Whereas, on any given night, more than half a million Americans are sleeping in places not meant for human habitation or in temporary shelters for homeless persons; Whereas nearly all Americans who are experiencing homelessness are involuntary homeless , meaning that they do not want to be homeless, are likely to be in financial crisis, and are in desperate need of affordable work force housing ; Whereas among persons experiencing homelessness, there is an overrepresentation of people of color and other vulnerable people, including young children, youth who have been abandoned by their parents, veterans and other Americans with severe disabilities, and women who have been subject to domestic violence; Whereas according to the National Coalition for the Homeless, the rise in homelessness over the past 35 years is due to a growing shortage of affordable rental housing with a simultaneous increase in income inequality, especially decreased value of wages; Whereas according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, most cities across the country have long waiting lists for public housing and apartments subsidized under the rental assistance program under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937, due to insufficient Federal funding; Whereas according to the Housing Commission of the Bipartisan Policy Center, 7.8 million households with extremely low incomes—which is 68 percent of such households—receive no rental assistance whatsoever from Federal programs; Whereas according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and homelessness, with 11.4 million extremely low-income renters and just 35 affordable and available units for every 100 extremely low-income renter households