Skip to main content

  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Nix
    Last Name: Pritchard
    Organization: Cape Tenants
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AB21

  • Comment

    Dear Director Thompson and FHFA team,

    My name is Nix and I live in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I'm writing in response to the FHFA Multifamily Enterprise Housing Goals Proposed Rule Comment Request: ‘Community Support Requirements, (No. 2022–N–11) Multifamily Enterprise Housing Goals Proposed Rule.

    I am currently co-renting a house with 2 bedrooms for $1,080 a month. Despite working full time and making too much money to qualify for food stamps or other forms of aid, I cannot afford pay my half of the rent each month without sacrificing other necessary expenses. We moved here in August 2022. There were no options we could afford more easily that suited our needs and allowed pets. I appreciate this house, but we should not live constantly in fear of losing it before we have even gotten to make a home out of it. And if I can't even keep up with my current living expenses, there is nothing to save for our future.

    The rent is too damn high and I’m counting on FHFA to take every possible action to regulate rents for all properties with federally backed mortgages. If our public money is financing the business of making money on our homes, the least that you can do as a regulator is attach conditions to these resources that benefit the people. FHFA has successfully taken bold action in the past to help protect tenants during COVID-19 and to look out for residents of manufactured housing, and I am counting on FHFA to take similar action to help tenants like me during this time of intense economic hardship.

    I am a member of Cape Tenants and a leader with the Homes Guarantee campaign. The Homes Guarantee campaign is led by over 52 tenant-led organizations from all corners of the country. We have a long term vision for a world where everyone has access to safe, sustainable and TRULY affordable housing. In the short term we are organizing to win an executive order on rent regulation from the President— see more here: https://damnhighrent.com

    Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you would like to get in touch with me, please contact Grace White, the Homes Guarantee Organizer at g.white@peoplesaction.org.
    Sincerely,
    Nix