[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1309 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1309

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 15, 2005

   Ms. Lee (for herself, Mr. Conyers, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. Serrano, Mr. 
     Towns, Ms. Waters, Mr. Clay, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mrs. 
 Christensen, and Mr. Gutierrez) introduced the following bill; which 
          was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To protect innocent elderly and disabled tenants in public housing and 
housing assisted under the rental assistance program under section 8 of 
   the United States Housing Act of 1937 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 
2005''.

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 or 
drug-related 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 (A) the 
tenant is an elderly person (as such term is defined in section 202(k) 
of the Housing Act of 1959 (12 U.S.C. 1701q)) or a person with 
disabilities (as such term is defined in section 811(k) of the 
Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 8013(k)), 
and (B) the tenant did not know and should not have known of the 
activity or the tenant or member of household was the victim of the 
criminal activity''.

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 
or drug-related 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 (I) the 
tenant is an elderly person (as such term is defined in section 202(k) 
of the Housing Act of 1959 (12 U.S.C. 1701q)) or a person with 
disabilities (as such term is defined in section 811(k) of the 
Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 8013(k)), 
and (II) the tenant did not know and should not have known of the 
activity or the tenant or member of household was the victim of the 
criminal activity''.

SEC. 4. REPORTING BY PHAS ON ONE-STRIKE EVICTIONS.

    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 One-Strike Evictions.--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.''.
                                 <all>