[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 247 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 247

               To improve senior citizen housing safety.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 19 (legislative day, January 10), 1995

   Mr. Gregg introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
               To improve senior citizen housing safety.

    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 ``Senior Citizen Housing Safety Act''.

SEC. 2. SENIOR CITIZEN HOUSING SAFETY.

    (a) Limitation on Occupancy in Public Housing Designated for 
Elderly Families.--
            (1) In general.--Section 7(a) of the United States Housing 
        Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437e(a)) is amended--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``Notwithstanding 
                any other provision of law'' and inserting ``Subject 
                only to the provisions of this subsection'';
                    (B) in paragraph (4), by inserting ``, except as 
                provided in paragraph (5)'' before the period at the 
                end; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following new 
                paragraph:
            ``(5) Limitation on occupancy in projects for elderly 
        families.--
                    ``(A) Occupancy limitation.--Notwithstanding any 
                other provision of law, a dwelling unit in a project 
                (or portion of a project) that is designated under 
                paragraph (1) for occupancy by only elderly families or 
                by only elderly and disabled families shall not be 
                occupied by--
                            ``(i) any person with disabilities who is 
                        not an elderly person and whose history of use 
                        of alcohol or drugs constitutes a disability; 
                        or
                            ``(ii) any person who is not an elderly 
                        person and whose history of use of alcohol or 
                        drugs provides reasonable cause for the public 
                        housing agency to believe that the occupancy by 
                        such person may interfere with the health, 
                        safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of the 
                        premises by other tenants.
                    ``(B) Required statement.--A public housing agency 
                may not make a dwelling unit in such a project 
                available for occupancy to any person or family who is 
                not an elderly family, unless the agency acquires from 
                the person or family a signed statement that no person 
                who will be occupying the unit--
                            ``(i) uses (or has a history of use of) 
                        alcohol; or
                            ``(ii) uses (or has a history of use of) 
                        drugs;
                that would interfere with the health, safety, or right 
                to peaceful enjoyment of the premises by other 
                tenants.''.
            (2) Lease provisions.--Section 6(l) of the United States 
        Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437d(l)) is amended--
                    (A) in paragraph (5), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) by redesignating paragraph (6) as paragraph 
                (7); and
                    (C) by inserting after paragraph (5) following new 
                paragraph:
            ``(6) provide that any occupancy in violation of the 
        provisions of section 7(a)(5)(A) or the furnishing of any false 
        or misleading information pursuant to section 7(a)(5)(B) shall 
        be cause for termination of tenancy; and''.
    (b) Eviction of Nonelderly Tenants Having Drug or Alcohol Use 
Problems From Public Housing Designated for Elderly Families.--Section 
7(c) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437e(c)) is 
amended to read as follows:
    ``(c) Standards Regarding Evictions.--
            ``(1) Limitation.--Any tenant who is lawfully residing in a 
        dwelling unit in a public housing project may not be evicted or 
        otherwise required to vacate such unit because of the 
        designation of the project (or a portion of the project) 
        pursuant to this section or because of any action taken by the 
        Secretary or any public housing agency pursuant to this 
        section.
            ``(2) Requirement to evict nonelderly tenants for 3 
        instances of prohibited activity involving drugs or alcohol.--
        With respect to a project (or portion of a project) described 
        in subsection (a)(5)(A), the public housing agency 
        administering the project shall evict any person who is not an 
        elderly person and who, during occupancy in the project (or 
        portion thereof), engages on 3 separate occasions (occurring 
        after the date of the enactment of this Act) in any activity 
        that threatens the health, safety, or right to peaceful 
        enjoyment of the premises by other tenants and involves the use 
        of alcohol or drugs.
            ``(3) Rule of construction.--The provisions of paragraph 
        (2) requiring eviction of a person 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.''.
                                 <all>