Last progress June 10, 2025 (8 months ago)
Introduced on June 10, 2025 by Shontel M. Brown
Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Declares the nationwide shortage of deeply affordable rental housing a national emergency and urges federal, state, and local governments, together with private and nonprofit partners, to expand and preserve affordable rental supply, strengthen rental assistance programs, and protect tenants. It frames the problem (rising rents, stagnant incomes, aging subsidized housing, and insufficient federal help) and calls for coordinated policy, investment, and community-based solutions rather than authorizing new spending or creating new programs.
The United States is experiencing a severe housing crisis with an estimated shortage of more than 7,000,000 rental homes that are affordable and available to extremely low-income households, leaving millions without access to safe and stable housing.
Nearly half of all renter households are cost-burdened, with over 12,000,000 spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing, which threatens their ability to afford other basic necessities.
Rental prices have increased by more than 35 percent since 2020 while median household incomes have grown by only 22 percent over the same period, contributing to rising homelessness and housing instability.
Shelter inflation continues to drive core services inflation, disproportionately impacting low- and moderate-income households and impeding economic mobility.
The private housing market alone cannot meet the needs of extremely low-income renters, and public investment in affordable housing has not kept pace with demand.
Who is affected and how:
Overall effect: Symbolic and agenda-setting. The resolution raises visibility and may influence future legislation, appropriations, program guidance, and local actions, but it contains no binding funding or new regulatory mandates by itself.