[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2536 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2536

 To require all public housing revitalization projects assisted under 
        the HOPE VI program to meet green communities standards.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 24, 2007

  Mr. Olver (for himself, Ms. Waters, Mr. Frank of Massachusetts, Mr. 
Hobson, Mr. Gilchrest, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. LaTourette, Mr. Perlmutter, 
  Mr. Walsh of New York, and Mr. Watt) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require all public housing revitalization projects assisted under 
        the HOPE VI program to meet green communities standards.

    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 ``HOPE VI Green Building and Technical 
Assistance Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. GREEN COMMUNITIES REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) In General.--Section 24(e) of the United States Housing Act of 
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437v(e)) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new paragraph:
            ``(4) Green communities requirements.--
                    ``(A) Requirements.--The Secretary may not make a 
                grant under this section to an applicant unless the 
                revitalization plan of the applicant to be carried out 
                with such grant amounts complies with the following 
                requirements:
                            ``(i) Affordable housing.--The plan 
                        complies with the green communities criteria 
                        checklist of the national Green Communities 
                        program that provides criteria for the design, 
                        development, and operation of affordable 
                        housing, as such checklist is in effect upon 
                        the date of the enactment of the HOPE VI Green 
                        Building and Technical Assistance Act of 2007, 
                        as follows:
                                    ``(I) The revitalization plan shall 
                                comply with all items of the green 
                                communities criteria checklist that are 
                                identified as mandatory.
                                    ``(II) The revitalization plan 
                                shall comply with such other 
                                nonmandatory items of the green 
                                communities criteria checklist so as to 
                                result in a cumulative number of points 
                                attributable to such nonmandatory items 
                                under such checklist of not less than--
                                            ``(aa) 25 points, in the 
                                        case of any plan (or portion 
                                        thereof) consisting of new 
                                        construction; and
                                            ``(bb) 20 points, in the 
                                        case of any plan (or portion 
                                        thereof) consisting of 
                                        rehabilitation.
                            ``(ii) Nonresidential structures.--The plan 
                        provides that any nonresidential structure 
                        covered by the plan that has 50,000 square feet 
                        of gross floor area or more complies with 
                        version 2.2 of the Leadership in Energy and 
                        Environmental Design green building rating 
                        system for new construction and major 
                        renovations (LEED-NC 2.2) or version 2.0 of 
                        such green building rating system for core and 
                        shell (LEED-CS 2.0) at the certification level.
                    ``(B) Verification.--
                            ``(i) In general.--The Secretary shall 
                        verify, or provide for verification, sufficient 
                        to ensure that each revitalization plan carried 
                        out with amounts from a grant under this 
                        section complies with the requirements under 
                        subparagraph (A) and that the revitalization 
                        program is carried out in accordance with such 
                        requirements and plan.
                            ``(ii) Timing.--In providing for such 
                        verification, the Secretary shall establish 
                        procedures to ensure such compliance with 
                        respect to each grantee, and shall report to 
                        the Congress with respect to the compliance of 
                        each grantee, at each of the following times:
                                    ``(I) Not later than 60 days after 
                                award of a grant under this section for 
                                the grantee.
                                    ``(II) Upon completion of the 
                                revitalization program of the 
                                grantee.''.
    (b) Selection Criteria.--Section 24(e)(2) of the United States 
Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437v(e)(2)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (K), by striking ``and'' at the end;
            (2) by redesignating subparagraph (L) as subparagraph (M); 
        and
            (3) by inserting after subparagraph (K) the following new 
        subparagraph:
                    ``(L) the extent of compliance of the 
                revitalization program proposed under the plan with the 
                nonmandatory items of the national Green Communities 
                criteria checklist identified in paragraph (4)(A); 
                and''.

SEC. 3. PLANNING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS.

    Section 24(m) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 
1437v(m)) is amended by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the 
following new paragraph:
            ``(2) Planning and technical assistance grants.--Subject 
        only to approvable requests for grants under this paragraph, of 
        the amount appropriated pursuant to paragraph (1) for any 
        fiscal year, the Secretary shall use not less than two percent 
        for grants in such fiscal year to potential applicants and 
        applicants for grants under this section to assist such 
        entities in developing and planning revitalization programs 
        under this section or to recipients of grants under this 
        section to assist such recipients in obtaining technical 
        assistance in carrying out revitalization programs.''.
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