Bill Text: NJ A5229 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires DCA to continuously maintain open enrollment period for federal Housing Choice Voucher Program pre-applications.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-20 - Reported and Referred to Assembly Appropriations Committee [A5229 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2022-A5229-Introduced.html

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ASSEMBLY, No. 5229

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

220th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 23, 2023

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman  YVONNE LOPEZ

District 19 (Middlesex)

Assemblyman  BENJIE E. WIMBERLY

District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)

Assemblywoman  ANGELICA M. JIMENEZ

District 32 (Bergen and Hudson)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires DCA to continuously maintain open enrollment period for federal Housing Choice Voucher Program pre-applications.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  

An Act concerning pre-applications for certain State-administered federal rental assistance and supplementing P.L.1966, c.293 (C.52:27D-1 et seq.).

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    The Commissioner of Community Affairs shall, to the extent permitted by federal law, continuously maintain an open enrollment period in which rental assistance applicants may submit pre-applications to be placed on the waiting list for the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program, authorized pursuant to section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. s.1437f), that is administered by the department.

 

     2.    This act shall take effect on the first day of the third month next following enactment, except the commissioner may take any anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill would require the Department of Community Affairs to continuously maintain an open enrollment period in which rental assistance applicants may submit pre-applications to be placed on the waiting list for the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program administered by the department.  Neither current federal nor State law establishes a specific length of time that these open enrollment periods must last.  The department, however, has used its discretion to limit these open enrollment periods to very short periods of time.  This bill would ensure that applicants for this rental assistance may submit their pre-applications at any time, so that they do not lose the opportunity to be placed on the waiting list simply for missing a short window of time that the department happened to select.