Resolution — H. Res. 624, Affirming the Right of All Renters to a Safe, Affordable, and Decent Home
Summary
H. Res. 624, titled Affirming the right of all renters to a safe, affordable, and decent home, is a resolution submitted in the House of Representatives on September 7, 2021 by Ms. Lee of California (for herself and others). The preamble states that housing is a basic human right. The resolution affirms that renters may not be barred from federally assisted housing solely on the basis of a criminal record. It supports expansion of renters' rights, including the right of tenants to organize tenant associations, and affirms that housing is a basic human right.
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“Resolution — H. Res. 624, Affirming the Right of All Renters to a Safe, Affordable, and Decent Home.”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/bills-bills-117hres624ih-bills-117hres624ih/
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IV
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 Com-
mittee 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 ef-
fective ways to help families, children, and youth escape
poverty and domestic violence and to prevent homeless-
ness;
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Whereas investing in affordable housing infrastructure has
numerous benefits for the economy, including creating
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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 2020, there
were over 580,000 people in the United States experi-
encing 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;
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Whereas over half of all renters are cost-burdened, paying
more than 30 percent of their income for housing, and
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70 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 10,400,000 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 pro-
gram, 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
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Fund has led to a backlog of up to $70,000,000,000 in
capital repairs and deteriorating conditions for residents;
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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 the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic was exacer-
bated 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 ad-
ditional unnecessary hardship for both renters and prop-
erty owners;
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
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Whereas despite various clarifying guidance from HUD, the
reentry community continues to face barriers in trying to
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secure access to federally assisted housing: Now, there-
fore, be it
1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
2 (1) supports a significant investment in housing
3 resources to build and preserve affordable housing
4 for America’s poorest families and to end homeless-
5 ness and housing poverty once and for all;
6 (2) supports robustly funding programs to in-
7 crease access to affordable housing and address
8 homelessness at the Department of Housing and
9 Urban Development and other Federal agencies;
10 (3) supports including in any comprehensive in-
11 frastructure and economic recovery package housing
12 investments to serve families with the lowest in-
13 comes, including—
14 (A) $70,000,000,000 in funding for the
15 Public Housing Capital Fund to address the
16 backlog of capital repairs for public housing;
17 (B) not less than $45,000,000,000 for the
18 National Housing Trust Fund to boost the sup-
19 ply of affordable housing available to extremely
20 low-income families; and
21 (C) $180,000,000,000 for rental assistance
22 to help families afford to keep roofs over their
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23 heads;
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1 (4) affirms that renters may not be barred from
2 federally assisted housing solely on the basis of a
3 criminal record;
4 (5) supports expansion of renters’ rights, in-
5 cluding the right of tenants to organize tenant asso-
6 ciations; and
7 (6) affirms that housing is a basic human right.
Æ
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