§ 12705d — Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse

(a) The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall establish a clearinghouse to serve as a national repository to receive, collect, process, assemble, and disseminate information regarding— (1) State and local laws, regulations, and policies affecting the development, maintenance, improvement, availability, or cost of affordable housing (including tax policies affecting land and other property, land use controls, zoning ordinances, building codes, fees and charges, growth limits, and policies that affect the return on investment in residential property), and the prevalence and effects on affordable housing of such laws, regulations, and policies; (2) State and local activities, strategies, and plans to remove or ameliorate the negative effects, if any, of such laws, regulations, and policies, including particularly innovative or successful activities, strategies, and plans; and (3) State and local strategies, activities and plans that promote affordable housing and housing desegregation, including particularly innovative or successful strategies, activities, and plans. (b) The clearinghouse established under subsection (a) shall— (1) respond to inquiries from State and local governments, other organizations, and individuals requesting information regarding State and local laws, regulations, policies, activities, strategies, and plans described in subsection (a); (2) provide assistance in identifying, examining, and understanding such laws, regulations, policies, activities, strategies, and plans; and (3) by making available through a World Wide Web site of the Department, by electronic mail, or otherwise, provide to each housing agency of a unit of general local government that serves an area having a population greater than 100,000, an index of all State and local strategies and plans submitted under subsection (a) to the clearinghouse, which— (A) shall describe the types of barriers to affordable housing that the strategy or plan was designed to ameliorate or remove; and (B) shall, not later than 30 days after submission to the clearinghouse of any new strategy or plan, be updated to include the new strategy or plan submitted. (c) The clearinghouse under this section shall be established within the Office of Policy Development of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and shall be under the direction of the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. (d) The clearinghouse under this section (as amended by section 103 of the Housing Affordability Barrier Removal Act of 2000) shall be established and commence carrying out the functions of the clearinghouse under this section not later than 1 year after December 27, 2000. The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development may comply with the requirements under this section by reestablishing the clearinghouse that was originally established to comply with this section and updating and improving such clearinghouse to the extent necessary to comply with the requirements of this section as in effect pursuant to the enactment of such Act.