SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the "Delivering Opportunity, Outcomes, and Recovery to Housing Act" or the "DOOR to Housing Act of 2026".
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for this Act is as follows:
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) According to the Annual Homeless Assessment Report of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 745,652 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January 2025 — approximately 3 percent below the record of 771,480 recorded in January 2024, but roughly 28 percent above the level recorded in January 2020.
(2) The January 2025 count was the first nationwide decrease since 2016, demonstrating that reductions in homelessness are achievable. Analysts attribute the decrease substantially to targeted assistance programs that were temporary in nature, demonstrating equally that gains against homelessness are reversible when the tools that produce them expire.
(3) Homelessness is lethal. National research tracking approximately 140,000 people experiencing homelessness found an age-adjusted mortality rate approximately 3.5 times that of housed individuals, such that a 40-year-old experiencing homelessness faces a mortality risk comparable to a housed person nearly 20 years older.
(4) The Government Accountability Office has found that each $100 increase in median rent in a community is associated with an approximately 9 percent increase in the rate of homelessness in that community, confirming that housing costs are among the strongest measurable drivers of homelessness.
(5) As of the most recent national data, the United States has a shortage of approximately 7,100,000 rental homes affordable and available to extremely low-income renters, with only 35 such homes available for every 100 extremely low-income renter households, and approximately 75 percent of such households spending more than half of their income on housing.
(6) A full-time worker earning the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour cannot afford a modest rental home at fair market rent in any State; the national housing wage for a modest two-bedroom rental home was $33.63 per hour in 2025, more than four times the Federal minimum wage.
(7) Approximately 3,600,000 eviction cases are filed in a typical year in the United States, and most households that become homeless do so following an identifiable and interceptable crisis, such as an eviction, a job loss, a medical emergency, domestic violence, or discharge from a public institution.
(8) Homelessness prevention works and is measurable. A rigorous evaluation published in Science, exploiting effectively random variation in the availability of assistance funds, found that households at imminent risk that received one-time emergency financial assistance were 76 percent less likely to enter a homeless shelter within 6 months. In New York City, 84 percent of tenants provided counsel in eviction proceedings remained in their homes, and eviction filings declined by roughly half between 2013 and 2024. In the multi-site Family Options Study of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, families offered rental assistance were less than half as likely as families receiving usual care to experience shelter stays or doubling up, and experienced intimate partner violence at a rate lower by one-third.
(9) Public systems routinely discharge people into homelessness. People who have been incarcerated are almost 10 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general public. One in four youth who were in foster care at age 17 report having experienced homelessness within two years when surveyed at age 21, and close to one-third of youth experiencing homelessness report a history of foster care. Discharge from public custody or care to the street is a system failure that occurs at a known time and place, and is therefore preventable.
(10) Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women and families, and more than 80 percent of mothers with children experiencing homelessness report having experienced domestic violence.
(11) Chronic homelessness is the most expensive form of homelessness for the public. A person experiencing chronic homelessness generates public costs averaging approximately $35,000 per year in emergency rooms, jails, shelters, and crisis response. Placement in stabilization housing reduces such public costs by approximately one-half on average, and, in the Housing to Health initiative in Denver, Colorado, conducted under the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act, produced independently verified public savings of $15,733 per person per year.
(12) Veteran homelessness has been cut by more than half since 2010, to 32,495 in January 2025, the lowest level on record, through sustained, targeted, bipartisan tools; more than a dozen communities have achieved a functional end to veteran homelessness. What has been done for veterans can be done for others.
(13) The Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act established a Federal financing framework under which the Federal Government pays only for outcomes that are achieved and independently verified, with payments capped at the value of the savings those outcomes produce; the framework has been successfully applied to homelessness and, absent reauthorization, expires in 2028.
(14) In 2026, Congress enacted, by margins of 85 to 5 in the Senate and 358 to 32 in the House of Representatives, the most significant housing supply legislation in a generation, addressing regulatory barriers, construction innovation, and homeownership; that Act, by design, authorized no additional funds and contained only limited provisions respecting homelessness. The prevention and stability of households — the demand side of the same national consensus — remains the unfinished half of the work.
(15) Following the decision of the Supreme Court in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024), States and localities retain broad constitutional authority to regulate public camping, and many have exercised it. Enforcement, however constituted, does not by itself house anyone or reduce the number of people without homes; the most effective way to reduce both street homelessness and the burdens of enforcement is to reduce the number of people who lose housing in the first place and to make swift rehousing possible for those who do.
(16) The American people, across party lines, want this solved: national and battleground polling in 2024 and 2026 found homelessness among the top concerns of voters of both parties and found supermajority support in both parties for targeted assistance to prevent homelessness among vulnerable renters. The shared national goal is that homelessness in America be rare, brief, and nonrecurring.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES; NATIONAL GOAL.
(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to prevent homelessness at its sources by intercepting the identifiable crises through which housing is most often lost;
(2) to ensure that no person is discharged from public custody or care into homelessness;
(3) to stabilize households, housing providers, and communities through assistance that is fast, flexible, accountable, and temporary wherever temporary assistance suffices;
(4) to expand stabilization housing and recovery supports for the small population that generates the largest public costs, measured by results;
(5) to pay for verified outcomes rather than promises, and to recycle verified public savings into further prevention;
(6) to modernize the data by which the Nation measures homelessness, so that progress is provable and failure is visible; and
(7) to accomplish the foregoing without creating any new Federal agency, without mandating any service model, and without displacing the authority of States, localities, and Tribes.
(b) NATIONAL GOAL.—It is the goal of the United States—
(1) to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night by not less than 50 percent by December 31, 2031, relative to the January 2025 baseline;
(2) to achieve a functional end to chronic homelessness and veteran homelessness in every participating community; and
(3) to make homelessness in the United States rare overall, brief when it occurs, and nonrecurring thereafter.
(c) NO INDIVIDUAL ENTITLEMENT.—Nothing in this Act establishes an individual entitlement to assistance or a private right of action.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) AT RISK OF HOMELESSNESS.—The term "at risk of homelessness" has the meaning given that term in section 401 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11360), except that the Secretary may, by guidance, treat as at risk of homelessness a household that has received a notice of eviction or termination of tenancy, is experiencing or fleeing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking, is within 90 days of discharge from a covered institution without an identified housing arrangement, or is otherwise likely to lose safe and stable housing within 90 days.
(2) COVERED INSTITUTION.—The term "covered institution" means a correctional facility, jail, hospital, psychiatric facility, residential treatment program, foster care placement, or other institutional setting that is operated, funded, or licensed in whole or in part by a Federal, State, Tribal, or local government.
(3) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term "eligible entity" means a State, a unit of general local government, an Indian Tribe or tribally designated housing entity, a public housing agency, a Continuum of Care established pursuant to part B of title IV of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, or a nonprofit organization (including a faith-based or community organization) that meets standards of financial and administrative capacity established by the Secretary.
(4) FUNCTIONAL END; FUNCTIONAL ZERO.—The terms "functional end" and "functional zero" mean, with respect to a population in a community, a certified condition in which the number of people in that population experiencing homelessness at any time does not exceed the community's demonstrated monthly capacity to place people in that population into permanent housing.
(5) HOMELESS.—The term "homeless" has the meaning given that term in section 103 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11302).
(6) HOUSING STABILITY SERVICES.—The term "housing stability services" means services and assistance intended to help a household obtain, retain, or return to permanent housing, including housing navigation and problem-solving; landlord-tenant mediation; legal information and legal assistance; case management; assistance obtaining identification documents and enrolling in benefits for which the household is eligible; employment services; credit counseling; and coordination with health, behavioral health, and recovery supports.
(7) RECOVERY RESIDENCE.—The term "recovery residence" means a shared living environment that is free from alcohol and illicit drug use and centered on peer support and connection to services that promote sustained recovery from substance use disorders, consistent with the best practices identified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services in consultation with national certifying organizations.
(8) SECRETARY.—The term "Secretary" means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, unless otherwise specified.
(9) STABILIZATION HOUSING.—The term "stabilization housing" means housing — without regard to the service model employed — that is affordable to the household occupying it and is paired with access to voluntary or program-integral services sufficient to enable a person experiencing chronic homelessness, or a person who is a high utilizer of public crisis systems, to attain durable housing stability, improved health, and the maximum degree of independence achievable.
(10) STATE.—The term "State" means each of the several States, the District of Columbia, and each territory of the United States.
(11) UNITED STATES INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS; COUNCIL.—The term "Council" means the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness established under title II of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11311 et seq.).
TITLE I—HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION AND HOUSING STABILITY
SEC. 101. HOUSING STABILITY GRANT PROGRAM.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall carry out a program, to be known as the Housing Stability Grant Program, to provide grants to eligible entities to prevent homelessness among households at risk of homelessness and to return households experiencing homelessness rapidly to housing.
(b) STRUCTURE.—Of the amounts made available for this title for a fiscal year—
(1) 80 percent shall be allocated by formula among States and qualifying units of general local government, under an allocation formula established by the Secretary that reflects, for each jurisdiction, the population of renter households with severe cost burden, the population experiencing homelessness, and eviction filing volume, to the extent data are available; and
(2) 20 percent shall be awarded competitively for innovation, for demonstrated-outcome expansion, and for communities pursuing certified functional zero commitments under section 502.
(c) USE OF EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE.—The Secretary shall administer the program, to the maximum extent practicable, through the administrative infrastructure of existing programs under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, and may align application, reporting, and fiscal procedures with the Emergency Solutions Grants program to minimize administrative burden and startup delay.
(d) MATCHING.—The Secretary shall require a non-Federal match (which may include in-kind contributions and philanthropic funds) of not less than 10 percent for States and units of general local government, and may reduce or waive the match for Indian Tribes, territories, and rural areas upon a showing of fiscal hardship.
(e) ADMINISTRATIVE CAP.—Not more than 6 percent of a grant under this title may be used for administrative costs.
SEC. 102. ELIGIBLE USES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Grant funds under this title may be used for—
(1) short- and medium-term rental assistance for a period not to exceed 24 months per household, including rental arrears, prospective rent, security deposits, utility arrears and payments, and reasonable late fees;
(2) one-time emergency stabilization payments to resolve a discrete crisis that would otherwise result in the loss of housing, including a car repair, medical bill, or comparable documented shock;
(3) housing stability services;
(4) housing problem-solving and diversion assistance, including relocation costs, family reunification costs, and transportation, where such assistance resolves the housing crisis without shelter entry;
(5) moving costs, storage costs, and application and screening fees;
(6) recovery of identification documents and vital records necessary to obtain housing or employment; and
(7) flexible assistance, as defined by the Secretary, in an amount not exceeding 10 percent of a grant, for costs necessary to prevent the homelessness of a specific household but not otherwise enumerated.
(b) PRIORITY OF DIRECT CURE.—Where the crisis is nonpayment of rent or utilities, payment shall be made directly to the housing provider or utility wherever practicable.
SEC. 103. NO-PREREQUISITE AND RAPID-RESPONSE STANDARDS.
(a) NO SHELTER PREREQUISITE.—A grantee may not require a household to enter emergency shelter, or to become homeless, as a condition of receiving assistance under this title. It is the policy of the United States that a family should not have to lose its home in order to qualify for help keeping it.
(b) RAPID RESPONSE.—Each grantee shall establish, and report performance against, a standard under which an eligible household in imminent crisis receives a determination not later than 72 hours after a complete application, and assistance sufficient to resolve an imminent housing loss is delivered before the date of that loss, to the maximum extent practicable.
(c) SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY.—Each grantee shall maintain a clearly published means — which may include a telephone line, a physical location, and an online portal — through which a household in crisis can request assistance without needing to know which agency administers which program.
SEC. 104. TARGETING AND PROGRAM INTEGRITY.
(a) TARGETING.—Each grantee shall target assistance under this title using documented risk factors validated by research or by the grantee's own outcome data, and shall give priority to households with incomes at or below 50 percent of area median income and to households facing imminent housing loss.
(b) LIMITATION ON AUTOMATED DENIAL.—No household may be denied assistance under this Act solely on the basis of a predictive risk score generated by an automated system. Any automated tool used in the administration of this Act shall be subject to human review, published methodology, and periodic disparity testing.
(c) PROGRAM INTEGRITY.—The Secretary shall require of each grantee documentation standards proportionate to the size and type of assistance; verification of tenancy and of the underlying crisis for arrears payments; annual independent financial audit for grantees above a threshold set by the Secretary; and referral of suspected fraud to the Inspector General. The Secretary shall report improper payment estimates for the program annually, and shall incorporate the documented lessons of the Emergency Rental Assistance program of 2021–2022 with respect to both speed and integrity.
(d) DUPLICATION.—Assistance under this title shall supplement, and may not duplicate for the same cost and period, assistance received under any other Federal program.
SEC. 105. HOUSING PROVIDER PARTICIPATION.
(a) VOLUNTARY.—Participation by a housing provider in any activity under this Act is voluntary.
(b) PROMPT PAYMENT.—A grantee shall issue payment of approved arrears or rent to a participating housing provider not later than 30 days after approval, and shall establish an expedited process for small housing providers.
(c) HOUSING PROVIDER MITIGATION RESERVE.—A grantee may use up to 5 percent of a grant under this title for a mitigation reserve to reimburse participating housing providers for documented damages or unpaid rent in excess of a security deposit incurred with respect to a household assisted under this Act, as an inducement to rent to households the market would otherwise screen out.
(d) NO WAIVER OF RIGHTS REQUIRED.—Acceptance of payment under this title cures the nonpayment to which it is applied but does not otherwise abridge the lawful rights of a housing provider.
SEC. 106. RURAL, TRIBAL, AND TERRITORIAL ALLOCATIONS.
Of the amounts made available for this title for a fiscal year, not less than 10 percent shall be used in rural areas; not less than 5 percent shall be made available for Indian Tribes and tribally designated housing entities; and not less than 1 percent shall be made available for the territories. Amounts under this section that remain unobligated after 18 months may be reallocated under section 101(b).
TITLE II—EVICTION PREVENTION AND COURT-BASED DIVERSION
SEC. 201. EVICTION DIVERSION GRANTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide grants to eligible entities to establish or expand eviction diversion, including—
(1) landlord-tenant mediation and pre-filing resolution programs;
(2) emergency rental assistance delivered at or before the point of court filing, coordinated with title I;
(3) legal information, advice, and representation for income-eligible tenants, and legal assistance for small housing providers, in eviction and habitability matters;
(4) court navigation and self-help services; and
(5) outreach triggered by notices of nonpayment or termination, where permitted by law.
(b) DESIGN PRINCIPLE.—Programs under this section shall be designed so that the fastest path for each party — the tenant remaining housed, the housing provider being made whole, or a dignified relocation — is also the easiest path.
SEC. 202. STATE COURT PARTNERSHIP.
(a) GRANTS.—The Secretary, in consultation with the Director of the State Justice Institute, may make grants to State and Tribal courts and court administrative offices to establish eviction diversion calendars, pre-trial resolution conferences, and data reporting on eviction filings and outcomes.
(b) VOLUNTARY.—Participation by any court is voluntary, and nothing in this Act directs the outcome of any case or alters the substantive law applied by any court.
SEC. 203. EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE FOR SUDDEN ECONOMIC SHOCK.
(a) IN GENERAL.—From amounts made available for this title, the Secretary shall reserve not less than 25 percent for an emergency assistance fund, modeled on the bipartisan Eviction Crisis Act proposal, to provide rapid, one-time or short-duration assistance to low-income renter households facing housing instability due to an unexpected economic shock, together with housing stability services not exceeding 25 percent of amounts under this section.
(b) EVALUATION.—Assistance under this section shall be administered so as to permit rigorous evaluation of effectiveness, including, where feasible and ethical, randomized or quasi-experimental designs under section 603.
SEC. 204. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.
Nothing in this title—
(1) preempts, modifies, or displaces any provision of State, Tribal, or local landlord-tenant law;
(2) limits any right, remedy, or defense otherwise available to any tenant or housing provider; or
(3) conditions any assistance under any other Federal program on a State or locality's substantive landlord-tenant policy.
TITLE III—NO EXIT INTO HOMELESSNESS
SEC. 301. FEDERAL DISCHARGE STANDARD.
(a) POLICY.—It is the policy of the United States that no person is discharged from the custody or residential care of the Federal Government into homelessness.
(b) FEDERAL FACILITIES.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (with respect to residential care), the Secretary of Health and Human Services (with respect to facilities operated by the Indian Health Service and residential programs directly operated by the Department), and the Secretary of Defense (with respect to separating servicemembers under section 305) shall each implement discharge protocols under which, before a scheduled release or discharge, each person is screened for housing risk; a documented housing plan is completed for each person screened as at risk; identification documents and benefit applications for which the person is eligible are completed to the extent practicable before release; and a warm handoff is made to a receiving community provider.
(c) REPORTING.—Each official described in subsection (b) shall report annually to the Council the number of persons released, the number screened as at risk of homelessness, and the number released without a housing plan, and the Council shall publish such data.
SEC. 302. STATE AND LOCAL DISCHARGE PARTNERSHIP GRANTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide grants to eligible entities, in partnership with covered institutions, to establish discharge-to-housing programs, including in-reach housing navigation before release or discharge; documentation and benefits enrollment before release; short-term post-release housing assistance coordinated with title I; and recovery residence placement where chosen by the individual.
(b) PRIORITY.—Priority shall be given to partnerships that serve jails and prisons, hospitals and psychiatric facilities, and child welfare systems with documented volumes of discharge into homelessness, and that commit to measuring and publishing their discharge-to-homelessness rates.
(c) MEDICAID COORDINATION.—The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall issue and maintain guidance to States on the use of authorities under title XIX of the Social Security Act, including demonstration authority under section 1115, for pre-release enrollment and for housing-related supports and case management consistent with law, and shall provide technical assistance to States electing to use such authorities.
SEC. 303. FOSTER YOUTH HOUSING BRIDGE.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, jointly with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall provide grants for housing navigation, rental assistance, and housing stability services for youth and young adults aged 16 through 26 who are in, or have exited, foster care, coordinated with the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood.
(b) DESIGN.—Assistance under this section shall be designed on the principle that no young person ages out of public care into the street, and shall permit continued assistance notwithstanding intermittent education, employment, or program participation.
SEC. 304. REENTRY HOUSING NAVIGATION.
Grants under section 302 serving persons leaving incarceration may be used for housing-focused case management beginning not later than 90 days before scheduled release; assistance with obtaining housing notwithstanding screening barriers related to conviction history, through mitigation funds under section 105(c), housing provider engagement, and certificate-of-relief processes where available under State law; and coordination with employment and supervision requirements so that housing, work, and supervision reinforce rather than obstruct one another.
SEC. 305. SERVICEMEMBER TRANSITION COORDINATION.
The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall ensure that the Transition Assistance Program includes housing-risk screening and, for servicemembers screened as at risk, a direct referral to the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, the HUD-VASH program, or a community provider, before separation.
TITLE IV—STABILIZATION HOUSING AND RECOVERY SUPPORTS
SEC. 401. STABILIZATION HOUSING GRANTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide grants to eligible entities for the capital costs, operating costs, and service coordination costs of stabilization housing for persons experiencing chronic homelessness and persons who are high utilizers of public crisis systems.
(b) ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES.—Grants under this section may be used for acquisition, new construction, rehabilitation, adaptive reuse of vacant or underused property (including commercial property), master-leasing, operating reserves, and the coordination — but not the direct provision, except as permitted under other law — of health, behavioral health, and employment services funded through programs for which residents are eligible.
(c) OUTCOME CONDITION.—Beginning in the third year of a grant, continued funding shall be conditioned on demonstrated performance against the measures in section 502, with technical assistance and a cure period before any reduction.
(d) COST DISCIPLINE.—The Secretary shall publish annually the per-unit development and operating costs of projects funded under this section, by market, and shall establish cost benchmarks; projects exceeding benchmarks shall document the reasons.
SEC. 402. RECOVERY HOUSING STANDARDS.
(a) CERTIFICATION.—The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with national recovery residence certifying organizations and States, shall maintain voluntary national quality standards for recovery residences, addressing resident rights, safety, ethical operation (including prohibitions on patient brokering), naloxone availability, and returns-to-use protocols that do not result in automatic discharge to the street.
(b) ELIGIBILITY.—A recovery residence certified against the standards under subsection (a), or under an equivalent State certification, is an eligible use of funds under section 302 and section 401 for persons who choose recovery housing.
SEC. 403. MODEL PLURALITY; NO DEAD ENDS.
(a) NO FEDERAL SERVICE-MODEL MANDATE.—Nothing in this Act requires, and the Secretary may not require, prefer, or penalize, any particular service philosophy or model — including immediate-access models and recovery-oriented or treatment-first models — as a condition of funding under this Act. Funding decisions under this Act shall be governed by outcomes measured under section 502.
(b) NO DEAD ENDS.—Each community receiving funds under this title shall maintain a community plan under which—
(1) an individual who declines a particular program or service is not, for that reason alone, left without access to any assistance under this Act available in the community;
(2) both immediate-access and recovery-oriented options are identified in the plan, whether funded under this Act or otherwise, or the community documents its plan to develop the missing option; and
(3) no participating program discharges a person to the street as a disciplinary measure without a documented alternative placement offer.
(c) INDIVIDUAL CHOICE.—A person's acceptance of stabilization housing may not be conditioned on participation in religious activity, and participation in services within a chosen program shall be consistent with the program's disclosed design and the person's informed consent.
SEC. 404. USE OF EXISTING PROPERTY AND SUPPLY AUTHORITIES.
(a) SURPLUS PROPERTY.—The Secretary, the Administrator of General Services, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall streamline, and report annually on, the use of title V of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (40 U.S.C. 550 note; 42 U.S.C. 11411) to make suitable surplus Federal property available for stabilization housing and recovery residences.
(b) COORDINATION WITH SUPPLY LAW.—The Secretary shall ensure that eligible entities under this Act receive technical assistance to make use of the supply, conversion, manufactured housing, and streamlining authorities enacted in 2026, so that units produced under those authorities are accessible to households assisted under this Act.
TITLE V—PAY FOR RESULTS
SEC. 501. EXPANSION OF SOCIAL IMPACT PARTNERSHIPS FOR HOUSING STABILITY OUTCOMES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (subtitle C of title XX of the Social Security Act; 42 U.S.C. 1397n et seq.) is amended so as to—
(1) extend the availability of the program and its funding through fiscal year 2036;
(2) specify homelessness prevention, reductions in chronic and veteran homelessness, discharge-to-housing outcomes, and housing stability of families as priority outcomes;
(3) permit outcome payments to reflect verified savings accruing to Federal, State, and local governments, with State and local shares payable under intergovernmental agreements; and
(4) streamline application and evaluation procedures for projects replicating a design already independently evaluated under the Act.
[Drafting note: conforming amendments to specific subsections of 42 U.S.C. 1397n–1397n-6 to be supplied by Legislative Counsel.]
(b) FUNDING.—There is authorized to be appropriated $250,000,000 to the fund established under such Act, to remain available through fiscal year 2031, of which not less than 15 percent shall be reserved for independent evaluation costs.
(c) PRINCIPLE.—Payments under this title are made only for outcomes achieved and independently verified, and are capped at the value of the public savings attributable to those outcomes.
SEC. 502. STANDARD OUTCOME MEASURES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary, acting through the Council and in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, State and local grantees, housing providers, and persons with lived experience of homelessness, shall establish standard outcome measures for all programs under this Act, including—
(1) housing retention at 12 and 24 months;
(2) returns to homelessness within 24 months;
(3) time from request to assistance;
(4) exits from homelessness to permanent housing;
(5) discharge-to-homelessness rates of partner institutions;
(6) employment and income at exit and at 12 months, reported as information and not used to condition housing assistance;
(7) utilization of emergency departments, crisis services, and jails, where data partnerships permit; and
(8) functional zero certification status by population.
(b) PUBLIC REPORTING.—Grantee performance against the measures under subsection (a) shall be published annually, by grantee, in machine-readable form.
SEC. 503. REINVESTMENT OF VERIFIED SAVINGS.
A State or unit of general local government that is party to an outcome partnership under this title may, under an agreement with the Secretary of the Treasury, retain and reinvest its share of verified savings in activities authorized under this Act, and such reinvested savings shall not be treated as Federal funds for purposes of matching requirements.
TITLE VI—DATA, TRANSPARENCY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY
SEC. 601. DUTIES OF THE UNITED STATES INTERAGENCY COUNCIL ON HOMELESSNESS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Council — and no new council or agency is established by this Act — shall coordinate the implementation of this Act; incorporate homelessness prevention as a distinct component of the Federal strategic plan required under section 203 of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11313); identify and publish, annually, gaps and duplication across Federal programs that bear on housing stability; and include implementation of this Act in the annual congressional testimony of the Council required under the housing legislation enacted in 2026.
(b) LIVED EXPERIENCE AND PROVIDER CONSULTATION.—In carrying out this Act, the Council and the Secretary shall consult with persons with lived experience of homelessness, housing providers, service providers (including faith-based providers), courts, sheriffs and police executives, hospitals, and employers.
SEC. 602. HOUSING STABILITY DATA MODERNIZATION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall modernize the Homeless Management Information System framework to support the outcome measures under section 502, including by-name data capability at community option; interoperability standards enabling, with consent and under privacy law, coordination with health, corrections, and child welfare systems for the purposes of this Act; and a public national housing stability dashboard reporting inflow, outflow, and outcomes.
(b) BURDEN REDUCTION.—The Secretary shall ensure that data requirements under this Act replace, rather than add to, duplicative existing reporting wherever possible, with the objective that frontline staff time spent on duplicative data entry declines.
SEC. 603. REPORTS; INDEPENDENT EVALUATION.
(a) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives on implementation, performance against the national goal under section 3(b), outcome measures under section 502, improper payment estimates, and recommendations.
(b) EVALUATION SET-ASIDE.—One percent of amounts made available under this Act shall be reserved for independent evaluation, with priority for randomized and quasi-experimental designs, administered in consultation with the Office of Policy Development and Research.
(c) GAO.—Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall report to Congress on the effectiveness, integrity, and administration of programs under this Act, including recommendations for the reauthorization review under section 705.
SEC. 604. PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Data collected under this Act shall be collected, used, and shared only for purposes of administering and evaluating assistance under this Act, subject to the privacy and security standards applicable to the Homeless Management Information System and, where applicable, to health records under Federal law.
(b) PROHIBITIONS.—Data collected under this Act may not be sold; may not be used for immigration enforcement, or disclosed for any law enforcement purpose except pursuant to a judicial warrant or as otherwise required by Federal law; and may not be used to deny assistance in violation of section 104(b).
TITLE VII—GENERAL PROVISIONS
SEC. 701. NONDISCRIMINATION; CIVIL RIGHTS.
Programs and activities under this Act are subject to the Fair Housing Act, title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and all other applicable civil rights laws. Assistance under this Act may not be denied on the basis of a household's composition, including the presence of children, or on the basis of a person's status as a survivor of domestic violence.
SEC. 702. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION; FEDERALISM.
Nothing in this Act—
(1) creates a private right of action, or an individual entitlement to housing or assistance;
(2) preempts or displaces any State, Tribal, or local law respecting land use, zoning, building codes, or landlord-tenant relations;
(3) requires any State, locality, or Tribe to participate in any program under this Act, or conditions funds available under any other law on such participation;
(4) limits the authority of any State or locality with respect to the regulation of public property or public order, or expresses any view of Congress with respect to such regulation beyond the finding in section 2(15); or
(5) authorizes any Federal official to require an individual to accept housing, services, or treatment, except as otherwise provided under law independent of this Act.
SEC. 703. PARTICIPATION OF COMMUNITY AND FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS.
Faith-based and community organizations are eligible to participate in programs under this Act on the same basis as any other nonprofit organization, consistent with the First Amendment and applicable law; program funds may not be used for explicitly religious activities, and participation of beneficiaries in such activities shall be voluntary and separate from funded activities.
SEC. 704. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be appropriated, for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031—
(1) $3,000,000,000 to carry out title I;
(2) $400,000,000 to carry out title II;
(3) $750,000,000 to carry out title III;
(4) $1,500,000,000 to carry out title IV; and
(5) $100,000,000 to carry out title VI.
(b) PAY FOR RESULTS.—Amounts for title V are authorized under section 501(b).
(c) SUPPLEMENT, NOT SUPPLANT.—Amounts made available under this Act shall supplement, and not supplant, other Federal, State, and local funds for homelessness assistance and prevention.
(d) CONTEXT.—The annual amounts authorized under subsection (a), totaling $5,750,000,000, are less than the estimated annual public cost of chronic homelessness alone under current conditions, and are structured so that title V payments are made only from verified savings.
SEC. 705. SUNSET; REAUTHORIZATION REVIEW.
(a) REVIEW.—During calendar year 2031, the committees of jurisdiction shall review the performance of this Act against the national goal under section 3(b), informed by the reports under section 603.
(b) SUNSET.—The authorities under titles I through IV of this Act expire on September 30, 2032, unless reauthorized; the amendments made by title V remain in effect according to their terms.
SEC. 706. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, and the application of the provisions of this Act to any other person or circumstance, shall not be affected.
SEC. 707. EFFECTIVE DATE; IMPLEMENTATION.
(a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act takes effect on the date of enactment of this Act.
(b) IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE.—Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment, the Secretary shall issue initial implementation guidance; not later than 180 days after the date of enactment, the Secretary shall begin accepting applications and shall make first awards under title I not later than 270 days after the date of enactment. The Secretary may issue interim final rules to meet the deadlines under this subsection.
(c) NO NEW AGENCY.—No new Federal agency, office, or council is created by this Act.