Eviction Crisis Act of 2026

HUD would collect individual and aggregate information on court-ordered, administrative, and illegal evictions, including information about tenants, landlords, and case outcomes. The bill requires privacy safeguards, bars use of the data to determine program eligibility, and calls for public reports without personally identifying information.

The bill would create grants for very low-income households facing housing instability and a short-term crisis. Grants could cover rent and arrears, utilities, deposits, relocation costs, and other housing expenses; generally, assistance would be limited to four months in any three-year period, with longer limits during specified periods of high unemployment or a declared emergency or major disaster.

The Attorney General would award grants to states and local jurisdictions for diversion programs and landlord-tenant community courts that offer social-service assistance. Grant recipients would have to provide at least an equal amount from nonfederal sources, and the programs could not be designed to prolong legitimate eviction cases or restrict landlords’ access to the usual court system.

When a consumer report is obtained to evaluate someone applying to rent a home, the reporting agency would have to give that person a copy. The bill would also exclude eviction judgments and related suits when the judgment is in the tenant’s favor from the specified consumer-report information.

HUD would award grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations to collect information from landlords about illegal evictions. The bill also authorizes grants to help states and local jurisdictions collect eviction data for the national database.

HUD would establish an advisory committee on eviction research, and the Government Accountability Office would study eviction trends, laws, and processes. The GAO would report on grants under the bill and estimate any savings or additional revenues associated with them.