; Whereas hostile architecture and defensive urban design transform public spaces into impractical and unwelcoming environments for both housed and unhoused communities, by making benches thinner or with armrests to prevent laying down, building bus stops with no seating or shelter, deliberately placing gaps in awnings that allow in rain, adding rocks to parks, trails, and highway underpasses, installing devices that prohibit sitting, or adding spikes, rocks, or studs to flat surfaces to render them dysfunctional; Whereas the Department of Housing and Urban Development point-in-time method to count the number of sheltered and unsheltered individuals in the United States undercounts children, youth, older adults, and families by not accounting for individuals who fall in and out of homelessness throughout the year, people who are sheltered with family or friends, or individuals temporarily residing in hotels, motels, medical facilities, and jails, and is limited to a count one night per year during one of the coldest months; Whereas inadequate statistical methods for counting unhoused individuals severely limit the capacity of policymakers to develop accurate, data-driven legislation; Whereas the long-term solution for ending the unhoused crisis is a housing first approach that provides adequate, accessible, and affordable permanent housing for unhoused individuals, without preconditions and low or no barriers to entry, and permanently fosters conditions that prevent persons from becoming unhoused; Whereas rates of homelessness continue to rise, the overburdened repair backlog for public housing units is estimated at over $70,000,000,000, and the overburdened tenant-based section 8 rental assistance program, also known as a housing choice voucher, is not funded by Congress at the level necessary to match the ever-increasing demand for housing assistance