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

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 Speak- er, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the ju- risdiction 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 ef- fective ways to help families, children, and youth escape poverty and domestic violence and to prevent homeless- ness; Whereas investing in affordable housing infrastructure has numerous benefits for the economy, including creating VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Jun 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR429.IH HR429 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 429 IH jobs, boosting families’ incomes, promoting healthy fami- lies, 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 experi- encing 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Jun 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR429.IH HR429 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 429 IH 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 3 out of every 4 families in need of housing assist- ance 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 pri- vate market alone to address these needs; Whereas various programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development provide Federal rental assist- ance, 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 Vouch- ers (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 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 up to $70,000,000,000 in capital repairs and deteriorating conditions for residents; VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Jun 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR429.IH HR429 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 429 IH 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; 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 68,000,000 Americans believe they have been treat- ed 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, there- fore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Jun 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR429.IH HR429 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HRES 429 IH (1) supports a significant investment in housing 1 resources to build and preserve affordable housing 2 for America’s poorest families and to end homeless- 3 ness and housing poverty once and for all; 4 (2) supports lifting the spending caps required 5 by the Budget Control Act of 2011 and robustly 6 funding programs to increase access to affordable 7 housing and address homelessness at the Depart- 8 ment of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 9 and other Federal agencies; 10 (3) supports including in any infrastructure 11 package housing investments to serve families with 12 the lowest incomes, including $70,000,000,000 in 13 funding for the Public Housing Capital Fund to ad- 14 dress the backlog of capital repairs for public hous- 15 ing and at least $5,000,000,000 for the National 16 Housing Trust Fund to boost the supply of afford- 17 able housing available to extremely low-income fami- 18 lies; 19 (4) affirms that renters may not be barred from 20 federally assisted housing solely on the basis of a 21 criminal record; 22 (5) supports expansion of renters’ rights, in- 23 cluding the right of tenants to organize tenant asso- 24 ciations; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Jun 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR429.IH HR429 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HRES 429 IH (6) affirms that housing is a basic human right. 1 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Jun 05, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR429.IH HR429 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS