Res. No. 151

Resolution urging Congress to pass the Bringing America Home Act (H.R. 2897), a comprehensive federal bill to end homelessness that addresses issues of real affordable housing, livable income, civil rights protections, and health care for all.

By Council Members Lopez, Dilan and Gerson

Whereas, 3.5 million people in the United States, 39% of them children, currently experience homelessness every year, with families among the fastest-growing sectors of the population; and

Whereas, Nearly 40,000 New Yorkers are currently in the homeless service system, nearly 9,000 of them families with children; and

Whereas, The Bringing America Home Act (“H.R. 2897”), currently pending in the United States House of Representatives, is designed to end homelessness in the United States and includes housing, health, income and civil rights components; and

Whereas, The proposed legislation represents the most comprehensive initiative to date to address modern homelessness and is based on research, data, and the experience of front line providers and advocates; and

Whereas, The bill would increase funding for crucial programs to ensure access to and creation of affordable housing, including innovative solutions such as mutual housing associations that currently successfully provide affordable housing for some of the poorest New Yorkers; and

Whereas, The bill would increase funding for crucial programs and includes a Sense of Congress supporting the enactment of legislation to guarantee that every person in the United Sates, including the over 42 million Americans without health insurance, has access to comprehensive, quality, affordable health care; and

Whereas, The bill includes a Sense of Congress supporting a universal living wage and livable incomes, temporary worker fairness and protection, development of a self-sufficiency standard, and the establishment of a ‘Homebuild’ Program that would involve those who are homeless in the development, construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing; and  

Whereas, A worker in New York City must earn $19.38 per hour working 40 hours per week to afford a two bedroom unit at the fair market rate paying the federal standard of 30% of their income, which is 385% of the current minimum wage; a worker at minimum wage would have to work 154 hours per week to afford a two bedroom unit and an SSI recipient receiving $632 monthly can afford monthly rent of no more than $190.00 while the fair market rent for a 1 bedroom unit is $907.00; and

Whereas, Numerous organizations have endorsed this measure, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the NAACP, the Child Welfare League of America (“CWLA”), NETWORK, the National Organization for Women (“NOW”), the National Housing Trust Fund Campaign, and the Corporation for Supportive Housing; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York urges Congress to pass the Bringing America Home Act of 2003 (H.R. 2897), a comprehensive federal bill to end homelessness that addresses issues of real affordable housing, livable income, civil rights protections, and health care for all.