HOUSING PRESERVATION AND TENANT PROTECTION ACT OF 2010 (H.R. 4868)

Provide Resources and Incentives to Prevent the Further Loss of Affordable Housing Units
· Provides grants and loans to for-profit and non-profit housing sponsors to help recapitalize and/or transfer the property to a preservation purchaser.
· Establishes a voluntary Preservation Exchange Program to encourage owners to sell properties to purchasers who will keep the housing affordable.
· Establishes a federal first right of refusal that provides HUD with an opportunity to purchase a property from an owner who wishes to sell their property. Significantly, the bill does not require an owner to sell their property or prevent them from obtaining fair market value.
· Allows owners to request project-based assistance in lieu of enhanced vouchers, which serves to help preserve the long-term affordability of the project, assist with capital for rehabilitation, and ensure that tenants are not displaced.
· Allows owners to receive budget based rent increases, thus ensuring that the properties are adequately maintained and encouraging owners to renew Section 8 contracts.

Prevent the Displacement of Disabled, Elderly and Other Low-Income Tenants
· Closes gaps in existing law to ensure that all low and moderate-income tenants are eligible for enhanced vouchers in the event that the assisted housing is converted to market rate housing.
· Gives HUD and affordable housing groups the tools needed to recapitalize the aging Section 202 elderly housing portfolio.
· Enables tenants to be partners with HUD, RHS and owners to ensure that federally-assisted housing is properly maintained.
· Includes notification requirements to ensure that tenants are given sufficient notice prior to the conversion of the property to market rate housing.

Rural Housing
· Makes permanent a rural housing revitalization demonstration program launched in Fiscal Year 2006 that is designed to preserve and recapitalize Section 515 properties.
· Authorizes vouchers for tenants in properties that are converted to market rate housing or foreclosed.
· Extends the same protections that tenants in HUD-assisted housing currently have to tenants in RHS-assisted multifamily properties.

Establish a National Database to Further Preservation
· Directs HUD to establish a nationwide public database of HUD and RHS assisted properties to enable policymakers and the public to more effectively monitor and preserve the existing portfolio of affordable housing and contains adequate safeguards to ensure the protection of owners' privacy rights and proprietary information.