BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	C.S.S.B. 732
89R20669 JG-D	By: Miles
	Health & Human Services
	3/27/2025
	Committee Report (Substituted)

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

Senior residents in multifamily housing developments face serious health and safety risks during power outages if elevators and climate control systems become inoperable. In prolonged outages, residents on upper floors may be trapped in their units without functioning elevators, limiting emergency evacuation and mobility. Extreme temperatures due to the loss of heating or cooling can endanger elderly residents, increasing risks of heat exhaustion, hypothermia, and other health complications.

C.S.S.B. 732 requires that multifamily senior housing developments receiving low-income housing tax credits install backup power sources to ensure:

• Elevator operation when elevators provide the only access to residential units.

• Climate-controlled spaces maintained between 68 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit during outages.

• Compliance for existing buildings is delayed until 2030.

• The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs must report on compliance by 2030. 

C.S.S.B. 732 amends current law relating to required generators or other power sources for certain housing developments that receive an allocation of low income housing tax credits.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Department of Housing and Community

Affairs in SECTION 1 (Section 2306.6741, Government Code) of this bill.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter DD, Chapter 2306, Government Code, by adding Section 2306.6741, as follows:

Sec. 2306.6741. GENERATOR OR OTHER POWER SOURCE REQUIRED. (a) Provides that this section applies only to a development that has received an allocation of low income housing tax credits under Subchapter DD (Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program) and is a multifamily residential development whose residential units are reserved for individuals 55 years of age and older.

(b) Requires the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) to require each development to which this section applies to be equipped with a generator or other power source capable of operating each elevator in the development that provides the only point of access to an area of the development containing residential units and powering a system or device capable of maintaining the air temperature in at least one enclosed area of the development between 68 and 82 degrees Fahrenheit during a power outage.

(c) Authorizes TDHCA to adopt rules to implement this section.

SECTION 2. (a) Defines "development."

(b) Requires TDHCA to ensure that each development whose construction is completed on or after January 1, 2026, complies with Section 2306.6741, Government Code, as added by this Act.

(c) Provides that, notwithstanding Section 2306.6741, Government Code, as added by this Act, a development whose construction is completed on or before December 31, 2025, is not required to comply with that section until January 1, 2030.

(d) Requires TDHCA, not later than March 1, 2030, to prepare and submit to the legislature a written report on the overall number of developments in compliance with Section 2306.6741, Government Code, as added by this Act and, for any development that is not in compliance with that section, the reason for the noncompliance and any actions taken by TDHCA to ensure compliance with that section.

SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 2025.