Shelter, Land, and Urban Management (SLUM) Assistance Act of 2011 - Authorizes the President to furnish technical assistance and financial support to developing countries for affordable housing and urban development.
Directs the President, through the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to develop a strategy to provide affordable housing and sustainable urban development in developing countries.
[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2180 Introduced in House (IH)]
112th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2180
To authorize assistance for affordable housing and sustainable urban
development in developing countries, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 14, 2011
Mr. Miller of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. Price of North Carolina,
Ms. Moore, Mr. McNerney, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Mr. Ellison, Mr.
Blumenauer, and Mr. Honda) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize assistance for affordable housing and sustainable urban
development in developing countries, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Shelter, Land, and Urban Management
(SLUM) Assistance Act of 2011''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Approximately 51 percent of the world's population
currently lives in cities of all sizes and produces the
majority of the world's economic output.
(2) Approximately one billion people currently live in
slums, and more than half of this population is under the age
of 25.
(3) It is estimated that by 2030 the number of people
living in slums will double.
(4) Slums are characterized by inadequate access to safe
water, sanitation, and other essential infrastructure,
overcrowding, poorly structured housing, and insecure
residential and property ownership status.
(5) Eighty-eight percent of all disease is caused by unsafe
drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene and
almost 50 percent of all people in developing countries suffer
health problems caused by water and sanitation deficits.
(6) Over 1.1 billion people lack adequate access to safe
water and nearly 2.5 billion lack access to sanitation
services.
(7) The costs of diseases and productivity losses linked to
water and sanitation in less developed countries amount to two
percent of gross domestic product and up to five percent in
sub-Saharan Africa.
(8) Insecure lease and real property ownership tenure often
subject slum dwellers to arbitrary, often supra-market rents,
forced evictions, threats, and harassment.
(9) In 2007, approximately five million people were subject
to forced evictions, and projections show that the number of
forced evictions are likely to increase to between 40 million
and 70 million in the next 20 years.
(10) Insecurity of tenure severely inhibits economic
development by undermining investment incentives and
constraining the growth of credit markets, imperils the ability
of families to achieve sustainable livelihoods and assured
access to shelter, and often contributes to conflict over
property rights.
(11) Women make up 66 percent of the world's work force,
but own less than 15 percent of the property globally.
(12) Women are affected disproportionally by forced
evictions and insecure tenure as a result of gender
discrimination, often including gender-biased laws that define
women as legal minors or otherwise prevent them from acquiring
and securing land, property, and housing lease or ownership
rights, making them more vulnerable to poverty, violence, and
sexual abuse.
(13) Adequate housing and universal access to basic shelter
serve as catalysts for social and democratic development.
(14) The 2006 National Security Strategy states,
``America's national interests and moral values drive us in the
same direction: to assist the world's poor citizens and least
developed nations and help integrate them into the global
economy.''.
(15) Goal 7 Target 11 of the Millennium Development Goals
sets the target that ``By 2020, to have achieved a significant
improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-
dwellers.''.
(16) The United States formerly provided significant levels
of overseas development assistance for shelter and affordable
housing, but in recent years this amount has declined.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It should be the policy of the United States--
(1) to establish and implement, as a major objective of
United States overseas development assistance strategy,
particularly in developing countries, programs that foster
improved urban management, that foster sustainable urban
development, that increase the security of real property
tenure, and that expand access to basic shelter, affordable
urban housing, and essential urban services and infrastructure,
particularly by the poor and others who lack such access in
whole or in part;
(2) to allocate increased levels of United States bilateral
assistance for programs described in paragraph (1); and
(3) in order to prevent waste and duplication in the use of
United States overseas development assistance with respect to
the programs described in paragraph (1) and in order to foster
cooperative relations with foreign governments,
intergovernmental organizations, and private business and
nonprofit entities that singly or jointly support or implement
programs similar to those described in paragraph (1), to seek
and actively support innovative international mechanisms
designed to increase coordination and mutual complementarity in
the planning, financing, and implementation of sustainable
urban development policies and programs implemented by the
United States and other donors described in this paragraph.
SEC. 4. ASSISTANCE TO PROVIDE AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN
DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES.
(a) Purposes of Assistance.--The purposes of assistance under this
section are to--
(1) support economically and environmentally sustainable
and administratively feasible urban socioeconomic growth,
development, and poverty reduction efforts and to produce
improved health and other basic quality of life indicators for
residents of slums, other densely populated, impoverished urban
areas, and urban areas experiencing rapid population growth in
developing countries, including by increasing--
(A) access to basic shelter and affordable housing,
particularly by residents of slums and similar densely
populated, impoverished urban areas;
(B) affordable and equitable access to safe water,
sanitation, and solid waste removal services, and
shared communal infrastructure, such as sidewalks,
roads, public lighting;
(C) access to and security of land and other real
property use, lease, and ownership rights and legal
recognition and protections thereof by all income
groups, including by supporting efforts to enhance the
effectiveness of transaction and dispute resolution
systems, equitable and sustainable national land
policies, and enhanced land administration services;
and
(D) support for efforts to enhance the capacity of
developing country governments, including regional and
municipal governments, to plan and manage urban growth
in an operationally and financially effective and
transparent, participatory, and accountable manner, to
pursue policy reforms that foster such objectives, and
to provide urban services and infrastructure, such as
basic water and sanitation, transport, solid waste
removal, and electrical power service delivery,
including in impoverished urban zones; and
(2) achieve the objectives described in paragraph (1) by--
(A) promoting the growth of functional,
commercially oriented housing markets in target
countries and expanding access to individual and
institutional investment capital and financing for
housing and municipal infrastructure, including by
public-private partnerships, municipal bonds, micro-
credit financing, and strengthening national and
regional public or private institutions involved in the
regulation or provision of finance of such purposes;
(B) supporting institutional, procedural, and legal
reforms that seek to enhance the rights and access to
shelter, urban infrastructure and services, and
property ownership and lease rights of groups that are
socioeconomically vulnerable or marginalized, or
subject to discrimination, including women, children,
the poor, and people living in urban slums and informal
settlements;
(C) prioritizing support for cross-sectoral, multi-
purpose projects that simultaneously advance one or
more of the objectives described in subparagraphs (A)
and (B); and
(D) promoting partnerships between the public and
private sectors and community-based organizations to
plan and implement projects described in subparagraph
(C).
(b) Authorization of Assistance.--To carry out the purposes of
subsection (a), the President is authorized--
(1) to furnish technical assistance and financial support
to developing countries, to include, as appropriate, diverse
means of support, including technical or financial assistance
to public-private partnerships, grants, direct loans, seed
credit, contracted technical services, investment insurance,
loan guarantees, and other forms of assistance;
(2) to carry out paragraph (1) during fiscal year 2012
through the use of existing United States Government programs,
implementing authorities, and organizations, including--
(A) specialized organizational units of the United
States Agency for International Development, including
the Urban Programs Team (EGAT/PR/UP), the Development
Credit Authority (EGAT/DC/DCA), the Land Resources
Management Team (EGAT/NRM/LRM), the Water Team (EGAT/
NRM/W), the Office of Infrastructure and Engineering
(EGAT/IE), and the Engineering Services Team (EGAT/I&E/
ES);
(B) the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC); and
(C) other United States Government agencies with
relevant technical expertise or policy mandates
pertaining to urban development and housing in foreign
countries; and
(3) to strengthen and enhance the operational capabilities
and capacities of United States Government programs,
implementing authorities, and organizations described in
subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph (2) in furtherance
of the purposes and objectives described in subsection (a)(1),
including efforts to increase their manpower, diversity of
expertise, and levels of funding, and to enhance their ability
to jointly coordinate and collaborate in carrying out such
purposes and objectives.
SEC. 5. AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY.
(a) Strategy.--The President, acting through the Secretary of State
and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development, shall develop a strategy to provide affordable housing and
sustainable urban development in developing countries.
(b) Consultation.--The strategy required by subsection (a) shall be
developed in part through a process of consultation between the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development
and the heads of units of such Agency and other United States
Government agencies with relevant technical expertise or policy
mandates pertaining to urban development and housing in foreign
countries, and shall draw upon best practices and successful models of
urban development undertaken or developed by international
intergovernmental organizations, international finance institutions,
recipient countries, United States and international nongovernmental
organizations, and other appropriate entities.
(c) Content.--The strategy required by the subsection (a) shall
include or address--
(1) a review and assessment of existing or past United
States programs and foreign assistance strategies designed to
increase access to basic shelter and affordable housing in
developing countries, extending affordable and equitable access
to safe water, sanitation, and solid waste removal services,
and shared communal infrastructure, such as sidewalks, roads,
public lighting, enhancing security of real property use,
lease, and ownership rights;
(2) a review and assessment of small scale, grassroots, and
community-based efforts that have successfully improved access
to basic shelter and urban services;
(3) a process to define short- and long-term objectives and
performance measures by which progress should be measured;
(4) measures necessary to improve and expand United States
programs and foreign assistance strategies in existence on the
date of enactment of this Act that address urban development
issues in foreign countries;
(5) operational plans to improve the ability of United
States foreign assistance agencies to develop and implement
programs described in section 4 of this Act, including through
support for innovative international mechanisms;
(6) a plan for integrating into the broader strategic
foreign assistance plans of the Department of State and United
Stated Agency for International Development the programs and
objectives described in section 4 of this Act; and
(7) a plan for providing long-term United States support
for sustainable urban growth and development initiatives in
developing countries involving a process of regular
coordination between United States Government agencies with
relevant technical expertise or policy mandates, where
appropriate, including the United States Agency for
International Development, the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, the Department of the Treasury, and the Overseas
Private Investment Corporation, and drawing upon the expertise,
whenever possible, of United States-based mayors and
professionals in community, public and banking sectors, major
United States private foundations, and United Nations
organizations and multilateral development banks, among others.
(d) Report.--Not later than 12 months after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to Congress
a report that describes the strategy required by subsection (a).
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2012 and
each subsequent fiscal year such sums as may be necessary to carry out
this Act.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Llama 3.2 · runs locally in your browser
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line