HOUSING DEVELOPMENT COMMISSIONS: 

MOBILITY IMPAIRED TENANTS

House Bill 4513

Sponsor:  Rep. Woodrow Stanley

Committee:  Local Government

Complete to 10-16-13

A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 4513 AS INTRODUCED 4-9-13

House Bill 4513 would amend Public Act 18 of 1933, a law that enables local governments to create housing development commissions (MCL 125.694), to require that a housing commission adopt and implement a policy to offer current disabled tenants a right of first refusal to relocate to an available dwelling accommodation on a lower floor of the same housing project.

Currently the law requires that in the operation or management of housing projects, a local housing commission must do all of the following:

·                    rent or lease the dwelling only to low-income people;

·                    rent or lease dwellings that are affordable to low-income people;

·                    rent or lease a tenant a dwelling that has the number of rooms (but no greater number) necessary to provide safe and sanitary accommodations without overcrowding;

·                    not accept as tenants in any housing project, people who have an aggregate annual net income in excess of the maximum allowed by the federal government;  and

·                    prohibit subletting by tenants.

House Bill 4513 would retain all of these provisions.  In addition, the bill would add the requirement that a local housing commission:

·                    adopt and implement a policy to offer current disabled tenants a right of first refusal to relocate to an available dwelling accommodation on a lower floor of the same housing project.

Under the bill, "disabled tenant" means a tenant who is a disabled person as that term is defined in Section 19a of the Michigan Vehicle Code, other than a tenant who is a disabled person only because of blindness. 

In the Vehicle Code, the term "disabled person" or "person with disabilities" is defined to mean "a person who is determined by a physician, a physician assistant, or an optometrist . . . to have 1 or more of the following physical characteristics:

(a) Blindness as determined by an optometrist, a physician, or a physician assistant.

(b) Inability to walk more than 200 feet without having to stop and rest.

(c) Inability to do both of the following:

(i) Use 1 or both legs or feet.

(ii) Walk without the use of a wheelchair, walker, crutch, brace, prosthetic, or other device, or without the assistance of another person.

(d) A lung disease from which the person's forced expiratory volume for 1 second, when measured by spirometry, is less than 1 liter, or from which the person's arterial oxygen tension is less than 60 mm/hg of room air at rest.

(e) A cardiovascular condition that causes the person to measure between 3 and 4 on the New York heart classification scale, or that renders the person incapable of meeting a minimum standard for cardiovascular health that is established by the American heart association and approved by the department of public health.

(f) An arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition that severely limits the person's ability to walk.

(g) The persistent reliance upon an oxygen source other than ordinary air."

FISCAL IMPACT:

The bill does not appear to have any state or local fiscal impact.

                                                                                           Legislative Analyst:   J. Hunault

                                                                                                 Fiscal Analysts:   Ben Gielczyk

■ This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.