News

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) today introduced the Liberty City Rising Act (S.2856), legislation that would improve safety standards for public housing complexes located in high-crime areas, such as Miami’s Liberty City and Overtown. The bill was developed after Rubio’s visit to Liberty Square, one of the country’s oldest public housing developments, where he heard firsthand from the residents who had been victims of the systematic violence and crime reported in the community.

“During my visit to Liberty City, I heard firsthand from a community that has been wracked with violence for far too long,” said Senator Rubio. “I will work to pass the Liberty City Rising Act as a means to ensure that communities, like Liberty Square, are held to higher safety standards so that these families can raise their children in safe and sanitary living conditions.”
 
The Liberty City Rising Act would:

• Require Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) with traditional public housing and project-based section 8 properties located in “high-crime areas” to ensure properties have properly functioning security cameras, dead-bolt locks on entry unit doors, smoke detectors in common areas, and covers on security camera boxes and covered security camera wires;
• Make an anonymous PHA operated crime-reporting hot-line available to tenants; and
• Require HUD give priority to high-crime PHAs when awarding Emergency Safety and Security grants.

Rubio recently called for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to quickly approve requests for housing vouchers for eligible tenants seeking to leave the community and requested the Senate Small Business Committee conduct a field hearing in the community to discuss ways small businesses can help vitalize the community.