Title: Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act of 2019
Policy area: Housing and Community Development

Summary:
Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration Act of 2019
This bill authorizes the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to implement a mobility demonstration program to enable public housing agencies (PHAs) to administer housing-choice rental-assistance vouchers in a manner designed to (1) encourage low-income families receiving such assistance to move to lower-poverty areas, and (2) expand access to opportunity areas.
HUD shall require PHAs applying to participate in the program to submit a specified Regional Housing Mobility Plan.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1122 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1122

 To authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry 
   out a housing choice voucher mobility demonstration to encourage 
  families receiving such voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty 
             areas and expand access to opportunity areas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 8, 2019

Mr. Cleaver (for himself and Mr. Duffy) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to carry 
   out a housing choice voucher mobility demonstration to encourage 
  families receiving such voucher assistance to move to lower-poverty 
             areas and expand access to opportunity areas.

    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 ``Housing Choice Voucher Mobility 
Demonstration Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER MOBILITY DEMONSTRATION.

    (a) Authority.--The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (in 
this section referred to as the ``Secretary'') may carry out a mobility 
demonstration program to enable public housing agencies to administer 
housing choice voucher assistance under section 8(o) of the United 
States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) in a manner designed to 
encourage families receiving such voucher assistance to move to lower-
poverty areas and expand access to opportunity areas.
    (b) Selection of PHAs.--
            (1) Requirements.--The Secretary shall establish 
        requirements for public housing agencies to participate in the 
        demonstration program under this section, which shall provide 
        that the following public housing agencies may participate:
                    (A) Public housing agencies that together--
                            (i) serve areas with high concentrations of 
                        holders of rental assistance vouchers under 
                        section 8(o) of the United States Housing Act 
                        of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) in poor, low-
                        opportunity neighborhoods; and
                            (ii) have an adequate number of moderately 
                        priced rental units in higher-opportunity 
                        areas.
                    (B) Planned consortia or partial consortia of 
                public housing agencies that--
                            (i) include at least one agency with a 
                        high-performing Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) 
                        program; and
                            (ii) will enable participating families to 
                        continue in such program if they relocate to 
                        the jurisdiction served by any other agency of 
                        the consortium.
                    (C) Planned consortia or partial consortia of 
                public housing agencies that--
                            (i) serve jurisdictions within a single 
                        region;
                            (ii) include one or more small agencies; 
                        and
                            (iii) will consolidate mobility focused 
                        operations.
                    (D) Such other public housing agencies as the 
                Secretary considers appropriate.
            (2) Selection criteria.--The Secretary shall establish 
        competitive selection criteria for public housing agencies 
        eligible under paragraph (1) to participate in the 
        demonstration program under this section.
            (3) Random selection of families.--The Secretary may 
        require participating agencies to use a randomized selection 
        process to select among the families eligible to receive 
        mobility assistance under the demonstration program.
    (c) Regional Housing Mobility Plan.--The Secretary shall require 
each public housing agency applying to participate in the demonstration 
program under this section to submit a Regional Housing Mobility Plan 
(in this section referred to as a ``Plan''), which shall--
            (1) identify the public housing agencies that will 
        participate under the Plan and the number of vouchers each 
        participating agency will make available out of their existing 
        programs in connection with the demonstration;
            (2) identify any community-based organizations, nonprofit 
        organizations, businesses, and other entities that will 
        participate under the Plan and describe the commitments for 
        such participation made by each such entity;
            (3) identify any waivers or alternative requirements 
        requested for the execution of the Plan;
            (4) identify any specific actions that the public housing 
        agencies and other entities will undertake to accomplish the 
        goals of the demonstration, which shall include a comprehensive 
        approach to enable a successful transition to opportunity areas 
        and may include counseling and continued support for families;
            (5) specify the criteria that the public housing agencies 
        would use to identify opportunity areas under the plan;
            (6) provide for establishment of priority and preferences 
        for participating families, including a preference for families 
        with young children, as such term is defined by the Secretary, 
        based on regional housing needs and priorities; and
            (7) comply with any other requirements established by the 
        Secretary.
    (d) Funding for Mobility-Related Services.--
            (1) Use of administrative fees.--Public housing agencies 
        participating in the demonstration program under this section 
        may use administrative fees under section 8(q) of the United 
        States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(q)), their 
        administrative fee reserves, and funding from private entities 
        to provide mobility-related services in connection with the 
        demonstration program, including services such as counseling, 
        portability coordination, landlord outreach, security deposits, 
        and administrative activities associated with establishing and 
        operating regional mobility programs.
            (2) Use of housing assistance funds.--Public housing 
        agencies participating in the demonstration under this section 
        may use housing assistance payments funds under section 8(o) of 
        the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(o)) for 
        security deposits if necessary to enable families to lease 
        units with vouchers in designated opportunity areas.
    (e) Waivers; Alternative Requirements.--
            (1) Waivers.--To allow for public housing agencies to 
        implement and administer their Regional Housing Mobility Plans, 
        the Secretary may waive or specify alternative requirements for 
        the following provisions of the United States Housing Act of 
        1937:
                    (A) Sections 8(o)(7)(A) and 8(o)(13)(E)(i) 
                (relating to the term of a lease and mobility 
                requirements).
                    (B) Section 8(o)(13)(C)(i) (relating to the public 
                housing plan for an agency).
                    (C) Section 8(r)(2) (relating to the responsibility 
                of a public housing agency to administer ported 
                assistance).
            (2) Alternative requirements.--The Secretary shall provide 
        additional authority for public housing agencies in a selected 
        region to form a consortium that has a single housing choice 
        voucher funding contract, or to enter into a partial consortium 
        to operate all or portions of the Regional Housing Mobility 
        Plan, including agencies participating in the Moving To Work 
        Demonstration program.
            (3) Effective date.--Any waiver or alternative requirements 
        pursuant to this subsection shall not take effect before the 
        expiration of the 10-day period beginning upon publication of 
        notice of such waiver or alternative requirement in the Federal 
        Register.
    (f) Implementation.--The Secretary may implement the demonstration, 
including its terms, procedures, requirements, and conditions, by 
notice.
    (g) Evaluation.--Not later than 5 years after implementation of the 
regional housing mobility programs under the demonstration program 
under this section, the Secretary shall submit to the Congress and 
publish in the Federal Register a report evaluating the effectiveness 
of the strategies pursued under the demonstration, subject to the 
availability of funding to conduct the evaluation. Through official 
websites and other methods, the Secretary shall disseminate interim 
findings as they become available, and shall, if promising strategies 
are identified, notify the Congress of the amount of funds that would 
be required to expand the testing of these strategies in additional 
types of public housing agencies and housing markets.
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