Federal programs would aid renters and track eviction cases

HUD would award competitive grants for housing payments and services. Households must be very low-income, face a short-term housing crisis, and either be responsible for rent on a home or be homeless. Ordinarily, aid may cover arrears and up to four months in any three-year period, plus up to three more months when needed and funds are available. When the latest three-month national or state unemployment average is at least 5.5%, or a federal emergency or major-disaster declaration covers the area, the base limit rises to 12 months. Recipients could not require treatment or other activities as a condition of receiving shelter, housing, or services. The measure authorizes—but does not itself provide—$3 billion for each fiscal year from 2027 through 2031, and any needed amounts afterward.

HUD would establish and maintain the database, while grants would support local governments and nonprofits that collect reports of illegal evictions. The database would cover court and public-housing agency cases filed on or after its establishment, plus reported illegal evictions occurring on or after that date. HUD would set privacy and security rules, including added confidentiality for survivors of domestic or sexual violence and stalking. Approved researchers could access personally identifiable information when necessary, but they would have to protect identities in public work. The collected data could not be used to decide eligibility for public programs. States would submit the prior year's court data by March 1 each year. HUD would publish its first public report within one year after enactment and report yearly afterward.

The Justice Department would award grants for eviction-diversion programs and courts focused on landlord-tenant cases. Programs would connect tenants with social-service workers and serve urban, suburban, and rural areas, including communities with high eviction rates and families with children. Recipients would have to provide at least one dollar from nonfederal sources for every federal grant dollar; cash, indirect costs, and in-kind support could count. Applicants would have to explain how their program would preserve lawful evictions, access to regular courts, and tenants' due-process and civil rights. Nothing in the measure would stop a landlord from filing or carrying out an eviction for a lawful reason. Each recipient would submit required case and program data between one and two years after receiving its grant.

Consumer reporting agencies would provide rental applicants with their reports and receive an additional Fair Credit Reporting Act rule concerning favorable eviction judgments and related suits. The copy requirement would apply when someone obtains a consumer report to evaluate an applicant for rental housing.

HUD would establish an eviction-research advisory committee, while GAO would conduct an eviction study and prepare a separate report on the grant programs. GAO's study would examine eviction trends, local laws and court processes, contributing factors, differences among types of communities, and differences across protected groups. The committee would have 16 members drawn from HUD, landlords, researchers, civil-rights groups, people with eviction experience, data and privacy specialists, and eviction-law experts. The committee would use money already provided or otherwise available to HUD. The separate GAO report would assess grants under sections 4, 6, and 8, including estimated government savings, if any, and added revenue. The text sets no deadline for completing or reporting the eviction study. The separate grant report is due no earlier than five years and no later than six years after enactment. The committee would report within 90 days after it ends, but the text gives no end date.