[The Housing and Homelessness Plan]
Be it enacted by the House of Representatives and Senate of the United States of America in Congress Assembled
SUMMARY
This plan will tackle the homelessness rate and creates secure and adequate housing for all.
Section 1. (Short-title of bill)
This bill shall be referred to as the Housing and Homelessness Plan
The Housing and Homelessness Plan shall be short-titled the Joe Byron act 1 (JBA1)
Section 2. Definitions
In this act:
Homelessness: Homelessness is defined as living in housing that is below the minimum standard or lacks secure tenure. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: living on the streets (primary homelessness); moving between temporary shelters, including houses of friends, family and emergency accommodation (secondary homelessness); living in private boarding houses without a private bathroom or security of tenure (tertiary homelessness).
Section 3. Purpose (and/or) Findings
There are over a half million people experiencing homelessness nationwide. Nearly 160,000 of them are children and nearly 38,000 are veterans. People who are homeless are unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure and adequate housing.
Section 4. Establishment
This will ensure that every person experiencing homelessness in America has a place to call home. The bill would appropriate $13.3 billion in mandatory emergency relief funding over 5 years to several critical federal housing programs and initiatives, providing the resources that these programs need to effectively address the homelessness crisis in America. If enacted, this bill is estimated to fund the creation of 410,000 new units of housing for people experiencing homelessness.
The actual annual costs of the bill would be:
$1 billion for new homeless assistance projects, with 75 percent to be spent on permanent supportive housing, distributed to communities by formula, and renewed out of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) regular Continuum of Care (CoC) homeless assistance program competition (which would require additional appropriations each year).
• $500 million for new incremental Housing Choice Vouchers (also known as Section
for people who are homeless, distributed to communities according to need and renewed out of regular Housing Choice Voucher appropriations.
• $100 million for new outreach and service coordination grants, awarded competitively. Since these activities are eligible for HUD CoC funding, renewals could be done through the regular CoC competition, subject to additional appropriations.
• $1 billion in incremental funding for the National Housing Trust Fund to develop housing, with homeless people prioritized for the first five years.
• $50 million in incremental rental assistance funding to support National Housing Trust developments.
The bill would also permanently authorize HUD’s Homeless Assistance Grants account, and permanently eliminate the sunset clause for the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Total annual costs for the program is $2.650 billion.
Section 5. Enactment
This bill shall come into affect when signed by the president
