IV 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 429 

Affirming the right of all renters to a safe, affordable, and decent home. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 5, 2019 

Ms. LEE of California submitted the following resolution; which was referred 

to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee 

on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Affirming the right of all renters to a safe, affordable, and 

decent home. 

Whereas housing is a basic human right; 

Whereas evidence-based research has shown that families 

with safe, decent, and affordable homes are better able 

to find employment, achieve economic mobility, perform 

better in school, and maintain improved health; 

Whereas providing housing assistance is one of the most effective ways to help families, children, and youth escape 

poverty and domestic violence and to prevent homelessness; 

Whereas investing in affordable housing infrastructure has 

numerous benefits for the economy, including creating 


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jobs, boosting families’ incomes, promoting healthy families, and encouraging further development; 

Whereas far too many families living in urban, suburban, and 

rural communities struggle to afford their rent each 

month, putting them at increased risk of eviction and 

homelessness; 

Whereas people of color, especially single Black and Latina 

mothers, experience disparate rates of eviction; 

Whereas according to the Department of Housing and Urban 

Development (HUD) point-in-time count of 2018, there 

were over 553,000 people in the United States experiencing homelessness on any given night, including over 

110,000 children; 

Whereas homelessness has become so pervasive that some 

States and cities have declared that homelessness has 

reached a state of emergency; 

Whereas people experiencing homelessness are more likely to 

be the victims of violent crimes and face dehumanizing 

conditions; 

Whereas major progress toward the national goals for ending 

homelessness in our Nation has stalled in the absence of 

increased funding; 

Whereas a shortage of affordable housing exists in every 

State and major metropolitan area; 

Whereas a full-time worker earning the Federal minimum 

wage cannot afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in 

any State, metropolitan area, or county in the United 

States; 

Whereas over half of all renters are cost-burdened, paying 

more than 30 percent of their income for housing, and 


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71 percent of extremely low-income households are severely cost-burdened, paying more than half of their income for housing; 

Whereas rapidly rising rents across the country have pushed 

many long-time residents and families out of the communities they call home; 

Whereas 3 out of every 4 families in need of housing assistance are turned away due to chronic underfunding; 

Whereas the role of Federal affordable housing investment is 

even more important given the limited ability of the private market alone to address these needs; 

Whereas various programs at the Department of Housing 

and Urban Development provide Federal rental assistance, which helps about 10,000,000 people, including 

nearly 4,000,000 children and more than 4,000,000 lowincome families, and such programs include the Public 

Housing program, the section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) program, the section 8 Project-Based Rental 

Assistance program, the section 202 Supportive Housing 

for the Elderly program, the section 811 Supportive 

Housing for Persons with Disabilities program, and the 

Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) 

program; 

Whereas despite leveraging billions of dollars in private resources to preserve and expand the supply of affordable 

housing, affordable housing programs continue to be 

chronically underfunded despite their success at providing 

safe housing to families in need; 

Whereas chronic underfunding of the Public Housing Capital 

Fund has led to a backlog of up to $70,000,000,000 in 

capital repairs and deteriorating conditions for residents; 


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Whereas without Federal investments, many more families 

would be homeless, living in substandard or overcrowded 

conditions, or struggling to meet other basic needs because too much of their limited income would be used to 

pay rent; 

Whereas low Federal spending caps required by the Budget 

Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112–25) have decreased 

funding for affordable housing and community development programs; 

Whereas these austere spending caps threaten affordable 

housing and community development for millions of lowincome families; 

Whereas even renters with housing subsidies often face barriers to finding housing providers willing to rent to them; 

Whereas under current Federal law, housing discrimination 

against a renter is illegal if it is based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or disability; 

Whereas 68,000,000 Americans believe they have been treated differently in their search for housing based on their 

race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, 

or disability; 

Whereas renters and others experiencing housing need should 

be protected against housing discrimination through 

stronger enforcement of fair housing laws; and 

Whereas despite various clarifying guidance from HUD, the 

reentry community continues to face barriers in trying to 

secure access to federally assisted housing: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 


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1 (1) supports a significant investment in housing 

2 resources to build and preserve affordable housing 

3 for America’s poorest families and to end homeless4 ness and housing poverty once and for all; 

5 (2) supports lifting the spending caps required 

6 by the Budget Control Act of 2011 and robustly 

7 funding programs to increase access to affordable 

8 housing and address homelessness at the Depart9 ment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 

10 and other Federal agencies; 

11 (3) supports including in any infrastructure 

12 package housing investments to serve families with 

13 the lowest incomes, including $70,000,000,000 in 

14 funding for the Public Housing Capital Fund to ad15 dress the backlog of capital repairs for public hous16 ing and at least $5,000,000,000 for the National 

17 Housing Trust Fund to boost the supply of afford18 able housing available to extremely low-income fami19 lies; 

20 (4) affirms that renters may not be barred from 

21 federally assisted housing solely on the basis of a 

22 criminal record; 

23 (5) supports expansion of renters’ rights, in24 cluding the right of tenants to organize tenant asso25 ciations; and 


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1 (6) affirms that housing is a basic human right. 

Æ 


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