1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Know Your Home Act of 2020”.
Know Your Home Act of 2020
A BILL
To amend the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to provide additional funding under the Community Development Block Grant program for units of general local government to digitize and make available online information regarding violations of housing construction, building, and safety codes, and for other purposes.
2. CDBG eligible activities
Eligible activity— Subsection (a) of section 105 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5305(a)) is amended—
in paragraph (25)(D), by striking “and” at the end;
in paragraph (26), by striking the period at the end and inserting “; and”; and
by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
“(27) payment of costs incurred by a unit of general local government that receives amounts under this title (including pursuant to section 106(d)(1)) for making publicly available online comprehensive information regarding violations during the most recent 3 years of any Federal, State, or local statutes, codes, ordinances, or regulations relating to the construction, safety, quality, health, or cleanliness of residential structures by any structures located in such unit of general local government, which shall include the location of the structure, identity of the owner of the structure, the nature of the violation, the date or dates of the violation, and the date of any rescission of such violation.”
Authorization of appropriations— Section 103 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5304) is amended—
by inserting “(a) In general.—” before “The Secretary”; and
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(b) Amounts for establishing online database of housing code violations—In addition to amounts authorized to be appropriated under subsection (a), there is authorized to be appropriated $30,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2025, for grants under this title, except that amounts made available pursuant to this subsection for a fiscal year may only be used for the eligible activity under section 105(a)(27) and may only be provided to units of general local government whose statements of projected uses of funds under this title prepared in accordance with section 104(a) for a fiscal year provide for such use for such fiscal year.”
3. Requirement for eligibility for CDBG grant amounts
Section 104 of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5304) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(n) Requirement To collect and make available information regarding housing code violations
“(1) Requirement—No funds made available for fiscal year 2026 or any fiscal year thereafter for grants under this Act may be allocated for, or obligated or expended to, any unit of general local government that fails to collect and make publicly available immediately upon request comprehensive information regarding violations during the most recent 3 years of any Federal, State, or local statutes, codes, ordinances, or regulations relating to the construction, safety, quality, health, or cleanliness of residential structures by any structures located in such unit of general local government, which shall include the location of the structure, identity of the owner of the structure, the nature of the violation, the date or dates of the violation, and the date of any rescission of such violation.
“(2) Preemption—The laws of any State or unit of general local government requiring the filing of a request and other procedures for obtaining information from a State or unit of general local government, or any agency thereof, to obtain such information are preempted to the extent that such laws apply to information regarding the violations described in paragraph (1) and to information regarding violations described in section 105(a)(27).”