# Housing Accountability Act of 2023

This bill creates new rules to make sure that apartment buildings and housing complexes receiving federal rent assistance money are actually kept in decent, safe, and livable condition. Right now, there's not enough oversight to catch problems before they become serious, so this law sets up a system to regularly check on these properties and hold owners accountable when they fall short.

Here's how it works: Any landlord or property owner getting federal housing assistance payments has to maintain their buildings to decent standards. The government will now hire inspectors to survey tenants twice a year, asking them about problems like broken heating, pest infestations, mold, or poor maintenance. If these surveys or regular inspections uncover consistent problems, the property gets flagged for the federal government to investigate and fix. If an owner repeatedly fails to maintain their property or doesn't meet safety standards, they face financial penalties of at least one percent of their annual federal housing budget. The money collected from these penalties goes back into fixing problems at those same properties or helping tenants relocate if needed.

The bill also requires the Department of Housing and Urban Development to study whether property owners are using federal housing money for things other than maintaining and improving the buildings, and to report back to Congress with recommendations. This is meant to prevent owners from pocketing assistance money that should be going toward keeping apartments safe and in good repair. The rules don't apply to certain types of federally-assisted housing, so some properties are exempt from these new requirements.

Housing Accountability Act of 2023

Cohen, Steve

Housing Accountability Act of 2023 This bill provides statutory authority for the requirement that a property owner receiving low-income housing assistance payments for an existing public housing unit must maintain decent, safe, and sanitary conditions for the housing structure. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must survey tenants of these structures semiannually to identify problems with the structures or with management. A structure must be referred to HUD for remediation if consistent or persistent problems are identified. HUD may impose penalties on an owner of a structure that violates this bill.