, childhood 
        development complications, nutrition issues, and mental health 
        challenges.
            (3) The United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437 
        et seq.) charges the Department of Housing and Urban 
        Development (referred to in this section as ``HUD'') with 
        providing residents with a decent, safe, and affordable place 
        to live, including those that live in public housing.
            (4) While public housing is a federally created program 
        overseen by HUD, the properties are owned and managed at the 
        local level by quasi-governmental public housing authorities 
        under contract with the Federal Government.
            (5) Thus, the public housing program is governed in part by 
        Federal rules and regulations and in part by policies enacted 
        at the local level.
            (6) Passage of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 
        U.S.C. 1437 et seq.) sought to address the needs of low-income 
        people through public housing. At the time of passage of such 
        Act, the Nation's housing stock was of very poor quality. 
        Public housing was a significant improvement for those who had 
        access to it.
            (7) However, over the years, the living conditions in 
        public housing began to deteriorate as the operational needs of 
        the units and costs necessary to remedy major capital 
        deficiencies began to outpace the level of funding provided by 
        the Federal Government and the residents' rent contributions.
            (8) By 1990, no significant investment in housing 
        affordable to the lowest-income individuals had been made by 
        the Federal Government in more than 30 years.
            (9) In 1998, the enactment of the Quality Housing and Work 
        Responsibility Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-276; 112 Stat. 2518) 
        prohibited public housing authorities from using any Federal 
        capital funding or operating funding to develop net new 
        housing.
            (10) More than a decade after the enactment of the Quality 
        Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-
        276; 112 Stat. 2518), the number of public housing units 
        nationally began to steadily decline, as more units were torn 
        down than rebuilt.
            (11) With the exception of an infusion of funding from the 
        economic stimulus legislation in 2009--the American Recovery 
        and Reinvestment Act (Public Law 111-5; 123 Stat. 115)--Federal 
        capital funding has remained relatively level for more than a 
        decade, despite an increasing backlog in unmet capital needs.
            (12) Today, there are approximately 1,200,000 units of 
        public housing across the country receiving Federal funding. 
        The Nation's largest public housing authority, the New York 
        City Public Housing Authority, houses approximately 380,000 
        residents in 316 developments across New York City.
            (13) As of April 2019, the national public housing capital 
        repair backlog stood at more than $70,000,000,000.
            (14) In his Budget Request for fiscal year 2020 for the 
        Department of Housing and Urban Development, President Donald 
        Trump requested $0 for the Department's Public Housing Capital 
        Fund, which continues to be the primary source of funding 
        public housing authorities rely on to address necessary 
        infrastructure upgrades and repairs.
            (15) Federal disinvestment in public housing has forced 
        many residents to live in accelerating substandard living. For 
        example, the New York City Housing Authority has a capital 
        repair backlog of approximately $32,000,000,000. New York City 
        Housing Authority residents suffer from a consistent lack of 
        hot water, insufficient heat during the winter months, rodent 
        and insect infestations, broken elevators, and widespread and 
        recurring lead and mold problems.
            (16) Substandard housing conditions, such as poor 
        ventilation, pest infestations, and water leaks, are directly 
        associated with the development and exacerbation of respiratory 
        diseases like asthma.
            (17) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has 
        made clear that no level of lead poisoning is safe. Lead 
        poisoning can result in irreversible brain damage and affects 
        every major bodily system. At high levels, lead poisoning can 
        cause anemia, multi-organ damage, seizures, coma, and death in 
        children. Even with the lowest levels of lead exposure, 
        children experience physical, cognitive, and neurobehavioral 
        impairment as well as lower IQ levels, lower class standing in 
        high school, greater absenteeism, lower vocabulary and 
        grammatical-reasoning scores, and poorer hand-eye coordination 
        relative to other children.
            (18) Exposure to cold indoor temperatures is associated 
        with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
            (19) Due to its aging infrastructure, the living conditions 
        in public housing are causing severe health consequences for 
        public housing residents throughout the Nation, including 
        asthma, respiratory illness, and elevated blood lead levels.
            (20) This is a fixable public health crisis. Federal 
        disinvestment in public housing has consequences and aging 
        infrastructure is, in many cases, the root cause of many of 
        these health issues for residents.
            (21) For example, one leading study found that children 
        living in public housing have higher odds of asthma than 
        children living in all types of private housing, even after 
        adjusting for individual risk factors such as minority 
        ethnicity and race, living in a low-income household, and 
        living in a low-income community.
            (22) Therefore, it is necessary to reinvest in public 
        housing, provide the money needed to fulfill outstanding 
        capital needs, and to again ensure that all Americans have a 
        decent home and suitable living environment, as is HUD's 
        charge.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated for assistance from the 
Public Housing Capital Fund under section 9(d) of the United States 
Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437g(d)) $70,000,000,000, which amount 
shall remain available until expended and, notwithstanding subsections 
(c)(1) and (d)(2) of such section 9, shall be allocated to public 
housing agencies based upon the extent of such agencies' capital need, 
as determined according to the agencies' most recent Physical Needs 
Assessment.
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