Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Amendments Act of 1988

(Conference report filed in House, H. Rept. 100-1089)

Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Amendments Act of 1988 - Title I: General Provisions - States that the amendments made by this Act shall not be construed to provide for new FY 1989 and 1990 budget authority in excess of appropriations.

Amends the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act (the Act) to require the Comptroller General to make annual audits of Federal emergency management food and shelter and housing assistance programs.

Title II: Interagency Council on the Homeless - Amends the Act to authorize appropriations through FY 1990 for the Interagency Council on the Homeless. Extends such Council through FY 1990. Requires Federal agency Council members to establish program timetables. Requires States to designate Council contact persons.

Title III: Federal Emergency Management Food and Shelter Program - Amends the Act to authorize appropriations through FY 1990 for the Federal emergency management food and shelter program.

Requires the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to submit an emergency food and shelter grant program report to the Congress.

Title IV: Housing Assistance - Subtitle A: Comprehensive Homeless Assistance Plan - Requires a State or local grantee to submit an annual comprehensive homeless assistance plan to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Secretary).

Subtitle B: Emergency Shelter Grants - Authorizes FY 1989 and 1990 appropriations for the emergency shelter grant program. Permits State distribution, with local approval, of such assistance to private nonprofit organizations. Increases assistance available for homeless activities under such program. Makes homelessness prevention an eligible program activity. Requires the Comptroller General to conduct a study and report to the Congress regarding homeless activities. Revises program provisions regarding the use of a building as a shelter.

Subtitle C: Supportive Housing - Authorizes FY 1989 and 1990 appropriations for the supportive housing demonstration program. Makes public housing agencies eligible program sponsors. Establishes a 24-month period (or longer if necessary) as the maximum transitional housing residence period.

Authorizes larger than eight-person handicapped homeless housing under specified circumstances.

Limits moderate rehabilitation grants to $200,000.

Authorizes grants for employment assistance to transitional housing residents.

Authorizes increased limits for acquisition advances and rehabilitation grants in high-cost areas. Limits new construction authority.

Sets forth site control provisions.

States that certain flood plain restrictions applicable to assisted or acquired housing under this subtitle shall be no more restrictive than to other programs under this title.

Requires recipient non-Federal matching funds.

Requires an annual program report to the Congress.

Subtitle D: Supplemental Assistance for Facilities to Assist the Homeless - Authorizes FY 1989 and 1990 appropriations for supplemental assistance for facilities to assist the homeless.

Sets forth site control provisions.

Subtitle E: Miscellaneous Provisions - Increases budget authority for section 8 assistance (low-income housing) for single room occupancy dwellings. Defines "major areas" for section 8 housing fire and safety purposes as hallways and other areas specified in local fire, building, and safety codes.

Requires annual section 8 cost assistance adjustments to consider construction cost increases.

Requires the Secretary to report to the Congress: (1) regarding the effect of rent control on homelessness; and (2) regarding alternative allocation formulas.

Title V: Identification and Use of Surplus Federal Property - Amends the Act to require the Secretary to identify Federal properties to use to aid the homeless within two months of collecting such information.

Title VI: Revision and Extension of Programs of Health Care for the Homeless - Subtitle A: Categorical Grants for Primary Health Services and Substance Abuse Services - Amends the Public Health Service Act to limit Federal matching funds after the first fiscal year to 66-2/3 percent of service costs with regard to grants for health assistance for the homeless. (Current law provides for 75 percent Federal funding.)

Authorizes the continued provision for up to 12 months of certain health (including mental health) services to former homeless persons currently living in permanent housing.

Includes persons living in transitional housing within the definition of "homeless individual" for purpose of such grants.

Authorizes appropriations for such grants through FY 1991.

Subtitle B: Block Grant for Community Mental Health Services - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize appropriations through FY 1991 for community mental health services block grants.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) make grants to the States on a competitive basis if annual appropriations are insufficient for minimum allotments; and (2) make unallotted State funds available to public and private nonprofit agencies for mental health services to the homeless in such State.

Makes Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands eligible for mental health services allotments. Sets minimum allotments at $50,000 for Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Subtitle C: Authorization of Appropriations for Community Demonstration Projects - Amends the Act to authorize additional appropriations through FY 1991 for mental health services for homeless persons with chronic mental illness.

Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize appropriations through FY 1991 for alcohol and drug abuse treatment for homeless persons.

Subtitle D: General Provisions - Sets forth effective dates for specified provisions of this title.

Title VII: Education, Training, and Community Services Programs - Subtitle A: Homeless Assistance Programs - Amends the Act to authorize appropriations through FY 1990 for the following programs for the homeless: (1) adult education; (2) education for children and youth; (3) exemplary education programs and related information dissemination; (4) job training, including a specified obligation for veterans' reintegration projects; and (5) the emergency community services homeless grant program.

Makes Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands eligible for such grants (with the exception of the emergency community services grants). Makes Puerto Rico eligible for job training for the homeless grants. (Puerto Rico is currently eligible for such other assistance under this subtitle.)

Subtitle B: Job Training Partnership Act - Jobs for Employable Dependent Individuals Act - Amends the Job Training Partnership Act to entitle each State to bonus payments for the successful job placement of certain employable dependent individuals. Sets forth the following eligibility classes: (1) a head of a household who is a long-term welfare recipient; (2) a head of household who is receiving welfare and is less than 22 years old; (3) a person who is blind or disabled and a long-term welfare recipient; and (4) a person who is blind or disabled, a long-term welfare recipient, and is less than 22 years old.

Requires that such individual: (1) participate in education, training, and support activities designed to provide jobs for such individuals; (2) be placed in nonsubsidized employment; (3) receive from such employment an income equal to or greater than the cash benefits under the relevant aid program; and (4) no longer qualify for such aid benefits, with specified exceptions.

Provides that the amount of the incentive bonus paid to each State shall be equal to: (1) 75 percent of the placement bonus base for each successful placement; (2) 75 percent of the placement bonus base for the second continuous year of such employment; and (3) 75 percent of the placement bonus base for the third continuous year of employment. Sets forth formulas for determination of the placement bonus base.

Authorizes a Governor to reserve an amount equal to the amount the State receives for incentive bonuses. Authorizes a Governor to set aside up to 15 percent of such amount for distribution to participating State agencies to support the costs of establishing and maintaining systems necessary for the operation of the incentive bonus program. Directs the Governor to distribute the remainder of the reserved amount to participating agencies, private industry councils in service delivery areas, and service providers who contribute to the incentive bonus program.

Directs the Secretary of Labor to: (1) provide ongoing technical assistance; (2) conduct an annual survey of participating States and report to the Congress regarding State information gathering; (3) evaluate the incentive bonus program and report to the Congress; and (4) establish a performance standard and report to the Congress concerning such standard's effectiveness.

Title VIII: Veterans Programs - Authorizes additional FY 1989 and 1990 appropriations for veterans' domiciliary care and care of chronically mentally ill homeless veterans.

Title IX: Aid to Families With Dependent Children; Unemployment Compensation - Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 to extend through September 30, 1989, the prohibition on implementation of certain regulations proposed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the use of aid to families with dependent children (AFDC) funds to meet emergency AFDC family needs either through emergency assistance or special needs payments.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) review policies governing the use of AFDC funds; and (2) report to the Congress by July 1, 1989, regarding improvements in AFDC's ability to respond to emergency needs of eligible families and the elimination of the use of AFDC funds in commercial or similar transient shelters (welfare hotels).

Authorizes demonstration projects to reduce the number of homeless AFDC families in such hotels and increase the use of transitional facilities to house such families. Authorizes FY 1990 appropriations.

Authorizes the Secretary to require Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program applicants or participants to consent to wage and salary verification. Amends the Social Security Act to provide limited access for HUD and housing agency personnel to State employment records for such purposes. Terminates such authorization on October 1, 1994. Provides penalties for violations of such verification and disclosure provisions.

Title X: Housing and Community Development Technical Amendments - Subtitle A: Housing Assistance - Amends the United States Housing Act of 1937 to prohibit owners from skipping over lower income families for purposes of assisted housing eligibility.

Permits child care grants to be awarded to facilities near (as well as in) public housing projects.

Restores certain section 8 rents that were reduced after April 15, 1987. Stipulates that for FY 1989 such amounts shall only be restored as provided for by appropriations.

Authorizes the waiver of the 15 percent limit on "attached" assistance for project-based section 8 assistance with regard to specified projects in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Permits contract renewals (aggregate not to exceed 15 years) for such "attached" assistance.

Directs the Secretary to allocate sufficient section 8 assistance to address physical and economic displacement of tenants living in rental rehabilitation projects.

Requires the Secretary to process a specified project loan (Tweemill House) under section 202 of the Housing Act of 1959 without regard to certain cost limits.

Permits HUD-funded housing counseling for owners of Veterans Administration guaranteed homes.

Amends the Housing and Community Development Amendments of 1978 with regard to the sale of HUD-owned multifamilly housing to: (1) require HUD to preserve units of unsubsidized projects occupied by low- and moderate-income persons on either the date of assignment or the date of foreclosure; (2) give a right of first refusal to local governments and the designated State agencies; (3) prohibit the transfer of such first refusal to a private entity except after a public solicitation process; (4) require the Secretary to develop a pre-sale project disposition plan; and (5) require the Secretary to make annual first refusal reports to the Congress.

Obligates a specified amount of funds from the flexible subsidy program for multifamily housing capital improvements.

Requires 50 percent of funds recaptured from the refinancing of a State financed section 8 project to be used for very low-income housing.

Sets forth permitted exceptions to tenant preference provisions, including Indian housing projects.

Subtitle B: Preservation of Low Income Housing - Amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987 with regard to owner prepayment of mortgages on insured or subsidized housing, including prepayment plans of action, incentives, and ten percent rent increase limits.

Amends the Housing Act of 1949 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to promulgate regulations regarding the selection of a qualified nonprofit organization or public agency purchasers of rural housing.

Amends the United States Housing Act of 1937 to repeal the 15-year requirement with regard to the selection 8 loan management program. Makes program assistance available to unsubsidized projects.

Subtitle C: Rural Housing - Amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to issue regulations implementing the rural housing guaranteed loan program within 120 days of enactment of this Act.

Amends the Housing Act of 1949 to repeal the provision requiring the use of comparables in determining rural rent adjustments.

Permits domestic farm labor housing no longer needed for such purposes to be used in the rural rental housing program.

Permits the Secretary of Agriculture to use U.S. attorneys, the General Counsel of the Department of Agriculture, or private attorneys to litigate rural housing claims. Requires a related annual report to the Congress.

Subtitle D: Mortgage Insurance and Secondary Mortgage Market Programs - Amends the National Housing Act to permit an investor to refinance an insured single family mortgage if monthly mortgage payments are reduced (thus exempting such investor from certain occupancy requirements).

States, with regard to procedures applicable to assumption of insured mortgages under the National Housing Act: (1) that credit reviews shall be made starting from the date on which the mortgage is executed (currently from the date of enactment); and (2) that December 1, 1986, is set as the date for applicability of specified assumption requirements under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987.

Amends the Housing Act of 1949 to direct the Secretary to: (1) accept Veterans Administration certificates of reasonable value for one or more properties in a subdivision as administrative approval for the entire subdivision for a one-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act; and (2) before the end of such period report to the Congress regarding housing subdivision approval practices of the Veterans Administration and the Departments of Agriculture and HUD.

Makes permanent the authority of the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation to purchase multifamily second mortgages.

Permits the payment of claims on losses from single family preforeclosure under the Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance program.

Subtitle E: Community Development and Miscellaneous Programs - Amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to repeal the provision requiring HUD to use 1980 census data to determine loss of entitlement status for metropolitan cities and urban counties.

Provides, with regard to the antidisplacement certification, that: (1) a local government unit receiving community development assistance or urban development action grants under such Act from a state shall make such certification to the State; and (2) a local government unit receiving such assistance from HUD shall make such certification to the Secretary.

Sets forth congressional findings regarding flood elevation requirements in effect for Sacramento, California.

Requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency to prepare a hydrological study of Miles Creek, California, in order to revise flood elevations in Planada, California.

Amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1987 to implement certain home mortgage disclosure provisions as of August 19, 1988.

Amends the Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act to revise provisions regarding public housing inspection and the abatement demonstration program.

Requires the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to: (1) develop a policy (using Environmental Protection Agency guidelines) for dealing with radon contamination in multifamily housing; and (2) report to the Congress within one year of enactment of this Act.