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Requirements - Housing

Voice to Congress / System Requirements, Candidate Metrics, and Congressional Report Card Framework

Purpose: This page defines the Housing issue requirements for Voice to Congress. The goal is to evaluate whether Congress is improving housing affordability, rental stability, homeownership access, mortgage fairness, housing supply, public housing performance, homelessness prevention, housing quality, fair housing, and housing resilience.

Status: Draft V1 for review. Metrics listed here are candidate metrics until source review, calculation review, traceability review, and promotion approval are completed.

1. What We Have

The United States has a housing system where many households face unaffordable rents, high mortgage payments, limited affordable rental supply, rising insurance and utility burdens, homelessness, aging housing stock, and unequal access to safe and stable housing.

Housing problems overlap with cost of living, healthcare, education, public safety, infrastructure, climate resilience, civil rights, and government spending. A family that cannot afford rent, move near work, maintain safe housing, or avoid displacement is affected far beyond the housing market itself.

2. What We Want

The United States should have a housing system where people can rent or buy safe, stable, affordable homes; where housing supply grows with population and household needs; where public programs measurably reduce hardship; where mortgage finance is fair and transparent; and where Congress can be graded on whether its actions improve affordability, stability, supply, access, quality, and outcomes.

3. Housing Sub-Issues

Code Sub-Issue Public Meaning
HOU-010 Housing Affordability and Cost Burden Can households afford housing without sacrificing other basic needs?
HOU-020 Rental Housing and Tenant Stability Are renters facing excessive rent pressure, displacement, eviction risk, or unstable leases?
HOU-030 Affordable Rental Supply Are there enough affordable and available homes for low-income renters?
HOU-040 Homeownership Affordability Can ordinary households buy and sustain a home if they choose to?
HOU-050 Mortgage Finance, Interest Rates, Credit Access, and Down Payments Can households access safe, fair, affordable mortgage credit?
HOU-060 Housing Supply, Construction, and Permitting Is the country building enough housing in the right places and at the right price points?
HOU-070 Land Use, Zoning, Regulatory Barriers, and Local Approval Bottlenecks Are policy barriers restricting housing production or increasing costs?
HOU-080 Public Housing, Rental Assistance, and Housing Program Performance Are federal housing programs helping eligible households obtain stable housing?
HOU-090 Homelessness and Housing Instability Is the housing system preventing homelessness and reducing severe housing instability?
HOU-100 Housing Quality, Safety, Health, and Habitability Are homes safe, healthy, accessible, and livable?
HOU-110 Fair Housing, Discrimination, and Equal Access Can people access housing without unlawful discrimination?
HOU-120 Housing Resilience, Insurance, Property Taxes, Utilities, and Climate Risk Are rising non-mortgage and non-rent costs, disasters, and climate risks making housing unaffordable or unstable?

4. System Requirements Summary

HOU-GEN-001: Housing Issue Universe

The system shall maintain a Housing issue universe containing bills, resolutions, amendments, votes, appropriations, oversight actions, and major congressional actions related to Housing.

Verification: Database query, issue-classification audit, and sample legislation review.

HOU-GEN-002: Sub-Issue Assignment

The system shall assign each Housing-related legislative item to one or more approved Housing sub-issues.

Verification: Classification export and manual sample review.

HOU-GEN-003: Cross-Issue Tagging

The system shall support cross-issue tagging when Housing legislation materially affects Cost of Living, Healthcare, Education, Government Spending, Climate, Infrastructure, Immigration, Veterans, Civil Rights, or Poverty.

Verification: Cross-issue audit.

HOU-GEN-004: Congressional Control Level

The system shall classify each Housing metric by congressional control level: Direct, Indirect, or Contextual.

Verification: Metric metadata review.

HOU-FUN-001: Requirements Repository

The system shall maintain a Housing requirements repository containing all approved Housing requirements, definitions, sub-issues, metrics, data sources, verification methods, and report-card rules.

Verification: Repository inspection.

HOU-FUN-002: Metric Catalog

The system shall maintain a Housing metric catalog with metric ID, title, definition, source, cadence, score direction, confidence, geographic level, congressional relevance, and limitations.

Verification: Metric catalog review.

HOU-FUN-003: Legislative Classifier

The system shall classify legislation as Housing when the legislation materially affects residential housing affordability, access, supply, quality, stability, financing, fairness, or resilience.

Verification: Classification test set.

HOU-FUN-004: Metric-to-Legislation Traceability

The system shall maintain traceability between Housing metrics and the legislation, appropriations, votes, or oversight actions most likely to affect each metric.

Verification: Traceability matrix audit.

HOU-FUN-005: Housing Report Card Generation

The system shall generate Housing report cards for members of Congress, issue-level performance, and sub-issue performance.

Verification: Demonstration using real congressional data.

5. Candidate Metrics

Review warning: The metrics below are candidates. A metric may be suitable for public education before it is suitable for active rollup or direct member scoring.

Metric ID Metric Sub-Issue Candidate Source Score Direction Initial Use
HOU-MET-001 Renter Cost Burden Rate HOU-010 HUD CHAS / ACS Lower is better Public candidate; rollup after formula review
HOU-MET-002 Severe Renter Cost Burden Rate HOU-010 HUD CHAS / ACS Lower is better Public candidate; rollup after formula review
HOU-MET-003 Owner Cost Burden Rate HOU-010 HUD CHAS / ACS / AHS Lower is better Public candidate; rollup after formula review
HOU-MET-004 Affordable and Available Rental Homes per 100 Extremely Low-Income Renter Households HOU-030 NLIHC / HUD-derived candidate Higher is better Candidate; non-government source review needed
HOU-MET-005 Affordable Rental Shortage for Extremely Low-Income Renter Households HOU-030 NLIHC / HUD-derived candidate Lower is better Candidate; non-government source review needed
HOU-MET-006 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate HOU-050 Freddie Mac PMMS Lower is generally better Context only; not direct member scoring
HOU-MET-007 Mortgage Denial Rate HOU-050 HMDA / FFIEC Lower is generally better Methodology review required
HOU-MET-008 Mortgage Denial Disparity HOU-050 / HOU-110 HMDA / FFIEC Lower disparity is better Do not use for scoring until statistical method is reviewed
HOU-MET-009 Building Permits HOU-060 Census New Residential Construction Higher is generally better when demand exceeds supply Public candidate; demand-normalization needed
HOU-MET-010 Housing Starts HOU-060 Census New Residential Construction Higher is generally better when demand exceeds supply Public candidate; demand-normalization needed
HOU-MET-011 Housing Completions HOU-060 Census New Residential Construction Higher is generally better when demand exceeds supply Public candidate; demand-normalization needed
HOU-MET-012 Housing Choice Voucher Utilization / Coverage HOU-080 HUD Picture of Subsidized Households / HUD Higher is better Denominator decision required
HOU-MET-013 Point-in-Time Homelessness Count HOU-090 HUD AHAR / PIT Lower is better Public candidate with PIT limitation note
HOU-MET-014 Unsheltered Homelessness Count HOU-090 HUD AHAR / PIT Lower is better Public candidate with PIT limitation note
HOU-MET-015 Housing Quality / Inadequacy Indicator HOU-100 American Housing Survey Lower inadequacy is better AHS variable selection required
HOU-MET-016 Homeowners Insurance Burden HOU-120 Treasury / Federal Insurance Office candidate Lower burden is better Candidate only; data availability review needed
HOU-MET-017 Property Tax Burden HOU-120 ACS / Census / AHS Lower burden is generally better Context only; mostly state/local control
HOU-MET-018 Household Energy / Utility Burden HOU-120 DOE LEAD / AHS / ACS Lower is better Source-definition review required

6. Data Source Baseline

Source Recommended Use Initial Confidence Public Limitation
HUD CHAS Cost burden, severe cost burden, affordability by tenure and income group High Release lag, geography limits, disclosure suppression
Census ACS Rent, owner costs, income, property taxes, tenure, vacancy, denominators High Sampling error and 1-year/5-year geography differences
American Housing Survey Housing quality, adequacy, habitability, utilities, owner costs High Limited local geography and changing survey design
Census New Residential Construction Permits, starts, completions, single-family/multifamily trends High Supply counts need demand and affordability context
Freddie Mac PMMS Mortgage-rate context High Contextual only; Congress does not directly set mortgage rates
HMDA / FFIEC Mortgage denial, lending access, fair-lending indicators High Requires careful universe definition and statistical controls
HUD AHAR / PIT Homelessness and unsheltered homelessness Medium-High One-night snapshot; local count quality varies
HUD Picture of Subsidized Households Public housing and voucher assisted households High Voucher utilization and eligibility coverage are different measures
NLIHC The Gap Affordable rental shortage for extremely low-income renters Medium-High Non-government source; method review required before scoring
DOE LEAD Energy burden and utility burden High Estimated energy burden; overlaps Cost of Living and Energy

7. Legislative Classification Rules

The system shall classify legislation as Housing when the bill materially affects one or more of the following:

The system shall not classify a bill as Housing merely because it references land, buildings, construction, real estate, local development, or federal facilities unless it materially affects residential housing affordability, access, supply, quality, stability, financing, fairness, or resilience.

8. Congressional Report Card Logic

The Housing member grade should follow the same general Voice to Congress report-card model used for other issues, with issue-specific evidence and limitations.

Component Suggested Weight Meaning
Legislative Effort 20% Did the member sponsor or cosponsor meaningful Housing legislation?
Legislative Advancement 25% Did the member’s Housing legislation advance through committee, floor action, passage, conference, or incorporation into larger legislation?
Public Result / Became Law 25% Did the member’s actions contribute to enacted law, funded programs, measurable program changes, or public results?
Agenda-Control Accountability 20% Did committee chairs, ranking members, or leadership use their greater power to advance or block Housing solutions?
Duty / Continuity 10% Did the member participate, vote, and maintain continuity of representation?

Candidate Formula

Final Housing Member Grade = 20% Legislative Effort + 25% Legislative Advancement + 25% Public Result / Became Law + 20% Agenda-Control Accountability + 10% Duty / Continuity

Suggested Grade Bands

Score Grade
90-100A
80-89B
70-79C
60-69D
0-59F

9. Review and Readiness Status

Area Status Next Review Action
Sub-Issue Taxonomy Draft V1 Review and approve HOU-010 through HOU-120.
Metric Catalog Candidate V1 Review source definitions, calculations, and score direction.
Source Registry Candidate V1 Confirm source URLs, release dates, access methods, and limitations.
Public Display Not final Separate candidate metrics, context metrics, rollup metrics, and scoring metrics.
Active Rollup Not approved Approve only after source, formula, geography, and limitation review.
Member Scoring Not approved Approve only after metric-to-legislation traceability and congressional-control review.

10. Release Gates

Gate Requirement
Internal Draft Requirements drafted and sub-issues approved.
Metric Candidate Candidate metric catalog created.
Source Review Sources reviewed and confidence scored.
ETL Candidate Metrics can be refreshed or manually loaded.
Classification Candidate Housing bill classifier created.
Report Card Candidate Member scoring logic tested using real congressional data.
Public Beta Public page explains limitations clearly.
Public Ready No blockers; evidence links working; data confidence acceptable.

Public trust rule: Housing metrics should not be used to assign direct member grades until the source, formula, limitation, congressional-control level, and metric-to-legislation traceability have been reviewed.

Draft V1. Prepared for Voice to Congress Housing Requirements development. This page is intended to be maintained as the public-facing requirements summary while the detailed metric catalog, source registry, and review checklist remain in the Housing support folder.

Next: Metrics

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Immigration Metrics

A congressional performance dashboard that compares legislative activity and immigration-system outcomes against clear requirements: secure borders, lawful process, due process, humane treatment, workforce needs, family stability, measurable accountability, and data transparency.

Latest available local data will be shown when the JSON files are present.

Immigration Metrics Dashboard

Executive Summary

This dashboard measures whether Congress and the immigration system are producing practical, measurable results: lawful border management, timely processing, fair adjudication, workforce stability, family stability, data transparency, and due-process protection. It is designed to separate measurable performance from political noise so citizens can see where the system is working, where it is failing, and where Congress should legislate, fund, oversee, or require public reporting.

Congressional Work: This measure tracks bills, sponsorships, cosponsorships, votes, hearings, oversight, funding, and enacted laws. It is used to determine whether Congress is doing measurable work that aligns with the immigration requirements rather than relying on speeches or symbolic activity.

System Results: This measure tracks backlogs, processing speed, lawful entry, border management, integration, workforce needs, and transparency. It is used to determine whether public outcomes are improving and whether legislation is producing operational results.

Rights and Due Process: This measure tracks legal access, detention review, error correction, complaint handling, wrongful-detention risk, erroneous-removal risk, and civil-liberties safeguards. It is used to ensure enforcement performance is measured together with constitutional protection and human consequences.

System Score Summary

Overall Score—Grade—Last Refreshed—
Scored Metrics—Pending Metrics—Points Earned—
Data Quality—Info Metrics—History Points—

Top Dashboard Metrics

Metric Current Value Meaning
IssueImmigrationRequirement-based congressional and system-performance scoring.
Bills Reviewed--Bills classified to this issue by the report-card ETL.
Members Assessed--Senators and Representatives scored for measurable issue activity.
Average Grade--Average grade based on overall score for the selected filters.
Loading local dashboard data. If data files are not present yet, starter metrics will be shown.

Live Immigration System Metrics

This section adds operational immigration-system metrics to the congressional report card. Together, they show both legislative performance and practical outcomes.

Requirement Domains

Immigration performance should be measured against what the country actually needs. These domains can be connected to bill tags, budget items, hearings, agency performance data, and member report-card scoring.

Domain Requirement Metric Connection

Congressional Performance Summary

This summary focuses on legislative performance: whether Congress is doing useful work on immigration, whether that work is moving forward, and whether it aligns with the requirements.

Metric Value Meaning

Member Leaderboard

Members are scored by engagement, progress, outcome, and overall requirement alignment. This table reads local JSON exported from the report-card ETL.

Rank Member State Chamber Party Engagement Progress Outcome Overall Grade

Status of Immigration Legislation

This table summarizes where immigration-related bills are in the legislative process. A healthy Congress should show meaningful movement beyond bill introduction and referral.

Status Bucket Bills Interpretation

Scoring Method

Score Component What It Measures Evidence Examples
EngagementWhether a member did measurable work.Sponsorship, cosponsorship, votes, hearings, oversight, amendments, constituent-facing activity.
ProgressWhether legislation moved through the process.Committee action, markup, reports, calendar placement, chamber passage, conference action.
OutcomeWhether work produced enforceable results.Enacted law, funding, oversight requirements, implementation, public reporting, measurable agency change.
Requirement AlignmentWhether the action addresses the actual immigration requirements.Secure lawful entry, faster processing, due process, civil liberties, family stability, workforce needs, data transparency.
GradesA through F based on overall score.A = strong measurable action; B = useful progress; C = partial action; D = minimal useful action; F = no meaningful action or action contrary to requirements.

References and Data Sources

The dashboard should rely on official government data where available, supplemented by reputable public datasets when official recurring data are incomplete.

Source Use on Page Reference
Congress.gov API / Library of Congress Bill text, bill summaries, sponsors, cosponsors, actions, subjects, and legislative status. https://api.congress.gov/
U.S. House Clerk House roll-call votes and chamber activity when vote-level scoring is added. https://clerk.house.gov/Votes
U.S. Senate Senate roll-call votes and chamber activity when vote-level scoring is added. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/votes_new.htm
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Processing times, backlog data, naturalization, work authorization, and immigration-benefit performance metrics. https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border encounters, lawful port-of-entry measures, inadmissibility, and operational border-management context. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats
Executive Office for Immigration Review Immigration court backlog, pending cases, case completions, adjudication activity, and due-process-related court metrics. https://www.justice.gov/eoir/statistical-year-book
DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics Immigration yearbook data, lawful permanent residence, temporary admissions, enforcement actions, and long-term trends. https://ohss.dhs.gov/
DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Civil-rights complaint handling, detention conditions oversight, civil-liberties safeguards, and due-process accountability. https://www.dhs.gov/office-civil-rights-and-civil-liberties
Local Voice to Congress JSON Website-facing exports generated by the local ETL and metrics scripts. data/issues/immigration_2025_summary.json; data/leaderboards/immigration_2025_leaderboard.json; data/metrics_current.json; data/metrics_trends.json
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Copyright © 2001-2026 Voice to Congress. All rights reserved.