IV 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 74 
Affirming the right of all renters to a safe, affordable, and decent home. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 27, 2017 
Ms. LEE (for herself, Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. 
VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. AL GREEN of Texas, and Mr. ELLISON) submitted the 
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Financial Services, and in addition to the Committees on the Budget, and 
the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction of the committee concerned 
CONCURRENT 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 investing in affordable housing strengthens our 
economy, creates jobs, boosts families’ incomes, and en-
courages further development; 
Whereas far too many families living in urban, suburban, and 
rural communities struggle to afford their rent each 
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month, putting them at increased risk of eviction and 
homelessness; 
Whereas according to the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development (HUD) point-in-time count of 2016, there 
were 549,928 people in the United States experiencing 
homelessness on any given night, including over 120,000 
children; 
Whereas homelessness has become so pervasive that some 
States and cities have declared that homelessness has 
reached a state of emergency; 
Whereas major progress towards the national goals for end-
ing 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 
71 percent of extremely low-income households are se-
verely cost-burdened, paying more than half of their in-
come for housing; 
Whereas rapidly rising rents across the country have pushed 
many long-time residents and families out of the commu-
nities they call home; 
Whereas closed waiting lists and long waits mean only a 
quarter of the families who qualify for housing assistance 
actually receive it; 
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Whereas the role of Federal affordable housing investments 
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 help to subsidize housing for 
more than 4,000,000 low-income families, including 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 Sup-
portive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program, 
and the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS 
(HOPWA) program; 
Whereas despite leveraging billions of dollars in private re-
sources 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 more than $26,000,000,000 
in capital repairs and deteriorating conditions for resi-
dents; 
Whereas without Federal investments, many more families 
would be homeless, living in substandard or overcrowded 
conditions, or struggling to meet other basic needs be-
cause 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 develop-
ment programs; 
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Whereas these austere spending caps threaten affordable 
housing and community development for millions of low 
income families; 
Whereas even renters with housing subsidies often face bar-
riers 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, reli-
gion, sex, familial status, national origin, or disability; 
Whereas renters should be protected against housing dis-
crimination through stronger enforcement of fair housing 
laws; and 
Whereas despite various clarifying memos from HUD, the re- 
entry community continues to face barriers in trying to 
secure access to federally assisted housing: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports lifting the spending caps required 
by the Budget Control Act of 2011 and robustly 
funding programs to increase access to affordable 
housing and address homelessness at the Depart-
ment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 
and other Federal agencies; 
(2) opposes any cuts to Federal investments in 
affordable housing programs at the Department of 
Housing and Urban Development and other Federal 
agencies; 
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(3) supports increased funding to the Public 
Housing Capital Fund to address the backlog of 
capital repairs for public housing; 
(4) supports expanded funding for the National 
Housing Trust Fund to boost the supply of afford-
able housing available to extremely low-income fami-
lies; 
(5) supports efforts to preserve and rehabilitate 
existing housing to maintain and increase the avail-
able stock of affordable housing and proposals by 
local entities to prevent any net loss of overall af-
fordable housing units receiving Federal subsidies; 
(6) supports strengthened Federal fair housing 
laws; 
(7) affirms that renters may not be barred from 
federally assisted housing solely on the basis of a 
criminal record; 
(8) supports expansion of renters’ rights, in-
cluding the right of tenants to organize tenant asso-
ciations; and 
(9) affirms that housing is a basic human right. 
Æ 
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