1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Landlord Accountability Act of 2017 . 2. Congressional findings The Congress finds that— (1) the United States is in the midst of a housing crisis, as the homeownership rate has declined to 63.5 percent, a 30-year low, while rental demand has increased and pushed vacancy rates down to 7 percent; (2) the current average rental asking price is $870, up 23 percent since the end of the recession 6 years ago; (3) families and individuals that pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing are considered cost-burdened and have difficultly affording other necessities like food, clothing, transportation, and medical care; (4) over half of all renters, approximately 20.8 million households, are cost-burdened; (5) over 80 percent of low-income households, those with incomes of under $15,000 per year, are severely cost-burdened; (6) the current rental environment makes rental assistance under the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development vital to finding affordable housing for many families; (7) the Section 8 program helps approximately 2.2 million low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled afford respectable housing in the private market; (8) the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program assists our Nation’s most economically vulnerable families—the average annual gross income of a family assisted under the program is only $13,568; (9) many of the individuals and families assisted by the Section 8 Program would be at risk of homelessness without the program; (10) the Section 8 program caps the rental cost for eligible families and individuals at 30 percent of their incomes, which frees up their limited resources to pay for life’s other necessities; (11) although families and individuals assisted under the program are free to choose any available housing in their community, that has not prevented landlords from discriminating against low-income tenants