Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 110 Part 2.djvu/429

 PUBLIC LAW 104-134—APR. 26, 1996 110 STAT. 1321-282 section beginning in fiscal year 1996 under which up to 30 public housing agencies (including Indian housing authorities) administering the public or Indian housing program and the section 8 housing assistance payments program may be selected by the Secretary to participate. The Secretary shall provide training and technical assistance during the demonstration and conduct detailed evaluations of up to 15 such agencies in an effort to identify replicable program models promoting the purpose of the demonstration. Under the demonstration, notwithstanding any provision of the United States Housing Act of 1937 except as provided in subsection (e), an agency may combine operating assistance provided under section 9 of the United States Housing Act of 1937, modernization assistance provided under section 14 of such Act, and assistance provided under section 8 of such Act for the certificate and voucher programs, to provide housing assistance for low-income families, as defined in section 3(b)(2) of the United States Housing Act of 1937, and services to facilitate the transition to work on such terms and conditions as the agency may propose and the Secretary may approve. (c) APPLICATION.— An application to participate in the demonstration— (1) shall request authority to combine assistance under sections 8, 9, and 14 of the United States Housing Act of 1937; (2) shall be submitted only after the public housing agency provides for citizen participation through a public hearing and, if appropriate, other means; (3) shall include a plan developed by the agency that takes into account comments from the public hearing and any other public comments on the proposed program, and comments from current and prospective residents who would be affected, and that includes criteria for— (A) families to be assisted, which shall require that at least 75 percent of the families assisted by participating demonstration public housing authorities shall be very lowincome families, as defined in section 3(b)(2) of the United States Housing Act of 1937; (B) establishing a reasonable rent policy, which shall be designed to encourage employment and self-sufficiency by participating families, consistent with the purpose of this demonstration, such as by excluding some or all of a family's earned income for purposes of determining rent; (C) continuing to assist substantially the same total number of eligible low-income families as would have been served had the amounts not been combined; (D) maintaining a comparable mix of families (by family size) as would have been provided had the amounts not been used under the demonstration; and (E) assuring that housing assisted under the demonstration program meets housing quality standards established or approved by the Secretary; and (4) may request assistance for training and technical assistance to assist with design of the demonstration and to participate in a detailed evaluation. (d) SELECTION. —In selecting among applications, the Secretary shall take into account the potential of each agency to plan and carry out a program under the demonstration, the relative perform-

�