[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1429 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1429

  To protect tenants in public housing and housing assisted under the 
rental assistance program under section 8 of the United States Housing 
    Act of 1937 who are victims from eviction by reason of criminal 
                               activity.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 25, 2003

  Ms. Lee (for herself, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. 
 George Miller of California, Ms. Kilpatrick, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Corrine 
 Brown of Florida, and Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas) introduced 
 the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To protect tenants in public housing and housing assisted under the 
rental assistance program under section 8 of the United States Housing 
    Act of 1937 who are victims from eviction by reason of criminal 
                               activity.

    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 ``One Strike and You're Out! Act of 
2003''.

SEC. 2. PUBLIC HOUSING TENANTS.

     Paragraph (6) of section 6(l) of the United States Housing Act of 
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437d(l)(6)) is amended by inserting before the 
semicolon at the end the following: ``; except that such criminal 
activity, engaged in by a member of a tenant's household or any guest 
or other person under the tenant's control, shall not be cause for 
termination of tenancy of the tenant if the tenant or immediate member 
of the tenant's family is a victim of domestic violence or dating 
violence and, as a result, could not control or prevent the criminal 
activity relating to domestic violence or dating violence; and except 
that nothing in this paragraph may be construed to limit the authority 
of a public housing agency to evict individuals who engage in criminal 
acts of physical violence against family members or others, and in all 
cases, a public housing agency shall consider the safety, security, and 
continued maintenance of victims of domestic violence to be of 
paramount importance''.

SEC. 3. TENANTS OF HOUSING ASSISTED UNDER SECTION 8 PROGRAM.

     Clause (iii) of section 8(d)(1)(B) of the United States Housing 
Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f(d)(1)(B)(iii)) is amended by inserting 
before the semicolon at the end the following: ``; except that such 
criminal activity, engaged in by a member of a tenant's household or 
any guest or other person under the tenant's control, shall not be 
cause for termination of tenancy of the tenant if the tenant or 
immediate member of the tenant's family is a victim of domestic 
violence or dating violence and, as a result, could not control or 
prevent the criminal activity relating to domestic violence or dating 
violence; and except that nothing in this clause may be construed to 
limit the authority of a public housing agency to evict individuals who 
engage in criminal acts of physical violence against family members or 
others, and in all cases, a public housing agency shall consider the 
safety, security, and continued maintenance of victims of domestic 
violence to be of paramount importance''.

SEC. 4. REPORTING BY PHAS ON EVICTIONS FOR DOMESTIC AND DATING 
              VIOLENCE.

    Section 6 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 
1437d) is amended by inserting after subsection (o) the following new 
subsection:
    ``(p) Reports on Evictions for Domestic and Dating Violence.--Each 
public housing agency shall submit a report annually to the Secretary 
on the number of persons whose tenancy in public housing of the agency 
was terminated, and the number whose tenancy in housing assisted by the 
agency with amounts made available under section 8 was terminated, 
because of criminal activity relating to domestic violence or dating 
violence.''.
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