Title: Affirming the right of all renters to a safe, affordable, and decent home.
Policy area: Housing and Community Development

Summary:
This resolution expresses support for

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 429 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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 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 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 low-income 
        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;
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 low-income 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
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) supports a significant investment in housing resources 
        to build and preserve affordable housing for America's poorest 
        families and to end homelessness and housing poverty once and 
        for all;
            (2) 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 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and 
        other Federal agencies;
            (3) supports including in any infrastructure package 
        housing investments to serve families with the lowest incomes, 
        including $70,000,000,000 in funding for the Public Housing 
        Capital Fund to address the backlog of capital repairs for 
        public housing and at least $5,000,000,000 for the National 
        Housing Trust Fund to boost the supply of affordable housing 
        available to extremely low-income families;
            (4) affirms that renters may not be barred from federally 
        assisted housing solely on the basis of a criminal record;
            (5) supports expansion of renters' rights, including the 
        right of tenants to organize tenant associations; and
            (6) affirms that housing is a basic human right.
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