HB 1293 — An Act amending the act of May 28, 1937 (P.L.955, No.265), referred to as the Housing Authorities Law, further providing for findings and declaration of policy, for definitions, for formation of housing authorities, for powers of an authority and for establishment of rentals and selection of tenants.

PRINTER'S NO.     1473

                     THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA



                         HOUSE BILL
                         No. 1293
                                               Session of
                                                 2025

     INTRODUCED BY PROKOPIAK, GIRAL, SANCHEZ, GUENST, NEILSON, KHAN,
        PIELLI, MADDEN, HILL-EVANS, SCHLOSSBERG, CERRATO, MALAGARI,
        SHUSTERMAN, RIVERA AND STEELE, APRIL 23, 2025

     REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT,
        APRIL 23, 2025


                                    AN ACT
 1   Amending the act of May 28, 1937 (P.L.955, No.265), entitled "An
 2      act to promote public health, safety, morals, and welfare by
 3      declaring the necessity of creating public bodies, corporate
 4      and politic, to be known as housing authorities to engage in
 5      slum clearance, and to undertake projects, to provide
 6      dwelling accommodations for persons of low income; providing
 7      for the organization of such housing authorities; defining
 8      their powers and duties; providing for the exercise of such
 9      powers, including the acquisition of property by purchase,
10      gift or eminent domain, the renting and selling of property,
11      and including borrowing money, issuing bonds, and other
12      obligations, and giving security therefor; prescribing the
13      remedies of obligees of housing authorities; authorizing
14      housing authorities to enter into agreements, including
15      agreements with the United States, the Commonwealth, and
16      political subdivisions and municipalities thereof; defining
17      the application of zoning, sanitary, and building laws and
18      regulations to projects built or maintained by such housing
19      authorities; exempting the property and securities of such
20      housing authorities from taxation; and imposing duties and
21      conferring powers upon the State Planning Board, and certain
22      other State officers and departments," further providing for
23      findings and declaration of policy, for definitions, for
24      formation of housing authorities, for powers of an authority
25      and for establishment of rentals and selection of tenants.
26      The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
27   hereby enacts as follows:
28      Section 1.    Section 2 of the act of May 28, 1937 (P.L.955,
 1   No.265), known as the Housing Authorities Law, is amended to
 2   read:
 3      Section 2.   Findings and Declaration of Policy.--It has been
 4   determined by the General Assembly of this Commonwealth, and it
 5   is hereby declared as a matter of legislative finding that--
 6      (a)   There exists in urban and rural communities, within the
 7   various counties of this Commonwealth, numerous slums and
 8   unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate or overcrowded dwellings, which
 9   conditions are accompanied and aggravated by an acute shortage
10   of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings within the financial
11   reach of persons of low income and persons of moderate income,
12   such conditions arising from overcrowding, dilapidation, faulty
13   construction, obsolete buildings, lack of proper light, air, and
14   sanitary facilities.
15      (b)   The existence of any of the above enumerated conditions
16   is prejudicial to the welfare of the people of this Commonwealth
17   because such conditions--(1) encourage the spread of disease and
18   impair public health and morals; (2) increase the hazards of
19   fires, accidents, and other calamities which result in loss of
20   life and property; (3) subject the moral standards of the people
21   to bad influences which have permanent deleterious social
22   effects; (4) increase the violation of the criminal laws of the
23   Commonwealth so as to jeopardize the safety and well-being of
24   the inhabitants thereof; (5) necessitate the expenditure of vast
25   sums of public money, both by the Commonwealth and local
26   governmental bodies, for the purpose of crime prevention,
27   punishment, and correction, fire and accident prevention, public
28   health service and relief.
29      (c)   The failure to remedy the acute dwelling shortage is
30   directly related to the stagnation of business activity in the

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 1   construction, durable goods, and allied industries which are
 2   conducted within this Commonwealth, and the stagnation of which
 3   has produced serious and prolonged unemployment, with all its
 4   injurious effects upon the welfare of the inhabitants of this
 5   Commonwealth.
 6      (d)   Private industry alone has been and now is unable to
 7   overcome the obstacles which have prevented and are now
 8   preventing it from clearing slum areas and relieving the
 9   shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for persons of
10   low income and persons of moderate income, and the construction,
11   pursuant to this act, of housing projects for persons of low
12   income and persons of moderate income would therefore not be
13   competitive with private enterprise.
14      Therefore, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the
15   Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to promote the health and welfare
16   of the inhabitants thereof by the creation of corporate and
17   politic bodies to be known as housing authorities. The public
18   purposes for which such authorities shall operate shall be--(1)
19   the clearance, replanning, and reconstruction of the areas in
20   which slums exist; (2) the providing of safe and sanitary
21   dwelling accommodations for persons of low income and persons of
22   moderate income through new construction or the reconstruction,
23   restoration, reconditioning, remodeling or repair of existing
24   structures, so as to prevent recurrence of the economically and
25   socially disastrous conditions hereinbefore described; and (3)
26   the accomplishment of a combination of the foregoing. Such
27   purposes are hereby declared to be public uses for which public
28   money may be spent, and private property acquired by the
29   exercise of the power of eminent domain.
30      Section 2.   Section 3(j) and (l.1) of the act are amended and

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 1   the section is amended by adding a subsection to read:
 2      Section 3.    Definitions.--The following words, terms, and
 3   phrases, where used or referred to in this act, shall have the
 4   meanings ascribed to them in this section, except in those
 5   instances where the context clearly indicates a different
 6   meaning:
 7      * * *
 8      (j)     "Housing Project" or "Project."   Any work or undertaking
 9   -- (1)   To demolish, clear or remove buildings from any slum
10   area, or to adapt such area to public purposes, including parks,
11   playgrounds, swimming pools or other recreational or community
12   purposes; or (2) to provide safe and sanitary dwelling
13   accommodations by means of new construction, or the
14   reconstruction, restoration, reconditioning, remodeling, or
15   repair of existing structures for persons of low income or
16   persons of moderate income, such work or undertaking may include
17   buildings, land, equipment, facilities, and other real or
18   personal property for necessary, convenient or desirable
19   appurtenances, streets, sewers, water services, parks, site
20   preparation, gardening, administrative, community, health,
21   recreational, educational, welfare or other purposes; or (3) to
22   accomplish a combination of the foregoing. The term "Housing
23   Project" or "Project" may be applied to the planning of the
24   buildings and improvements, the acquisition of property, the
25   demolition of existing structures, the construction,
26   reconstruction, alteration, and repair of existing improvements,
27   and all other work in connection therewith.
28      * * *
29      (l.1)     "Mixed-use Projects."   Any project that includes a
30   commercial, industrial, market-rate residential or retail

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 1   component, and either-- (1) a low-income or moderate-income
 2   housing component; or (2) is within a two-mile radius of a [low-
 3   income] housing project owned, leased, either in the capacity of
 4   lessor or lessee, held or financed by an Authority.
 5      * * *
 6      (o.1)   "Persons of Moderate Income."   Persons or families
 7   whose income is not less than eighty per centum (80%) and not
 8   more than one hundred twenty per centum (120%) of the median
 9   gross household income for households of the same size within
10   the housing region in which the housing is located.
11      * * *
12      Section 3.   Sections 4(d), 10(b) and (c) and 13 of the act
13   are amended to read:
14      Section 4.   Formation of Housing Authorities.--* * *
15      (d)   The governing body of any city or county or the
16   Governor, as the case may be, shall declare that there is need
17   for a housing authority to function within such city or county
18   if and only if the said governing body or the Governor shall
19   find, either that--(1) unsanitary or unsafe dwelling
20   accommodations exist in said city or county; or that (2) there
21   is a lack of sufficient, safe, and sanitary dwelling
22   accommodations in said city or county available to persons of
23   low income or persons of moderate income, and that this results
24   in any of the conditions described in section two (b) and (c) of
25   this act. In determining whether dwelling accommodations are
26   unsafe or unsanitary, said governing body or the Governor, as
27   the case may be, shall take into consideration the degree of
28   overcrowding, the percentage of land coverage, the light, air
29   space, and access available to the inhabitants of such dwelling
30   accommodations, the size and arrangement of the rooms, the

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 1   sanitary facilities, and the extent to which conditions exist in
 2   such buildings, which endanger life, health or property by fire,
 3   disease or other causes.
 4      * * *
 5      Section 10.    Powers of an Authority.--An Authority shall
 6   constitute a public body, corporate and politic, exercising
 7   public powers of the Commonwealth as an agency thereof, which
 8   powers shall include all powers necessary or appropriate to
 9   carry out and effectuate the purpose and provisions of this act,
10   including the following powers, in addition to others herein
11   granted:
12      * * *
13      (b)     To determine where unsafe or unsanitary dwelling or
14   housing conditions exist, or where there is a shortage of safe
15   and sanitary dwelling accommodations for persons of low income
16   and persons of moderate income.
17      (c)     To study and make recommendations concerning the plan of
18   any city or municipality located within the field of operation
19   of the Authority in relation to the problem of clearing,
20   replanning, and reconstructing areas in which unsafe or
21   unsanitary dwelling or housing conditions exist, and the problem
22   of providing dwelling accommodations for persons of low income
23   and persons of moderate income.
24      * * *
25      Section 13.    Establishment of Rentals and Selection of
26   Tenants.--Subject to the preferences under section 13.2, an
27   Authority may rent or lease dwelling accommodations only to
28   persons of low income and persons of moderate income and at
29   rentals within their financial reach. It may rent or lease to a
30   tenant a dwelling consisting of the number of rooms (but no

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 1   greater number) which it deems necessary to provide safe and
 2   sanitary accommodations to the proposed occupants thereof
 3   without overcrowding. It shall not accept any person as a tenant
 4   in any housing project if the person or persons, who would
 5   occupy the dwelling, have an aggregate annual income in excess
 6   of six times the annual rental of the quarters to be furnished
 7   such person or persons. In computing rental for the purpose of
 8   selecting tenants, there shall be included in the rental the
 9   average annual cost, as determined by the Authority, to the
10   occupants of heat, water, electricity, gas, cooking range, and
11   other necessary services or facilities, whether or not the
12   charge for such services and facilities is in fact included in
13   the rental. Every Authority shall file a schedule of its rental
14   charges for dwelling accommodations with the State Planning
15   Board.
16      Nothing contained in this or the preceding section shall be
17   construed as limiting the power of an Authority to vest in an
18   obligee the right, in the event of a default by the Authority,
19   to take possession of a housing project, or cause the
20   appointment of a receiver thereof, or acquire title thereto
21   through foreclosure proceedings, free from all the restrictions
22   imposed by this or the preceding section.
23      Section 4.   This act shall take effect in 60 days.




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