Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 130— - NATIONAL AFFORDABLE HOUSING › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - GENERAL PROVISIONS AND POLICIES › § 12705
The Secretary will only give money or direct help to a state, city, county, or other local area if that place sends a housing plan, updates it each year, and the Secretary approves it. The plan must cover the next 5 years and explain how many homes are needed for very low-, low-, and moderate-income people and for groups like the elderly, people with disabilities, large families, and victims of violence. It must describe homelessness and how the area will prevent it, provide shelter and transitional housing, and help people move to permanent homes. The plan must explain the housing market, any local rules or taxes that make housing more expensive and how the area will try to fix them, who (businesses, nonprofits, agencies) will carry out the plan, what non-Federal money or public land is available, and how funds from subchapter II, the United States Housing Act of 1937, the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act will be used and prioritized. It must also cover public housing needs and plans to improve it, coordinate Low-Income Housing Tax Credit use (for States), encourage resident involvement and homeownership, set monitoring and long-term compliance rules, include a promise to actively promote fair housing, include a displacement and relocation plan that follows section 104(d) of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, estimate lead-based paint hazards and actions to fix them, say how many families will get affordable housing (as defined in section 12745), set goals to reduce households below the poverty line for fiscal year 1994 and after, and describe coordination with health and service agencies. The Secretary will review each plan when received and must approve it within 60 days unless it is incomplete or conflicts with the law. During the 18-month period after November 28, 1990, the review period could be extended to no more than 90 days. If the Secretary disapproves a plan, the area gets immediate notice and must be told in writing within 15 days why and what to fix; if not told in 15 days, the plan is treated as approved. After first disapproval, the Secretary must allow at least 45 days for fixes or resubmission and then approve or disapprove within not less than 30 days after getting the changes. The Secretary may set rules to encourage state and local plans to work together, but a local government cannot be forced to have parts of its plan approved by the State. When making a plan, jurisdictions must talk with social service agencies, and for lead-paint work must consult health and child-welfare agencies and use existing data. Not later than 4 months after the final report of the Secretary’s Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing, the Secretary must send Congress recommendations to remove regulatory barriers that raise housing costs or cause discrimination. The plan for any place that has a troubled public housing agency must describe how the place will help that agency improve. Troubled public housing agency — a public housing agency labeled “troubled” under federal law when the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 took effect.
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Citation
42 U.S.C. § 12705
Title 42 — The Public Health and Welfare
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73