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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
Amending the act of May 28, 1937 (P.L.955, No.265), entitled "An
act to promote public health, safety, morals, and welfare by
declaring the necessity of creating public bodies, corporate
and politic, to be known as housing authorities to engage in
slum clearance, and to undertake projects, to provide
dwelling accommodations for persons of low income; providing
for the organization of such housing authorities; defining
their powers and duties; providing for the exercise of such
powers, including the acquisition of property by purchase,
gift or eminent domain, the renting and selling of property,
and including borrowing money, issuing bonds, and other
obligations, and giving security therefor; prescribing the
remedies of obligees of housing authorities; authorizing
housing authorities to enter into agreements, including
agreements with the United States, the Commonwealth, and
political subdivisions and municipalities thereof; defining
the application of zoning, sanitary, and building laws and
regulations to projects built or maintained by such housing
authorities; exempting the property and securities of such
housing authorities from taxation; and imposing duties and
conferring powers upon the State Planning Board, and certain
other State officers and departments," 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.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Section 2 of the act of May 28, 1937 (P.L.955,
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No.265), known as the Housing Authorities Law, is amended to
read:
Section 2. Findings and Declaration of Policy.--It has been
determined by the General Assembly of this Commonwealth, and it
is hereby declared as a matter of legislative finding that--
(a) There exists in urban and rural communities, within the
various counties of this Commonwealth, numerous slums and
unsafe, unsanitary, inadequate or overcrowded dwellings, which
conditions are accompanied and aggravated by an acute shortage
of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings within the financial
reach of persons of low income and persons of moderate income,
such conditions arising from overcrowding, dilapidation, faulty
construction, obsolete buildings, lack of proper light, air, and
sanitary facilities.
(b) The existence of any of the above enumerated conditions
is prejudicial to the welfare of the people of this Commonwealth
because such conditions--(1) encourage the spread of disease and
impair public health and morals; (2) increase the hazards of
fires, accidents, and other calamities which result in loss of
life and property; (3) subject the moral standards of the people
to bad influences which have permanent deleterious social
effects; (4) increase the violation of the criminal laws of the
Commonwealth so as to jeopardize the safety and well-being of
the inhabitants thereof; (5) necessitate the expenditure of vast
sums of public money, both by the Commonwealth and local
governmental bodies, for the purpose of crime prevention,
punishment, and correction, fire and accident prevention, public
health service and relief.
(c) The failure to remedy the acute dwelling shortage is
directly related to the stagnation of business activity in the
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construction, durable goods, and allied industries which are
conducted within this Commonwealth, and the stagnation of which
has produced serious and prolonged unemployment, with all its
injurious effects upon the welfare of the inhabitants of this
Commonwealth.
(d) Private industry alone has been and now is unable to
overcome the obstacles which have prevented and are now
preventing it from clearing slum areas and relieving the
shortage of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for persons of
low income and persons of moderate income, and the construction,
pursuant to this act, of housing projects for persons of low
income and persons of moderate income would therefore not be
competitive with private enterprise.
Therefore, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to promote the health and welfare
of the inhabitants thereof by the creation of corporate and
politic bodies to be known as housing authorities. The public
purposes for which such authorities shall operate shall be--(1)
the clearance, replanning, and reconstruction of the areas in
which slums exist; (2) the providing of safe and sanitary
dwelling accommodations for persons of low income and persons of
moderate income through new construction or the reconstruction,
restoration, reconditioning, remodeling or repair of existing
structures, so as to prevent recurrence of the economically and
socially disastrous conditions hereinbefore described; and (3)
the accomplishment of a combination of the foregoing. Such
purposes are hereby declared to be public uses for which public
money may be spent, and private property acquired by the
exercise of the power of eminent domain.
Section 2. Section 3(j) and (l.1) of the act are amended and
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the section is amended by adding a subsection to read:
Section 3. Definitions.--The following words, terms, and
phrases, where used or referred to in this act, shall have the
meanings ascribed to them in this section, except in those
instances where the context clearly indicates a different
meaning:
* * *
(j) "Housing Project" or "Project." Any work or undertaking
-- (1) To demolish, clear or remove buildings from any slum
area, or to adapt such area to public purposes, including parks,
playgrounds, swimming pools or other recreational or community
purposes; or (2) to provide safe and sanitary dwelling
accommodations by means of new construction, or the
reconstruction, restoration, reconditioning, remodeling, or
repair of existing structures for persons of low income or
persons of moderate income, such work or undertaking may include
buildings, land, equipment, facilities, and other real or
personal property for necessary, convenient or desirable
appurtenances, streets, sewers, water services, parks, site
preparation, gardening, administrative, community, health,
recreational, educational, welfare or other purposes; or (3) to
accomplish a combination of the foregoing. The term "Housing
Project" or "Project" may be applied to the planning of the
buildings and improvements, the acquisition of property, the
demolition of existing structures, the construction,
reconstruction, alteration, and repair of existing improvements,
and all other work in connection therewith.
* * *
(l.1) "Mixed-use Projects." Any project that includes a
commercial, industrial, market-rate residential or retail
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component, and either-- (1) a low-income or moderate-income
housing component; or (2) is within a two-mile radius of a [low-
income] housing project owned, leased, either in the capacity of
lessor or lessee, held or financed by an Authority.
* * *
(o.1) "Persons of Moderate Income." Persons or families
whose income is not less than eighty per centum (80%) and not
more than one hundred twenty per centum (120%) of the median
gross household income for households of the same size within
the housing region in which the housing is located.
* * *
Section 3. Sections 4(d), 10(b) and (c) and 13 of the act
are amended to read:
Section 4. Formation of Housing Authorities.--* * *
(d) The governing body of any city or county or the
Governor, as the case may be, shall declare that there is need
for a housing authority to function within such city or county
if and only if the said governing body or the Governor shall
find, either that--(1) unsanitary or unsafe dwelling
accommodations exist in said city or county; or that (2) there
is a lack of sufficient, safe, and sanitary dwelling
accommodations in said city or county available to persons of
low income or persons of moderate income, and that this results
in any of the conditions described in section two (b) and (c) of
this act. In determining whether dwelling accommodations are
unsafe or unsanitary, said governing body or the Governor, as
the case may be, shall take into consideration the degree of
overcrowding, the percentage of land coverage, the light, air
space, and access available to the inhabitants of such dwelling
accommodations, the size and arrangement of the rooms, the
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sanitary facilities, and the extent to which conditions exist in
such buildings, which endanger life, health or property by fire,
disease or other causes.
* * *
Section 10. Powers of an Authority.--An Authority shall
constitute a public body, corporate and politic, exercising
public powers of the Commonwealth as an agency thereof, which
powers shall include all powers necessary or appropriate to
carry out and effectuate the purpose and provisions of this act,
including the following powers, in addition to others herein
granted:
* * *
(b) To determine where unsafe or unsanitary dwelling or
housing conditions exist, or where there is a shortage of safe
and sanitary dwelling accommodations for persons of low income
and persons of moderate income.
(c) To study and make recommendations concerning the plan of
any city or municipality located within the field of operation
of the Authority in relation to the problem of clearing,
replanning, and reconstructing areas in which unsafe or
unsanitary dwelling or housing conditions exist, and the problem
of providing dwelling accommodations for persons of low income
and persons of moderate income.
* * *
Section 13. Establishment of Rentals and Selection of
Tenants.--Subject to the preferences under section 13.2, an
Authority may rent or lease dwelling accommodations only to
persons of low income and persons of moderate income and at
rentals within their financial reach. It may rent or lease to a
tenant a dwelling consisting of the number of rooms (but no
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greater number) which it deems necessary to provide safe and
sanitary accommodations to the proposed occupants thereof
without overcrowding. It shall not accept any person as a tenant
in any housing project if the person or persons, who would
occupy the dwelling, have an aggregate annual income in excess
of six times the annual rental of the quarters to be furnished
such person or persons. In computing rental for the purpose of
selecting tenants, there shall be included in the rental the
average annual cost, as determined by the Authority, to the
occupants of heat, water, electricity, gas, cooking range, and
other necessary services or facilities, whether or not the
charge for such services and facilities is in fact included in
the rental. Every Authority shall file a schedule of its rental
charges for dwelling accommodations with the State Planning
Board.
Nothing contained in this or the preceding section shall be
construed as limiting the power of an Authority to vest in an
obligee the right, in the event of a default by the Authority,
to take possession of a housing project, or cause the
appointment of a receiver thereof, or acquire title thereto
through foreclosure proceedings, free from all the restrictions
imposed by this or the preceding section.
Section 4. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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