[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1702 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1702

 To authorize assistance for affordable housing and sustainable urban 
      development in developing countries, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 25, 2009

Mr. Miller of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. Price of North Carolina, 
 Mr. Castle, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Ellison, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, and Mr. 
Jackson of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                  to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize assistance for affordable housing and sustainable urban 
      development in developing countries, 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 ``Shelter, Land, and Urban Management 
(SLUM) Assistance Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Approximately 51 percent of the world's population 
        currently lives in cities of all sizes and produces the 
        majority of the world's economic output.
            (2) Approximately one billion people currently live in 
        slums, and more than half of this population is under the age 
        of 25.
            (3) It is estimated that by 2030 the number of people 
        living in slums will double.
            (4) Slums are characterized by inadequate access to safe 
        water, sanitation, and other essential infrastructure, 
        overcrowding, poorly structured housing, and insecure 
        residential and property ownership status.
            (5) Eighty-eight percent of all disease is caused by unsafe 
        drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene and 
        almost 50 percent of all people in developing countries suffer 
        health problems caused by water and sanitation deficits.
            (6) Over 1.1 billion people lack adequate access to safe 
        water and nearly 2.5 billion lack access to sanitation 
        services.
            (7) The costs of diseases and productivity losses linked to 
        water and sanitation in less developed countries amount to two 
        percent of gross domestic product and up to five percent in 
        sub-Saharan Africa.
            (8) Insecure lease and real property ownership tenure often 
        subject slum dwellers to arbitrary, often supra-market rents, 
        forced evictions, threats, and harassment.
            (9) In 2007, approximately five million people were subject 
        to forced evictions, and projections show that the number of 
        forced evictions are likely to increase to between 40 million 
        and 70 million in the next 20 years.
            (10) Insecurity of tenure severely inhibits economic 
        development by undermining investment incentives and 
        constraining the growth of credit markets, imperils the ability 
        of families to achieve sustainable livelihoods and assured 
        access to shelter, and often contributes to conflict over 
        property rights.
            (11) Women make up 66 percent of the world's work force, 
        but own less than 15 percent of the property globally.
            (12) Women are affected disproportionally by forced 
        evictions and insecure tenure as a result of gender 
        discrimination, often including gender-biased laws that define 
        women as legal minors or otherwise prevent them from acquiring 
        and securing land, property, and housing lease or ownership 
        rights, making them more vulnerable to poverty, violence, and 
        sexual abuse.
            (13) Adequate housing and universal access to basic shelter 
        serve as catalysts for social and democratic development.
            (14) The 2006 National Security Strategy states, 
        ``America's national interests and moral values drive us in the 
        same direction: to assist the world's poor citizens and least 
        developed nations and help integrate them into the global 
        economy.''.
            (15) Goal 7 Target 11 of the Millennium Development Goals 
        sets the target that ``By 2020, to have achieved a significant 
        improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-
        dwellers.''.
            (16) The United States formerly provided significant levels 
        of overseas development assistance for shelter and affordable 
        housing, but in recent years this amount has declined.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It should be the policy of the United States--
            (1) to establish and implement, as a major objective of 
        United States overseas development assistance strategy, 
        particularly in developing countries, programs that foster 
        improved urban management, that foster sustainable urban 
        development, that increase the security of real property 
        tenure, and that expand access to basic shelter, affordable 
        urban housing, and essential urban services and infrastructure, 
        particularly by the poor and others who lack such access in 
        whole or in part;
            (2) to allocate increased levels of United States bilateral 
        assistance for programs described in paragraph (1); and
            (3) in order to prevent waste and duplication in the use of 
        United States overseas development assistance with respect to 
        the programs described in paragraph (1) and in order to foster 
        cooperative relations with foreign governments, 
        intergovernmental organizations, and private business and 
        nonprofit entities that singly or jointly support or implement 
        programs similar to those described in paragraph (1), to seek 
        and actively support innovative international mechanisms 
        designed to increase coordination and mutual complementarity in 
        the planning, financing, and implementation of sustainable 
        urban development policies and programs implemented by the 
        United States and other donors described in this paragraph.

SEC. 4. ASSISTANCE TO PROVIDE AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN 
              DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.

    (a) Purposes of Assistance.--The purposes of assistance under this 
section are to--
            (1) support economically and environmentally sustainable 
        and administratively feasible urban socioeconomic growth, 
        development, and poverty reduction efforts and to produce 
        improved health and other basic quality of life indicators for 
        residents of slums, other densely populated, impoverished urban 
        areas, and urban areas experiencing rapid population growth in 
        developing countries, including by increasing--
                    (A) access to basic shelter and affordable housing, 
                particularly by residents of slums and similar densely 
                populated, impoverished urban areas;
                    (B) affordable and equitable access to safe water, 
                sanitation, and solid waste removal services, and 
                shared communal infrastructure, such as sidewalks, 
                roads, public lighting;
                    (C) access to and security of land and other real 
                property use, lease, and ownership rights and legal 
                recognition and protections thereof by all income 
                groups, including by supporting efforts to enhance the 
                effectiveness of transaction and dispute resolution 
                systems, equitable and sustainable national land 
                policies, and enhanced land administration services; 
                and
                    (D) support for efforts to enhance the capacity of 
                developing country governments, including regional and 
                municipal governments, to plan and manage urban growth 
                in an operationally and financially effective and 
                transparent, participatory, and accountable manner, to 
                pursue policy reforms that foster such objectives, and 
                to provide urban services and infrastructure, such as 
                basic water and sanitation, transport, solid waste 
                removal, and electrical power service delivery, 
                including in impoverished urban zones; and
            (2) achieve the objectives described in paragraph (1) by--
                    (A) promoting the growth of functional, 
                commercially oriented housing markets in target 
                countries and expanding access to individual and 
                institutional investment capital and financing for 
                housing and municipal infrastructure, including by 
                public-private partnerships, municipal bonds, micro-
                credit financing, and strengthening national and 
                regional public or private institutions involved in the 
                regulation or provision of finance of such purposes;
                    (B) supporting institutional, procedural, and legal 
                reforms that seek to enhance the rights and access to 
                shelter, urban infrastructure and services, and 
                property ownership and lease rights of groups that are 
                socioeconomically vulnerable or marginalized, or 
                subject to discrimination, including women, children, 
                the poor, and people living in urban slums and informal 
                settlements;
                    (C) prioritizing support for cross-sectoral, multi-
                purpose projects that simultaneously advance one or 
                more of the objectives described in subparagraphs (A) 
                and (B); and
                    (D) promoting partnerships between the public and 
                private sectors and community-based organizations to 
                plan and implement projects described in subparagraph 
                (C).
    (b) Authorization of Assistance.--To carry out the purposes of 
subsection (a), the President is authorized--
            (1) to furnish technical assistance and financial support 
        to developing countries, to include, as appropriate, diverse 
        means of support, including technical or financial assistance 
        to public-private partnerships, grants, direct loans, seed 
        credit, contracted technical services, investment insurance, 
        loan guarantees, and other forms of assistance;
            (2) to carry out paragraph (1) during fiscal year 2009 
        through the use of existing United States Government programs, 
        implementing authorities, and organizations, including--
                    (A) specialized organizational units of the United 
                States Agency for International Development, including 
                the Urban Programs Team (EGAT/PR/UP), the Development 
                Credit Authority (EGAT/DC/DCA), the Land Resources 
                Management Team (EGAT/NRM/LRM), the Water Team (EGAT/
                NRM/W), the Office of Infrastructure and Engineering 
                (EGAT/IE), and the Engineering Services Team (EGAT/I&E/
                ES);
                    (B) the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC); and
                    (C) other United States Government agencies with 
                relevant technical expertise or policy mandates 
                pertaining to urban development and housing in foreign 
                countries; and
            (3) to strengthen and enhance the operational capabilities 
        and capacities of United States Government programs, 
        implementing authorities, and organizations described in 
        subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (2) in furtherance 
        of the purposes and objectives described in subsection (a)(1), 
        including efforts to increase their manpower, diversity of 
        expertise, and levels of funding, and to enhance their ability 
        to jointly coordinate and collaborate in carrying out such 
        purposes and objectives.

SEC. 5. AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY.

    (a) Strategy.--The President, acting through the Secretary of State 
and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International 
Development, shall develop a strategy to provide affordable housing and 
sustainable urban development in developing countries.
    (b) Consultation.--The strategy required by subsection (a) shall be 
developed in part through a process of consultation between the 
Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development 
and the heads of units of such Agency and other United States 
Government agencies with relevant technical expertise or policy 
mandates pertaining to urban development and housing in foreign 
countries, and shall draw upon best practices and successful models of 
urban development undertaken or developed by international 
intergovernmental organizations, international finance institutions, 
recipient countries, United States and international nongovernmental 
organizations, and other appropriate entities.
    (c) Content.--The strategy required by the subsection (a) shall 
include or address--
            (1) a review and assessment of existing or past United 
        States programs and foreign assistance strategies designed to 
        increase access to basic shelter and affordable housing in 
        developing countries, extending affordable and equitable access 
        to safe water, sanitation, and solid waste removal services, 
        and shared communal infrastructure, such as sidewalks, roads, 
        public lighting, enhancing security of real property use, 
        lease, and ownership rights;
            (2) a review and assessment of small scale, grassroots, and 
        community-based efforts that have successfully improved access 
        to basic shelter and urban services;
            (3) a process to define short- and long-term objectives and 
        performance measures by which progress should be measured;
            (4) measures necessary to improve and expand United States 
        programs and foreign assistance strategies in existence on the 
        date of enactment of this Act that address urban development 
        issues in foreign countries;
            (5) operational plans to improve the ability of United 
        States foreign assistance agencies to develop and implement 
        programs described in section 4 of this Act, including through 
        support for innovative international mechanisms;
            (6) a plan for integrating into the broader strategic 
        foreign assistance plans of the Department of State and United 
        Stated Agency for International Development the programs and 
        objectives described in section 4 of this Act; and
            (7) a plan for providing long-term United States support 
        for sustainable urban growth and development initiatives in 
        developing countries involving a process of regular 
        coordination between United States Government agencies with 
        relevant technical expertise or policy mandates, where 
        appropriate, including the United States Agency for 
        International Development, the Department of Housing and Urban 
        Development, the Department of the Treasury, and the Overseas 
        Private Investment Corporation, and drawing upon the expertise, 
        whenever possible, of United States-based mayors and 
        professionals in community, public and banking sectors, major 
        United States private foundations, and United Nations 
        organizations and multilateral development banks, among others.
    (d) Report.--Not later than 12 months after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to Congress 
a report that describes the strategy required by subsection (a).

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2009 and 
each subsequent fiscal year such sums as may be necessary to carry out 
this Act.
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