HR4457-119

What This Bill Does

The Housing Is a Human Right Act is a broad homelessness, housing, voting access, interagency, and tax package. It defines at-risk homelessness and cost burden using detailed income, eviction, overcrowding, institutional-exit, doubled-up, hotel, and housing-cost tests. Title I authorizes the Attorney General to grant funds to states, local governments, public and community defenders, and nonprofits for alternatives to penalizing homelessness, including pre-arrest diversion, harm-reduction programs, mobile crisis teams, personal-property safeguards, Housing First alternatives, and technical assistance; it authorizes $100 million for the first fiscal year after enactment and each of the next nine years. Title II creates HUD's CDBG Plus program for homeless, housing-unstable, or cost-burdened households, IMLS library pilot grants for homeless and housing-unstable patrons, and easier transfers of underutilized public buildings to eligible representatives of the homeless. Title III directs Treasury to credit revenues from new title VI real-estate taxes 40 percent to Emergency Solutions Grants, 40 percent to Continuum of Care, and 20 percent to CDBG Plus, while authorizing up to $10 billion per year for each of ESG and CoC after credited revenues and $1 billion per year for FEMA emergency food and shelter grants over the same 10-year window. Title IV requires an Election Assistance Commission study and grants to help homeless and housing-unstable people vote. Title V permanently authorizes $10 million per year for the Interagency Council on Homelessness, adds Housing First and permanent supportive housing functions, creates a 20-member advisory board with at least 10 people with recent homelessness or housing instability experience and at least 8 high-risk-population members, and changes executive director appointment rules. Title VI imposes a 5 percent luxury real-property transfer tax on transactions of at least $10 million, a 10 percent anonymous-entity real-property transfer tax, and a 1 percent rental tax on covered mass landlords above portfolio thresholds, with exceptions for units covered by rent control, just cause, or source-of-income discrimination laws.

Who Benefits and How

CDBG Plus grantees benefit from HUD assistance dedicated to homeless, housing-unstable, and cost-burdened households. Emergency Solutions Grant recipients benefit from a 40 percent revenue credit and up to $10 billion annual authorization after credited revenues. Continuum of Care recipients benefit from a parallel 40 percent revenue credit and up to $10 billion annual authorization after credited revenues. IMLS library pilot grantees benefit from competitive grants for library services addressing homeless and housing-unstable patrons. USICH advisory board members with recent homelessness experience benefit from reserved seats and formal recommendation rights.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development must administer CDBG Plus, ESG funding, CoC funding, public-property transfer changes, and related homelessness program rules. The Attorney General must administer alternatives-to-penalizing-homelessness grants and enforce application assurances. The Secretary of the Treasury and IRS real-estate tax administrators must administer the luxury transfer tax, anonymous-entity transfer tax, mass-landlord rental tax, and revenue-crediting rules. Large real-estate sellers and buyers in transactions of at least $10 million must pay the 5 percent transfer tax unless exempt. Anonymous real-estate entities must pay a 10 percent transfer tax unless they participate in a legal entity identifier program. Covered mass landlords must pay a 1 percent rental tax unless units are protected by qualifying rent-control, just-cause, or source-of-income laws.

Key Provisions

• Authorizes $100 million annually for 10 years for DOJ grants creating alternatives to penalizing homelessness.
• Creates HUD's CDBG Plus program for homeless, housing-unstable, and cost-burdened households.
• Provides IMLS library pilot grants and improves access to underutilized public buildings for homeless-service grantees.
• Requires Treasury to credit title VI tax revenues 40 percent to ESG, 40 percent to Continuum of Care, and 20 percent to CDBG Plus.
• Authorizes up to $10 billion annually for ESG, up to $10 billion annually for Continuum of Care, and $1 billion annually for FEMA emergency food and shelter grants over the first 10 fiscal years.
• Creates EAC studies and grants to facilitate voting by homeless and housing-unstable people.
• Establishes permanent $10 million annual USICH authorization, Housing First functions, and a 20-member advisory board with lived-experience requirements.
• Imposes a 5 percent luxury transfer tax, a 10 percent anonymous-entity transfer tax, and a 1 percent mass-landlord rental tax.