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 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 624 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 624

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 7, 2021

Ms. Lee of California (for herself, Mr. Lawson of Florida, Mrs. Watson 
 Coleman, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. Norton, Mr. Evans, Mr. Thompson 
of Mississippi, Mr. Danny K. Davis of Illinois, and Ms. Bush) submitted 
   the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                               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 2020, there were over 580,000 people in the 
        United States experiencing homelessness on any given night, including 
        over 172,000 people in families with 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 70 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 10,400,000 people 
        in 5,200,000 households, including helping nearly 6,300,000 families 
        with children avoid homelessness;
Whereas 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 the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was exacerbated by the lack of an 
        effective housing safety net, which created challenges for the public 
        health strategy of urging people to stay home to avoid contagion;
Whereas, due to the pandemic, an even greater number of people are precariously 
        housed, with more than 6,000,000 households behind on their rent;
Whereas severe delays in the distribution of emergency rental assistance 
        provided during the pandemic has created additional unnecessary hardship 
        for both renters and property owners;
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 robustly funding programs to increase access 
        to affordable housing and address homelessness at the 
        Department of Housing and Urban Development and other Federal 
        agencies;
            (3) supports including in any comprehensive infrastructure 
        and economic recovery package housing investments to serve 
        families with the lowest incomes, including--
                    (A) $70,000,000,000 in funding for the Public 
                Housing Capital Fund to address the backlog of capital 
                repairs for public housing;
                    (B) not less than $45,000,000,000 for the National 
                Housing Trust Fund to boost the supply of affordable 
                housing available to extremely low-income families; and
                    (C) $180,000,000,000 for rental assistance to help 
                families afford to keep roofs over their heads;
            (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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