[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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