House Bill: Abuse Training for Housing Providers

A bill introduced by Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on October 18 would require all public housing agency staff to be trained on the "prevention, identification, and intervention as it relates to signs of abuse, neglect, and exploitation of elder persons" residing in public housing. While most LeadingAge affordable housing members are not public housing agencies, LeadingAge monitors public housing legislation because public housing is an important source of affordable housing (about 37% of public housing residents are older adults), and oftentimes bills are expanded to apply to other programs than originally envisioned. With sufficient funding for training and compliance, which this bill (H.R. 10017) does not provide or mention, LeadingAge would support such a requirement.