Title: STAY HOME Act of 2020
Policy area: Housing and Community Development

Summary:
Subsidizing Tenant Arrears Yet Helping Owners with Mortgages Emergency Act of 2020 or STAY HOME Act of 2020
This bill authorizes additional grants under the Emergency Solutions Grants program to provide rental assistance to certain households during the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) public health emergency.
Specifically, the assistance authorized under the bill may be used to pay the past-due rent of certain low-income households in areas where state or local government officials have required residents to stay at home during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6714 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6714

    To provide assistance to pay off rental arrearages of low- and 
moderate-income households accruing during the public health emergency 
            relating to coronavirus, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 5, 2020

 Mr. Espaillat (for himself and Mr. Garcia of Illinois) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To provide assistance to pay off rental arrearages of low- and 
moderate-income households accruing during the public health emergency 
            relating to coronavirus, 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 ``Subsidizing Tenant Arrears Yet 
Helping Owners with Mortgages Emergency Act of 2020'' or the ``STAY 
HOME Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    In addition to any other amounts made available for fiscal year 
2020 for grants under the Emergency Solutions Grants program under 
subtitle B of title IV of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act 
(42 U.S.C. 11371 et seq.), there is authorized to be appropriated 
$25,000,000,000 for grants under such subtitle made in accordance with 
this Act to respond to needs arising from the public health emergency 
relating to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

SEC. 3. ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES.

    (a) Payments for Rental Arrearages.--Amounts made available 
pursuant to section 2 of this Act may be used only to provide payments, 
to avoid eviction, on behalf of eligible households under subsection 
(b), directly to the owners of dwelling units occupied by such 
households, in the amount necessary to pay all or a portion of any 
amount of rent for such dwelling unit past due at the time of such 
payment and attributable to occupancy at any time during the emergency 
declared on March 13, 2020, by the President under the Robert T. 
Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 4121 
et seq.) relating to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
    (b) Eligible Households.--An eligible household under this section 
shall be a household that--
            (1) has an income that does not exceed 120 percent of the 
        median income for the area in which the family resides; and
            (2) resides in a dwelling unit located in any area that, at 
        any time during the emergency specified in subsection (a), is 
        or was subject to an order made by any State or local 
        government official or agency requiring residents to stay at 
        home, to stay at home except to the extent necessary, or to 
        stay at home except to the extent necessary to conduct 
        essential activities.
    (c) Treatment of Credit Scores.--An owner or other lessor of a 
dwelling unit for which a payment of rent is made pursuant to this Act 
shall not report such payment or assistance to a consumer reporting 
agency and the provision of such assistance on behalf of an eligible 
household shall not adversely affect the credit score of any member of 
such household.
    (d) Prohibition.--No grantee of amounts under this Act nor any 
State nor local government may require any eligible household to prove 
or demonstrate an ability to pay future rent amounts due or to prove or 
demonstrate employment, as a condition of assistance under this Act on 
behalf of such household.
    (e) Treatment.--In applying subtitle B of title IV of the McKinney-
Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11371 et seq.) with respect to 
amounts made available pursuant to section 2 of this Act, any reference 
to activities under section 415(a) of the McKinney-Vento Homeless 
Assistance Act shall be considered to include the activity under 
subsection (a) of this section.
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