Insurance of loans for housing and related facilities for domestic farm labor

The Secretary is authorized to insure and make commitments to insure loans made by lenders other than the United States to the owner of any farm or any association of farmers for the purpose of providing housing and related facilities for domestic farm labor, or to any Indian tribe for such purpose, or to any State (or political subdivision thereof), or any broad-based public or private nonprofit organization, or any limited partnership in which the general partner is a nonprofit entity, or any nonprofit organization of farmworkers incorporated within the State for the purpose of providing housing and related facilities for domestic farm labor any place within the State where a need exists. All such loans shall be made in accordance with terms and conditions substantially identical with those specified in section 1472 of this title, except that— The Secretary shall utilize the insurance fund created by section 1005a of title 7 11 See References in Text note below. and the provisions of section 1005c(a), (b), and (c) of title 7 1 to discharge obligations under insurance contracts made pursuant to this section, and Any contract of insurance executed by the Secretary under this section shall be an obligation of the United States and incontestable except for fraud or misrepresentation of which the holder of the contract has actual knowledge. Amounts made available pursuant to section 1483 of this title shall be available for administrative expenses incurred under this section. As used in this section— the term “domestic farm labor” means any person (and the family of such person) who receives a substantial portion of his or her income from primary production of agricultural or aquacultural commodities, the handling of agricultural or aquacultural commodities in the unprocessed stage, or the processing of agricultural or aquacultural commodities, without respect to the source of employment, except that— in applying this paragraph with respect to vacant units in farm labor housing, the Secretary shall make units available for occupancy in the following order of priority: The Secretary may waive the interest rate limitation contained in subsection (a)(2) and the requirement of section 1471(c)(3) of this title in any case in which the Secretary determines that qualified public or private nonprofit sponsors are not currently available and are not likely to become available within a reasonable period of time and such waiver is necessary to permit farmers to provide housing and related facilities for migrant domestic farm laborers, except that the benefits resulting from such waiver shall accrue to the tenants, and the interest rate on a loan insured under this section and for which the Secretary permits such waiver shall be no less than one-eighth of 1 per centum above the average interest rate on notes or other obligations which are issued under section 1481 of this title and have maturities comparable to such a loan. In making available assistance in any area under this section or section 1486 of this title, the Secretary shall— Housing and related facilities constructed with loans under this section may be used for tenants eligible for occupancy under section 1485 of this title if the Secretary determines that— Housing and related facilities constructed with loans under this section shall contain installed carbon monoxide alarms or detectors that meet or exceed— Housing and related facilities constructed with loans under this section shall contain qualifying smoke alarms that are installed in accordance with applicable codes and standards published by the International Code Council or the National Fire Protection Association and the requirements of the National Fire Protection Association Standard 72, or any successor standard, in each level and in or near each sleeping area in such dwelling unit, including in basements but excepting crawl spaces and unfinished attics, and in each common area in a project containing such a dwelling unit. For purposes of this subsection, the following definitions shall apply: The term “smoke alarm” has the meaning given the term “smoke detector” in section 2225(d) of title 15. The term “qualifying smoke alarm” means a smoke alarm that— in the case of a dwelling unit built before December 29, 2022, and not substantially rehabilitated after December 29, 2022— uses 10-year non rechargeable, nonreplaceable primary batteries and—