; Whereas low-income renters face increasingly high rents and rising housing instability, and without the supports provided by pandemic-era benefit programs, safe, stable, and affordable housing remains out of reach; Whereas, since July 2009, Federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at an abysmal $7.25, forcing low-wage workers to work two to three jobs to afford housing and basic needs; Whereas, from 2009 to 2021, the median rent across the United States increased 42 percent, from $817 a month to $1,163; Whereas, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, in 2023 the housing wage, defined as an annual estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must earn to afford a rental home at fair market rent without spending more than 30 percent of their incomes, was $28.58 per hour for a modest two-bedroom rental home and $23.67 per hour for a modest one-bedroom rental home; Whereas, in no State, metropolitan area, or county can a full-time minimum-wage worker afford a modest two-bedroom rental home, and a full-time minimum-wage worker cannot afford a modest one-bedroom rental home in more than 92 percent of United States counties; Whereas the gap between wages and housing costs is largest for people of color, and particularly women of color, as a result of decades of racist housing policies that have led to people of color facing disproportionate challenges accessing decent and affordable homes; Whereas lack of access to public restrooms, handwashing facilities, laundry facilities, showers, and garbage removal services severely deteriorates overall quality of life and greatly increases the chance of unhoused individuals contracting communicable diseases, impacting both housed and unhoused communities and threatening public health