; (22) renters should be protected against housing discrimination through stronger enforcement of fair housing laws; and (23) despite various clarifying memos from HUD, the re-entry community continues to face barriers in trying to secure access to federally assisted housing. (b) Sense of Congress The Congress hereby— (1) supports lifting the spending caps required by the Budget Control Act of 2011 and robustly funding programs to increase access to affordable housing and address homelessness at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other Federal agencies; (2) opposes any cuts to Federal investments in affordable housing programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and other Federal agencies; (3) supports increased funding to the Public Housing Capital Fund to address the backlog of capital repairs for public housing; (4) supports expanded funding for the National Housing Trust Fund to boost the supply of affordable housing available to extremely low-income families; (5) supports efforts to preserve and rehabilitate existing housing to maintain and increase the available stock of affordable housing and proposals by local entities to prevent any net loss of overall affordable housing units receiving Federal subsidies; (6) supports strengthened Federal fair housing laws; (7) affirms that renters may not be barred from federally assisted housing solely on the basis of a criminal record; (8) supports expansion of renters’ rights, including the right of tenants to organize tenant associations; and (9) affirms that housing is a basic human right. A A Path to Ending Homelessness 7101. Congressional findings The Congress finds that— (1) although the United States has experienced a reduction in veteran homelessness after a surge of new Federal funding targeted to homeless veterans starting in fiscal year 2008, major progress towards the national goals for ending homelessness in our Nation has virtually stalled in the absence of increased funding