(EXTRACT FROM)

Chapter 275 1st Session
S. 1717

AN ACT

To amend and extend the Defense Production Act of 1950 and the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended.

TITLE II-AMENDMENTS TO THE HOUSING AND RENT ACT OF 1947

SEO. 201. Section 204 (f) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by striking out "July 31, 1951" and inserting in lieu thereof "June 30, 1952".

SEC. 202. (a) The Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by striking out "Housing Expediter" wherever it appears therein and inserting in lieu thereof "President".

(b) Section 204 (a) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is repealed.

(c) Section 206 (e) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by striking out "The principal office of the Housing Expediter shall be in the District of Columbia, but he or any duly authorized representative may exercise any or all of his powers in any place and attorneys" and inserting in lieu thereof "Attorneys". (d) Section 208 (a) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

"(a) The President shall administer the powers, duties, and functions conferred upon him by title II of this Act through the new independent agency created pursuant to section 403 of the Defense Production Act of 1950; and he shall administer the powers, duties, and functions conferred upon him by title I of this Act through such officer or agency of the Government as he may designate. In accordance with the action taken by him pursuant to the preceding sentence, the President shall provide for appropriate transfers of records, property, necessary personnel, and unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, and other funds heretofore under the jurisdiction of, or available to, the Office of the Housing Expediter. Any employees of the Office of the Housing Expediter not so transferred shall, unless transferred to other positions in the Government, be separated from the service. The President shall make such provisions as he shall deem appropriate for the termination and liquidation of the affairs of the Office of the Housing Expediter. For the purposes of determining the status of employees transferred to an agency administering functions provided for in this Act, they shall be deemed to be transferred in connection with a transfer of functions."

SEC. 203. Section 204 of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following:

"(k) The President shall by regulation or order establish such maximum rent or maximum rents as in his judgment will be fair and equitable for controlled housing accommodations (as defined in section 202 (c)) (1) in any State which by law declares that there exists such a shortage in rental housing accommodations as to require Federal rent control in such State, or (2) in any incorporated city, town, village, or in the unincorporated area of any county (other than a city, town, village, or unincorporated area of any county within a State which is controlling rents) upon receipt of a resolution of its governing body adopted for that purpose in accordance with applicable local law and based upon a finding by such governing body, reached as a result of a public hearing held after ten days' notice, that there exists such a shortage in rental housing accommodations as to require Federal rent control in such city, town, village, or unincorporated area in such county. In establishing any maximum rent for any housing accommodations under this subsection the President shall give due consid eration to the rents prevailing for such housing accommodations or comparable housing accommodations during the period from May 24, 1950, to June 24, 1950, and he shall make adjustment for such relevant factors as he shall deem to be of general applicability in

respect to such accommodations, including increases or decreases in property taxes and other costs within such State, incorporated city, town, or village, or unincorporated area.

"(1) Whenever the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Defense Mobilization, acting jointly, shall determine and certify to the President that any area (whether then or ever controlled or decontrolled under this Act) is a critical defense housing area, the President shall by regulation or order establish such maximum rent or maximum rents for any housing accommodations, not then subject to rent control, in such area or portion thereof as in his judgment will be fair and equitable. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 202 (c) the term 'controlled housing accommodations' as applied to any such critical defense housing area shall include all housing accommodations in the area, without exception. In establishing any maximum rent for any housing accommodations under this subsection, the President shall give due consideration to the rents prevailing for such housing accommodations or comparable housing accommodations during the period from May 24, 1950, to June 24, 1950, and he shall make adjustment for such relevant factors as he shall determine and deem to be of general applicability in respect to such accommodations, including increases or decreases in property taxes and other costs within such area. Maximum rents in any critical defense housing area shall be terminated at such time as the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Defense Mobilization, acting jointly, shall determine and certify to the President that such area is no longer a critical defense housing area, or as provided in subsection (e) or (j) of this section: Provided, however, That in any area where maximum rents are removed under the procedures provided in subsection (e) or (j) of this section, maximum rents may be reestablished after the expiration of thirty days on the determination and certification of the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Defense Mobilization, acting jointly. No area shall be certified as a critical defense housing area under the authority granted in this subsection unless all the following conditions exist in such

area:

"(1) a new defense plant or installation has been or is to be provided, or an existing defense plant or installation has been or is to be reactivated or its operation substantially expanded;

"(2) substantial in-migration of defense workers or military personnel is required to carry out activities at such plant or installation; and

"(3) a substantial shortage of housing required for such defense workers or military personnel exists or impends which has resulted or threatens to result in excessive rent increases and which impedes or threatens to impede activities of such defense plant or installation. "(m) Whenever an area has been certified under subsection (1) to be a critical defense housing area, real-estate construction credit controls imposed under title VI of the Defense Production Act of 1950 shall be relaxed to the extent necessary to encourage construction of housing for defense workers and military personnel: Provided, That the certification, pursuant to subsection (1), that an area is a critical defense housing area shall not be effective in such area for any of the purposes of this section until such real-estate construction credit controls have been relaxed as provided in this subsection to the extent necessary in the determination of the President. The fact that any area has been certified as a critical defense housing area under subsection (1) shall not make such area ineligible for the location of additional defense plants, facilities, or installations, or as a source of additional military procurement of any sort.

"(n) No maximum rents shall be established under subsection (1) for housing accommodations in any State where rent control is in effect or in any locality where local rent control is in effect, unless the rent component of the Consumers' Index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for such State or locality has increased more than the United States average of the rent component of such index during the last six months for which such index is available immediately preceding the establishment of such maximum rents. The rent component of the Consumers' Index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for any State shall be the average, weighted by population as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for all reported cities in the State, except that, where only one city is reported, the rent_component for the State shall be the rent component for that city. Upon the establishment of maximum rents pursuant to subsection (1) for housing accommodations in a State in which State rent control is in effect, State rent control shall thereupon terminate. Upon the establishment of maximum rents pursuant to subsection (1) for housing accommodations in a locality in which local rent control is in effect, local rent control shall thereupon terminate. The rent component for any locality subject to local rent control shall be the rent component as established by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for that locality. Where data concerning rents have not been heretofore collected for a city in a State having State rent control or for a particular locality which has local rent control, the President may cause a survey to be made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the purpose of establishing a rent component for that State or locality. For the purposes of this subsection, State rent control shall be deemed in effect in any State in which maximum rents are controlled pursuant to State law throughout the State, regardless of whether maximum rents are actually in effect in every locality of the State.

"(o) In order to compensate for increases which have occurred in costs and prices, the maximum rent in effect on the date of enactment of this subsection for any housing accommodation shall, upon sworn application, be increased to 120 per centum of the following: The maximum rent for the housing accommodation in effect on June 30, 1947 (or if no maximumn rent was then in effect for the housing accommodation, the maximum rent then in effect for comparable housing accommodations), plus the amount of any increase allowed or allowable under this Act for major capital improvements or for increases in living space, services, furniture, furnishings, or equipment, and minus any decrease required or requirable under this Act for decreases in living space, services, furniture, furnishings, or equipment, or for substantial deterioration or failure to perform ordinary repair, replacement, or maintenance. Any increase in a maximum rent applied for under this subsection which is based upon the maximum rent in effect on June 30, 1947, for the particular housing accommodation and upon increases and decreases actually allowed under this Act shall be effective upon the filing of the application. Nothing in this subsection shall require the reduction of any maximum rent, nor prevent such additional adjustment for increases in costs and prices as the President may deem appropriate."

SEC. 204. Section 205 of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 205. (a) Any person who demands, accepts, receives, or retains any payment of rent in excess of the maximum rent prescribed under the provisions of this Act, or any regulation, order, or requirement thereunder, shall be liable to the person from whom such payment is demanded, accepted, received, or retained (or shall be liable to the United States as hereinafter provided) for reasonable attorney's fees and costs as determined by the court, plus liquidated damages in the amounts of (1) $50, or (2) not more than three times the amount by which the payment or payments demanded, accepted, received, or retained exceed the maximum rent which could lawfully be demanded, accepted, received, or retained, as the court in its discretion may determine, whichever in either case may be the greater amount: Provided, That the amount of such liquidated damages shall be the amount of the overcharge or overcharges if the defendant proves that the violation was neither willful nor the result of failure to take practicable precautions against the occurrence of the violation.

"(b) Any person who unlawfully evicts a tenant shall be liable to the person so evicted (or shall be liable to the United States as hereinafter provided) for reasonable attorney's fees and costs as determined by the court, plus liquidated damages in the amounts of (1) one month's rent or $50, whichever is greater, or (2) not more than three times such monthly rent, or $150, whichever is greater: Provided, That the amount of such liquidated damages shall be the amount of one month's rent or $50, whichever is greater, if the defendant proves that the violation was neither willful nor the result of failure to take practicable precautions against the occurrence of the violation.

"(c) Suit to recover liquidated damages as provided in this section may be brought in any Federal court of competent jurisdiction regardless of the amount involved, or in any State or Territorial court of competent jurisdiction, within one year after the date of violation: Provided, That if the person from whom such payment is demanded, accepted, received, or retained, or the person wrongfully evicted, either fails to institute an action under this section within thirty days from the date of the occurrence of the violation or is not entitled for any reason to bring the action, the United States may settle the claim arising out of the violation or within one year after the date of viola. tion may institute such action. If such claim is settled or such action is instituted, the person from whom such payment is demanded, accepted, received, or retained, or the person wrongfully evicted, shall thereafter be barred from bringing an action for the same violation or violations. For the purpose of determining the amount of liquidated damages to be awarded to the plaintiff in an action brought under subsection (a) of this section, all violations alleged in an action under said subsection (a) which were committed by the defendant with respect to the plaintiff prior to the bringing of such an action shall be deemed to constitute one violation and, in such action under subsection (a) of this section, the amount demanded, accepted, received, or retained in connection with such one violation shall be deemed to be the aggregate amount demanded, accepted, received, or retained in connection with all such violations. A judgment for damages or on the merits in any action under either subsection (a) or (b) of this section shall be a bar to any recovery under the same subsection of this section in any other action against the same defendant on account of any violation with respect to the same person prior to the institution of the action in which such judgment was rendered."

SEC. 205. Section 206 (a) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

"(a) (1) It shall be unlawful for any person to demand, accept, receive, or retain any rent for the use or occupancy of any controlled housing accommodations in excess of the maximum rent prescribed under this Act, or otherwise to do or omit to do any act, in violation of this Act, or of any regulation or order or requirement under this Act, or to offer, solicit, attempt, or agree to do any of the foregoing.

"(2) It shall be unlawful for any person to evict, remove, or exclude, or cause to be evicted, removed, or excluded, any tenant from any controlled housing accommodations in any manner or upon any grounds except as authorized or permitted by the provisions of this Act or any regulation, order, or requirement thereunder, and any person who lawfully gains possession from a tenant of any controlled housing accommodations, and thereafter fails fully to comply with such requirements or conditions as may have been imposed for such possession by the provisions of this Act or any regulation, order, or requirement thereunder, shall also be deemed to have unlawfully evicted such tenant and shall be liable to such tenant, or to the United States, as provided in this Act."

SEC. 206. Section 202 (a) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

"(a) The term 'person' includes an individual, corporation, partnership, association, or any other organized group of persons, or legal successor or representative of the foregoing, and includes the United States or any agency thereof, or any other government, or any of its political subdivisions, or any agency of any of the foregoing: Provided, That no punishment provided by this Act shall apply to the United States, or to any such government, political subdivision, or government agency."

SEC. 207. (a) The first sentence of section 202 (c) (1) (A) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by striking out the following: "which is located in a city of less than two million five hundred thousand population according to the 1940 decennial census and".

(b) Section 202 (c) (1) (B) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is repealed.

(c) The proviso in section 204 (h) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is repealed.

SEC. 208. Section 202 (d) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by inserting after "204 (i) (1) or (2)" the following:"204 (k), or 204 (1)”.

SEC. 209. The first sentence of section 204 (b) (1) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by striking out "(h) and (i)" and inserting in lieu thereof "(h), (i), (k), (1), and (0)".

SEC. 210. Nothing in this Act or in the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, shall be construed to require any person to offer any housing accommodations for rent.

SEC. 211. (a) The last sentence of section 4 (c) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by inserting after the word "section" the following: "for persons engaged in national defense activities and".

(b) Section 4 (e) of the Housing and Rent Act of 1947, as amended, is amended by striking out "July 31, 1951" and inserting in lieu thereof "June 30, 1952".