S. 1091 — Rural Housing Accessibility Act

This section establishes portability requirements for the Housing Choice Voucher program (i.e., Section 8 tenant-based rental assistance) applicable to covered public housing agencies (PHAs)—those utilizing less than 95% of available budget authority in a fiscal year—receiving vouchers from families moving outside their initial PHA's jurisdiction. Such covered PHAs must (1) notify the initial PHA whether they will absorb the voucher using their own funds or bill the initial PHA for not more than 12 months; (2) make assistance payments to the portable family under an annual contributions contract with the Secretary; and (3) cease billing the initial PHA after 12 months from the initial billing date. (Thus, covered PHAs with unused budget authority must absorb port-in vouchers after a maximum 12-month billing period.)