[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3952 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3952
To authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development to
transform neighborhoods of extreme poverty into sustainable, mixed-
income neighborhoods with access to economic opportunities, by
revitalizing severely distressed housing, and investing and leveraging
investments in well-functioning services, educational opportunities,
public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 12, 2025
Mr. Cleaver (for himself, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Meeks, and Mr. Torres of New
York) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development to
transform neighborhoods of extreme poverty into sustainable, mixed-
income neighborhoods with access to economic opportunities, by
revitalizing severely distressed housing, and investing and leveraging
investments in well-functioning services, educational opportunities,
public assets, public transportation, and improved access to jobs, 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 ``Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Act
of 2025''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Affordable housing.--The term ``affordable housing''
includes--
(A) public housing assisted under section 9 of the
United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437g);
(B) assisted housing;
(C) housing assisted under an affordable housing
program administered by the Secretary of Agriculture
through Rural Housing Service;
(D) rental housing that utilizes tax credits under
section 42 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986;
(E) affordable rental housing owned, developed, or
assisted through a State or local government or State
housing finance agency, including State-assisted public
housing, which is subject to a long-term affordability
restriction requiring occupancy by low-income
households; and
(F) private housing for low- and moderate-income
households and for which the Secretary requires the
owner or purchaser of the project to maintain
affordability for not less than 30 years in accordance
with use restrictions under regulations issued by the
Secretary, which restrictions shall be--
(i) contained in a legally enforceable
document recorded in the appropriate records;
and
(ii) consistent with the long-term
viability of the project as rental or
homeownership housing.
(2) Applicant.--The term ``applicant'' means an eligible
entity under section 4(a) that submits an application for a
grant under this Act pursuant to section 7.
(3) Assisted housing.--The term ``assisted housing'' means
rental housing assisted under--
(A) section 8 of the United States Housing Act of
1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f);
(B) section 221(d)(3) or 236 of the National
Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 1715l, 1715z-1);
(C) section 202 of the Housing Act of 1959 (12
U.S.C. 1701q); or
(D) section 811 of Cranston-Gonzalez National
Affordable Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 8013).
(4) Community development corporation.--The term
``community development corporation'' has the meaning given the
term in section 204(b) of the Departments of Veterans Affairs
and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies
Appropriations Act, 1997 (12 U.S.C. 1715z-11a(b)).
(5) Critical community improvements.--The term ``critical
community improvements'' means--
(A) development or improvement of community
facilities to promote upward mobility, self-
sufficiency, or improved quality of life for residents
of the neighborhood, such as construction or
rehabilitation of parks and community gardens,
environmental improvements, or site remediation at
affected sites; or
(B) activities to promote economic development,
such as development or improvement of transit, retail,
community financial institutions, public services,
facilities, assets, or other community resources.
(6) Elementary school; secondary school.--The terms
``elementary school'' and ``secondary school'' have the
meanings given those terms in section 9101 of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
(7) Extreme poverty.--The term ``extreme poverty'' means,
with respect to a neighborhood, that the neighborhood--
(A) has a high percentage of residents who are--
(i) estimated to be in poverty; or
(ii) have extremely low incomes based on
the most recent data collected by the Bureau of
the Census; and
(B) is experiencing distress related to--
(i) per capita crime rates over 3 or more
years that are significantly higher than the
per capita crime rates of the city or county in
which the neighborhood is located;
(ii) high rates of vacant, abandoned, or
substandard homes relative to the city or
county as a whole;
(iii) a low-performing public school; or
(iv) other such factors as determined by
the Secretary that further the purposes of this
Act.
(8) Families; public housing; public housing agency.--The
terms ``families'', ``public housing'', and ``public housing
agency'' have the meanings given those terms in section 3(b) of
the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437a(b)).
(9) Grantee.--The term ``grantee'' means an eligible entity
under section 4 that is awarded a grant under this Act,
pursuant to selection under section 7.
(10) Institution of higher education.--The term
``institution of higher education'' has the meaning given the
term in section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 1002).
(11) Local government.--The term ``local government'' has
the meaning given the term ``unit of general local government''
in section 102(a)(1) of the Housing and Community Development
Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5302(a)(1)).
(12) Long-term viability.--The term ``long-term viability''
means, with respect to a neighborhood, that the neighborhood is
sustainable on an economic, education, and environmental basis.
(13) Neighborhood.--The term ``neighborhood'' means an area
that--
(A) has distinguishing characteristics;
(B) represents the geographical distribution of
targeted populations; and
(C) is not exclusive of areas that are integrally
related to the composition of the community.
(14) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Housing and Urban Development.
(15) Severely distressed housing.--The term ``severely
distressed housing'' means a public or assisted housing project
(or building in a project) that--
(A)(i) has been certified, by an engineer or
architect licensed by a State licensing board, as
meeting criteria for physical distress that indicate
that the project requires major redesign,
reconstruction, or redevelopment, or partial or total
demolition, to correct serious deficiencies in the
original design (including inappropriately high-
population density), deferred maintenance, physical
deterioration or obsolescence of major systems, and
other deficiencies in the physical plant of the
project; and
(ii) is a significant contributing factor to the
physical decline of and disinvestment by public and
private entities in the surrounding neighborhood, as
documented by evidence of non-physical distress, such
as extreme poverty, including census data and past
surveys of neighborhood stability conducted by an
applicant or co-applicant or their qualified designee;
or
(B) was a project described in subparagraph (A)
that has been legally vacated or demolished, but for
which the Secretary has not yet provided replacement
housing assistance other than tenant-based assistance.
(16) Significant.--The term ``significant'' means, with
respect to an amendment or change to a transformation plan,
that the amendment or change--
(A) changes the use of 20 percent or more of the
total amount of the grant provided under this Act from
use for 1 activity to use for another;
(B) eliminates an activity that is a required
activity that, notwithstanding the change, would
otherwise be carried out under the plan; or
(C) significantly changes the scope, location, or
beneficiaries of the project carried out under the
plan.
(17) Supportive services.--The term ``supportive services''
includes all activities that will promote upward mobility,
self-sufficiency, or improved quality of life, including--
(A) such activities as literacy training, remedial
and continuing education, job training, financial
literacy instruction, daycare, youth services, aging-
in-place, physical and mental health services, and
other programs for which such residents demonstrate
need;
(B) case management and service coordination
services, including providing coordinators for the
Family Self-Sufficiency program under section 23 of the
United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437u) and
the Resident Opportunity and Supportive Services
program under section 34 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1437z-
6); and
(C) technical assistance to enable residents to
access programs from other key agencies and local
service providers in order to help residents be stably
housed, improve outcomes for children, and enhance
adults' capacity for self-sufficiency and economic
security, and services for the elderly and persons with
disabilities to maintain independence.
SEC. 3. GRANT AUTHORITY.
The Secretary may make competitive grants to eligible entities that
submit transformation plans for eligible neighborhoods that will
further the purposes of this Act in eligible neighborhoods.
SEC. 4. ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.
(a) Primary Applicants.--
(1) In general.--A grant under this Act may be made only to
a local government, a public housing agency, or a nonprofit
entity that owns a major housing project that is proposed to be
assisted under a grant under this Act, either as a sole
applicant or as a co-applicant with another local government or
public housing agency or with an entity specified in subsection
(b).
(2) Nonprofit entities.--A nonprofit entity may be a sole
applicant under paragraph (1) only if the application has the
support of a local government.
(b) Co-Applicants.--
(1) Community development corporations.--A community
development corporation may, at the request of an entity
specified in subsection (a), be a co-applicant for a grant
under this Act.
(2) For-profit entities.--A for-profit entity that owns a
major housing project that is proposed to be assisted under a
grant under this Act made in fiscal year 2022 or thereafter and
that has an established presence in the community may be a co-
applicant for a grant under this Act.
(3) Required co-applicants.--A grant under this Act may not
be made for an application that will involve transformation of
a major public housing project unless the public housing agency
having jurisdiction with respect to the project is the sole
applicant or a co-applicant for the application.
(c) Partners.--Nothing in this section may be construed to limit
the ability of an applicant to partner with any entity in carrying out
activities with a grant under this Act.
SEC. 5. ELIGIBLE NEIGHBORHOODS.
A grant under this Act may be made only for activities to be
conducted in neighborhoods that have--
(1) a concentration of extreme poverty; and
(2) housing that is severely distressed housing.
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZED ACTIVITIES.
(a) In General.--Amounts from a grant under this Act may be used
only for transformational programs and activities in accordance with a
transformation plan approved under section 7 that will further the
purposes of this Act.
(b) Required Activities.--Each transformation plan submitted
pursuant to section 7 and implemented by a grantee under this Act shall
include the following activities:
(1) The transformation of housing through rehabilitation,
preservation, or demolition and replacement of severely
distressed housing projects, expansion of affordable housing
opportunities, or any combination thereof, which may
incorporate energy-efficient design principles.
(2) The one-for-one replacement of any public and assisted
housing units demolished or disposed of in accordance with the
requirements under section 9.
(3) Activities that promote economic self-sufficiency of
residents of the revitalized housing and of the surrounding
neighborhood.
(4) Activities that preserve affordable housing in the
neighborhood and other activities necessary to ensure that
existing public and assisted housing residents have access to
the benefits of the neighborhood transformation.
(5) Activities that demonstrate that each resident of
housing assisted by the grant who is displaced by the
transformation plan and who wishes to return to the revitalized
on-site housing in the neighborhood or to replacement housing
outside of the neighborhood, can return, and shall be provided
a preference in accordance with the program requirements under
section 8.
(6) Activities that meet the program requirements for
replacement of housing units under section 9.
(7) Activities that meet the fair housing program
requirements under section 10(a) and the accessibility
requirements under section 10(b).
(8) Appropriate service coordination and supportive
services.
(9) Resident involvement, as described in section 8, in
planning and implementation of the transformation plan,
including reasonable steps to help ensure meaningful
participation for residents who, as a result of their national
origin, are limited in their English language proficiency.
(10) Monitoring, under section 8(g), of residents relocated
during redevelopment throughout the term of the grant or until
full occupancy of replacement housing, whichever is completed
later.
(11) Relocation assistance, including tenant-based rental
assistance renewable under section 8 of the United States
Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f), mobility or relocation
counseling over multiple years, reasonable moving costs, and
security deposits.
(12) Establishment of links to local education efforts, as
described in subsection (c)(3).
(13) Activities to comply with section 3 of the Housing and
Urban Development Act of 1968 (12 U.S.C. 1701u).
(c) Eligible Activities.--Amounts from a grant under this Act may
be used for the following activities:
(1) Construction, acquisition, or rehabilitation of
affordable housing, which may include energy efficiency
improvements and sustainable design features for that housing.
(2) Acquisition or disposition of residential properties,
including properties subject to a mortgage previously insured,
and foreclosed upon, by the Federal Housing Administration, and
demolition.
(3) Outreach to local educators, and engaging in local
community planning, to help increase access to educational
opportunities, a continuum of effective community services, and
strong family supports, and to improve the educational and life
outcomes that have a significant benefit to residents of
housing assisted under this Act, including children and youth
and, as appropriate, for adult residents, including the elderly
or persons with disabilities.
(4) Providing supportive services that have a significant
benefit to residents of housing assisted under this Act,
primarily focused on services described in subparagraphs (B)
and (C) of section 2(17).
(5) Rehabilitation and physical improvement of community
facilities that are primarily intended to facilitate the
delivery of community and supportive services that have a
significant benefit to residents of housing assisted by the
grant and residents of off-site replacement housing.
(6) Work incentives designed to help low-income residents
assisted by the housing under this Act access jobs and move
toward self-sufficiency.
(7) Partnering with employers and for-