including over 120,000 children. (6) Homelessness has become so pervasive that some States and cities have declared that homelessness has reached a state of emergency. (7) Major progress towards the national goals for ending homelessness in our Nation has stalled in the absence of increased funding. (8) A shortage of affordable housing exists in every State and major metropolitan area. (9) A full-time worker earning the Federal minimum wage cannot afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in any State, metropolitan area, or county in the United States. (10) Over half of all renters are cost-burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing, and 71 percent of extremely low-income households are severely cost-burdened, paying more than half of their income for housing. (11) Rapidly rising rents across the country have pushed many long-time residents and families out of the communities they call home. (12) Closed waiting lists and long waits mean only a quarter of the families who qualify for housing assistance actually receive it. (13) The role of Federal affordable housing investments is even more important given the limited ability of the private market alone to address these needs. (14) Various programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development help to subsidize housing for more than 4,000,000 low-income families, including the Public Housing program, the Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) program, the Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance program, the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly program, the Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities program, and the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program. (15) Despite leveraging billions of dollars in private resources to preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing, affordable housing programs continue to be chronically underfunded despite their success at providing safe housing to families in need. (16) Chronic underfunding of the Public Housing Capital Fund has led to a backlog