1.This Act may be cited as
the Healthy Housing Council Act of
2011
.
2.Congress finds the following:
(1)In the United
States—
(A)5,757,000
households live in homes with moderate or severe physical hazards;
(B)23,000,000 homes
have significant lead-based paint hazards;
(C)6,000,000 homes
have had signs of mice in the last 3 months; and
(D)1 in 15 homes
have dangerous levels of radon.
(2)Residents of
housing that is poorly designed, constructed, or maintained are at risk for
cancer, carbon monoxide poisoning, burns, falls, rodent bites, childhood lead
poisoning, asthma, and other illnesses and injuries. Vulnerable subpopulations,
such as children and the elderly, are at elevated risk for housing-related
illnesses and injuries.
(3)Because
substandard housing typically poses the greatest risks, the disparities in the
distribution of housing-related health hazards are striking. One million two
hundred thousand housing units with significant lead-based paint hazards house
low-income families with children under 6 years of age.
(4)Housing-related
illnesses, including asthma and lead poisoning, disproportionately affect
children from lower-income families and from specific racial and ethnic groups.
The prevalence of being diagnosed with asthma in a lifetime is 24 percent among
Puerto Rican children, 10.1 percent for Mexican-American children, 12.4 percent
for non-Hispanic White children, and 21.8 percent for non-Hispanic Black
children. Black children are twice as likely to die from residential injuries
as White children, and 3 percent of Black children and 2 percent of
Mexican-American children have elevated blood lead levels, as compared to only
1.3 percent of White children.
(5)The annual costs
for environmentally attributable childhood diseases in the United States,
including lead poisoning, asthma, and cancer, total $76,000,000,000 in 2008
dollars. This amount is approximately 3.5 percent of total health care
costs.
(6)Appropriate
housing design, construction, and maintenance, timely correction of
deficiencies, planning efforts, and low-cost preventive measures can reduce the
incidence of serious injury or death, improve the ability of residents to
survive in the event of a major catastrophe, and contribute to overall
well-being and mental health. Lead hazard control in homes with lead-based
paint hazards can reduce children's blood lead levels by as much as 34 percent.
Properly installed and maintained smoke alarms reduce the risk of fire deaths
by 50 percent.
(7)Providing healthy
housing to families and individuals in the United States will help prevent an
estimated 250,000 children from having elevated blood lead levels, 18,000
injury deaths, 12,000,000 nonfatal injuries, 3,000 deaths in house fires, 9,600
emergency department visits for carbon monoxide exposure, and 21,000
radon-associated lung cancer deaths that occur in United States housing each
year, as well as 12,300,000 asthma attacks, and 14,000,000 missed school
days.
(8)While there are
many programs in place to address housing-related health hazards, these
programs are fragmented and spread across many agencies, making it difficult
for at-risk families and individuals to access assistance or to receive
comprehensive information.
(9)Better
coordination among Federal agencies is needed, as is better coordination at
State and local levels, to ensure that families and individuals can access
government programs and services in an effective and efficient manner.
3.In this Act, the following definitions shall
apply:
(1)The
term Council means the Interagency Council on Healthy Housing
established under section 4.
(2)The term healthy housing means housing that
is designed, constructed, rehabilitated, and maintained in a manner that
supports the health of the occupants of such housing.
(3)The
term housing means any form of residence, including rental
housing, homeownership, group home, or supportive housing arrangement.
(4)Housing-related
health hazardThe term housing-related health hazard
means any biological, physical, or chemical source of exposure or condition
either in, or immediately adjacent to, housing, that can adversely affect human
health.
(5)Low-income
families and individualsThe term low-income families and
individuals means any household or individual with an income at or below
200 percent of the Federal poverty line.
(6)The term poverty line means the official
poverty line defined by the Office of Management and Budget based on the most
recent data available from the Bureau of the Census.
(7)The
term program includes any Federal, State, or local program
providing housing or financial assistance, health care, mortgages, bond and tax
financing, homebuyer support courses, financial education, mortgage insurance
or loan guarantees, housing counseling, supportive services, energy assistance,
or other assistance related to healthy housing.
(8)The
term service includes public and environmental health services,
housing services, energy efficiency services, human services, and any other
services needed to ensure that families and individuals in the United States
have access to healthy housing.
4.Interagency
council on healthy housing
(a)There
is established in the executive branch an independent council to be known as
the Interagency Council on Healthy Housing.
(b)The
objectives of the Council are as follows:
(1)To promote the
supply of and demand for healthy housing in the United States through capacity
building, technical assistance, education, and public policy.
(2)To promote
coordination and collaboration among the Federal departments and agencies
involved with housing, public health, energy efficiency, emergency preparedness
and response, and the environment to improve services for families and
individuals residing in inadequate or unsafe housing and to make
recommendations about needed changes in programs and services with an emphasis
on—
(A)maximizing the
impact of existing programs and services by transitioning the focus of such
programs and services from categorical approaches to comprehensive approaches
that consider and address multiple housing-related health hazards;
(B)reducing or
eliminating areas of overlap and duplication in the provision and accessibility
of such programs and services;
(C)ensuring that
resources, including assistance with capacity building, are targeted to and
sufficient to meet the needs of high-risk communities, families, and
individuals; and
(D)facilitating
access by families and individuals to programs and services that help reduce
health hazards in housing.
(3)To identify
knowledge gaps, research needs, and policy and program deficiencies associated
with inadequate housing conditions and housing-related illnesses and
injuries.
(4)To help identify
best practices for achieving and sustaining healthy housing.
(5)To help improve
the quality of existing and newly constructed housing and related programs and
services, including those programs and services which serve low-income families
and individuals.
(6)To establish an
ongoing system of coordination among and within such agencies or organizations
so that the healthy housing needs of families and individuals are met in a more
effective and efficient manner.
(c)The
Council shall be composed of the following members:
(1)The Secretary of
Health and Human Services.
(2)The Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development.
(3)The Administrator
of the Environmental Protection Agency.
(4)The Secretary of
Energy.
(5)The Secretary of
Labor.
(6)The Secretary of
Veterans Affairs.
(7)The Secretary of
the Treasury.
(8)The Secretary of
Agriculture.
(9)The Secretary of
Education.
(10)The head of any
other Federal agency as the Council considers appropriate.
(11)Six additional
non-Federal employee members, as appointed by the President to serve terms not
to exceed 2 years, of whom—
(A)1 shall be a
State or local Government Director of Health or the Environment;
(B)1 shall be a
State or local Government Director of Housing or Community Development;
(C)2 shall represent
nonprofit organizations involved in housing or health issues; and
(D)2 shall represent
for-profit entities involved in the housing, banking, or health insurance
industries.
(d)The
co-Chairpersons of the Council shall be the Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(e)Every 2 years, the Council shall elect a Vice Chair from
among its members.
(f)The
Council shall meet at the call of either co-Chairperson or a majority of its
members at any time, and no less often than annually.
5.
(a)In carrying out the objectives described in section
4(b), the Council shall—
(1)review Federal
programs and services that provide housing, health, energy, or environmental
services to families and individuals;
(2)monitor,
evaluate, and recommend improvements in programs and services administered,
funded, or financed by Federal, State, and local agencies to assist families
and individuals in accessing healthy housing and make recommendations about how
such agencies can better work to meet the healthy housing and related needs of
low-income families and individuals; and
(3)recommend ways
to—
(A)reduce
duplication among programs and services by Federal agencies that assist
families and individuals in meeting their healthy housing and related service
needs;
(B)ensure
collaboration among and within agencies in the provision and availability of
programs and services so that families and individuals are able to easily
access needed programs and services;
(C)work with States
and local governments to better meet the needs of families and individuals for
healthy housing by—
(i)holding meetings
with State and local representatives; and
(ii)providing
ongoing technical assistance and training to States and localities in better
meeting the housing-related needs of such families and individuals;
(D)identify best
practices for programs and services that assist families and individuals in
accessing healthy housing, including model—
(i)programs linking
housing, health, environmental, human, and energy services;
(ii)housing and
remodeling financing products offered by government, quasi-government, and
private sector entities;
(iii)housing and
building codes and regulatory practices;
(iv)existing and new
consensus specifications and work practices documents;
(v)capacity building
and training programs that help increase and diversify the supply of
practitioners who perform assessments of housing-related health hazards and
interventions to address housing-related health hazards; and
(vi)programs that
increase community awareness of, and education on, housing-related health
hazards and available assessments and interventions;
(E)develop a
comprehensive healthy housing research agenda that considers health, safety,
environmental, and energy factors, to—
(i)identify
cost-effective assessments and treatment protocols for housing-related health
hazards in existing housing;
(ii)establish links
between housing hazards and health outcomes;
(iii)track
housing-related health problems including injuries, illnesses, and
death;
(iv)track housing
conditions that may be associated with health problems;
(v)identify
cost-effective protocols for construction of new healthy housing; and
(vi)identify
replicable and effective programs or strategies for addressing housing-related
health hazards;
(4)hold biannual
meetings with stakeholders and other interested parties in a location
convenient for such stakeholders, or hold open Council meetings, to receive
input and ideas about how to best meet the healthy housing needs of families
and individuals;
(5)maintain an
updated website of policies, meetings, best practices, programs and services,
making use of existing websites as appropriate, to keep people informed of the
activities of the Council; and
(6)work with member
agencies to collect and maintain data on housing-related health hazards,
illnesses, and injuries so that all data can be accessed in 1 place and to
identify and address unmet data needs.
(b)
(1)Each year the head of each agency who is a member of the
Council shall prepare and transmit to the Council a report that briefly
summarizes—
(A)each healthy
housing-related program and service administered by the agency and the number
of families and individuals served by each program or service, the resources
available in each program or service, and a breakdown of where each program and
service can be accessed;
(B)the barriers and
impediments, including statutory or regulatory, to the access and use of such
programs and services by families and individuals, with particular attention to
the barriers and impediments experienced by low-income families and
individuals;
(C)the efforts made
by the agency to increase opportunities for families and individuals, including
low-income families and individuals, to reside in healthy housing, including
how the agency is working with other agencies to better coordinate programs and
services; and
(D)any new data
collected by the agency relating to the healthy housing needs of families and
individuals.
(2)Each year, the Council shall prepare and transmit to the
President and the Congress, a report that—
(A)summarizes the
reports required in paragraph (1);
(B)utilizes recent
data to assess the nature of housing-related health hazards, and associated
illnesses and injuries, in the United States;
(C)provides a
comprehensive and detailed description of the programs and services of the
Federal Government in meeting the needs and problems described in subparagraph
(B);
(D)describes the
activities and accomplishments of the Council in working with Federal, State,
and local governments, nonprofit organizations and for-profit entities in
coordinating programs and services to meet the needs described in subparagraph
(B) and the resources available to meet those needs;
(E)assesses the
level of Federal assistance required to meet the needs described in
subparagraph (B); and
(F)makes
recommendations for appropriate legislative and administrative actions to meet
the needs described in subparagraph (B) and for coordinating programs and
services designed to meet those needs.
6.
(a)The
Council may hold such hearings, sit and act at such times and places, take such
testimony, and receive such evidence as the Council considers advisable to
carry out the purposes of this Act.
(b)Information
from agenciesAgencies which are represented on the Council shall
provide all requested information and data to the Council as requested.
(c)The Council may use the United States mails in the same
manner and under the same conditions as other departments and agencies of the
Federal Government.
(d)Contracts and
interagency agreementsThe Council may enter into contracts with
State, Tribal, and local governments, public agencies and private-sector
entities, and into interagency agreements with Federal agencies. Such contracts
and interagency agreements may be single-year or multi-year in duration.
7.Council
personnel matters
(a)
(1)The Council shall appoint an Executive Director at its
initial meeting. The Executive Director shall be compensated at a rate not to
exceed the rate of basic pay payable for level V of the Executive Schedule
under section 5316 of title 5, United States Code.
(2)With
the approval of the Council, the Executive Director may appoint and fix the
compensation of such additional personnel as the Executive Director considers
necessary to carry out the duties of the Council, except that the rate of pay
for any such additional personnel may not exceed the rate of basic pay payable
for level V of the Executive Schedule under section 5316 of such title.
(b)Temporary and
intermittent servicesIn carrying out its objectives, the
Executive Director with the approval of the Council, may procure temporary and
intermittent services of consultants and experts under section 3109(b) of title
5, United States Code, at rates for individuals which do not exceed the daily
equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay payable for level V of the Executive
Schedule under section 5316 of such title.
(c)Detail of
Government employeesUpon request of the Council, any Federal
Government employee may be detailed to the Council with reimbursement, and such
detail shall be without interruption or loss of civil service status or
privilege.
(d)The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall
provide the Council with such administrative (including office space) and
support services as are necessary to ensure that the Council can carry out its
functions in an efficient and expeditious manner.
8.Authorization of
appropriations
(a)There are authorized
to be appropriated to carry out this Act, $750,000 for each of fiscal years
2012 through 2016.
(b)Amounts
authorized to be appropriated by subsection (a) shall remain available for the
2 fiscal years following such appropriation.