[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5816 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5816

  To establish an Office of Eviction Prevention in the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development and to authorize funding for the Eviction 
  Protection Grant Program of such Department, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 28, 2023

   Mr. Schiff (for himself, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mr. Mullin, Ms. Chu, Mr. 
Gomez, Ms. Norton, and Ms. Tlaib) introduced the following bill; which 
          was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish an Office of Eviction Prevention in the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development and to authorize funding for the Eviction 
  Protection Grant Program of such Department, 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 ``Eviction Protection Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF EVICTION PREVENTION.

    (a) In General.--Section 4 of the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development Act (42 U.S.C. 3533) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subsection:
    ``(i) Office of Eviction Prevention.--
            ``(1) Establishment.--There is established in the 
        Department, in the Office of the Secretary, the Office of 
        Eviction Prevention.
            ``(2) Director.--There is established the position of 
        Director of the Office of Eviction Prevention. The Director 
        shall be the head of the Office of Eviction Prevention and 
        shall be appointed by, and shall report to, the Secretary. Such 
        position shall be a career-reserved position in the Senior 
        Executive Service.
            ``(3) Mission.--The mission of the Office of Eviction 
        Prevention shall be to prevent evictions from rental housing 
        and to protect tenants of such housing from the harm of 
        evictions and eviction filings.
            ``(4) Functions.--The Director shall have primary 
        responsibility within the Department for all activities and 
        matters relating to eviction prevention, including the 
        following:
                    ``(A) Administering the Eviction Protection Grant 
                Program of the Department, including--
                            ``(i) conducting a robust evaluation of 
                        grantees under the program and the activities 
                        undertaken under the program by grantees, and 
                        assessing whether such activities improved 
                        outcomes for tenants served by a grant, taking 
                        into consideration the differing tenant 
                        protections in States and localities;
                            ``(ii) identifying, and reporting to the 
                        Congress on, best practices and activities for 
                        eviction protection, including identifying 
                        resources and funding needed to continue and 
                        replicate best practices and activities; and
                            ``(iii) providing technical assistance and 
                        support to grantees under the program to 
                        provide them with training, expertise, best 
                        practices, and problem-solving strategies.
                    ``(B) Analyzing and reporting on information 
                gathered through the Eviction Protection Grant Program 
                and other programs administered by the Office.
                    ``(C) Coordinating with the Office of Policy 
                Development and Research of the Department in 
                establishing a database on evictions, which shall be 
                administered by such Office and shall include such 
                measures as may be necessary to protect against the 
                release of personally identifiable information 
                regarding tenants, analyzing information collected by 
                such database, and reporting to the Congress regarding 
                such analyses.
                    ``(D) Coordinating strategies to prevent evictions 
                and early lease terminations in housing programs 
                administered by the Department, including through--
                            ``(i) training offices and personnel of the 
                        Department on eviction prevention policies and 
                        programs and tenants rights; and
                            ``(ii) coordinating with other offices of 
                        the Department, including the Office of Fair 
                        Housing and Equal Opportunity and the Office of 
                        Gender-Based Violence.
                    ``(E) Collaborating with other Federal agencies, 
                including the Office of Access to Justice of the 
                Department of Justice, the Bureau of Consumer Financial 
                Protection, the Department of Agriculture, the 
                Department of the Treasury, the Department of Veterans 
                Affairs, and the Department of Defense, to develop best 
                practices for eviction prevention strategies within 
                Federal programs and the private rental market.
                    ``(F) Identifying strategies to prevent and reduce 
                evictions across the United States, including--
                            ``(i) collaborating with Federal agencies 
                        whose activities impact tenants in federally 
                        subsidized housing and housing in the private 
                        rental market, including the Federal Housing 
                        Finance Agency, the Bureau of Consumer 
                        Financial Protection, the Department of 
                        Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the 
                        Department of Health and Human Services, the 
                        Department of Transportation, the United States 
                        Domestic Policy Council, and the National 
                        Economic Council;
                            ``(ii) establishing a working group on 
                        eviction prevention to study and develop 
                        solutions to the national eviction crisis, 
                        which working group shall include 
                        representatives of agencies referred to in 
                        clause (i), tenant representatives, 
                        representatives of legal services providers, 
                        and grantees under the Eviction Protection 
                        Grant Program;
                            ``(iii) providing technical assistance to 
                        housing providers, State and local governments, 
                        and other agencies on issues related to 
                        evictions and tenant protections; and
                            ``(iv) coordinating with State and local 
                        governments and agencies, including State 
                        housing finance agencies, on such issues.
                    ``(G) Conducting outreach to and engagement with 
                tenants to--
                            ``(i) provide education and information 
                        about tenant protections and available eviction 
                        prevention programs, including by developing 
                        resources and materials for tenants;
                            ``(ii) collect complaints and feedback from 
                        tenants and community members on evictions and 
                        eviction-prevention programs; and
                            ``(iii) refer complaints regarding 
                        evictions to appropriate Federal, State, and 
                        local agencies or organizations, including 
                        legal and other advocacy organizations, 
                        appropriate to address housing-related issues.
            ``(5) Covered evictions.--For purposes of this subsection 
        the term `eviction' includes the variety of processes and means 
        by which landlords remove tenants from rental properties, 
        including--
                    ``(A) court-ordered evictions, including eviction 
                filings, court-ordered eviction rulings, and any 
                eviction actions that take place through the judicial 
                system;
                    ``(B) extra-legal evictions that do not involve the 
                judicial system, commonly known as illegal, unlawful, 
                informal, or self-help evictions, including threatening 
                tenants, changing the locks on rental units, shutting 
                off the utilities to such units, and paying tenants to 
                surrender occupancy of a unit;
                    ``(C) administrative actions by public housing 
                agencies to evict residents of public housing; and
                    ``(D) early lease terminations by housing providers 
                receiving assistance from the Department of Housing and 
                Urban Development.''.
    (b) Transfer.--The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall 
provide for the transfer of the administration of the Eviction 
Protection Grant Program of the Department, which as of the date of the 
enactment of this Act is the responsibility of the Office of Policy 
Development and Research, to the Director of the Office of Eviction 
Prevention established under section 4(i) of the Department of Housing 
and Urban Development Act, as added by the amendment made by subsection 
(a) of this section.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated--
            (1) $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028 
        for grants under the Eviction Protection Grant Program of the 
        Department of Housing and Urban Development; and
            (2) $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028 
        for costs of personnel for and activities of the Office of 
        Eviction Prevention.
                                 <all>