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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Skyler
    Last Name: M
    Organization: N/A
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AB21

  • Comment

    Dear Director Thompson and FHFA team,

    My name is Skyler and I live in Cape Girardeau, MO. 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 moved to Cape Girardeau from Houston, TX because Houston rent was too expensive. Now just three years later rent in the small town of Cape Girardeau is rivaling the numbers from Houston in 2019/2020. My current rent is $900 but my landlord has stated that the market value is $1,200. In Houston at least I was in the third or fourth largest city in the country so there was a real job market. That isn’t the case in Cape Girardeau. In a community where $15 an hour is a blessing, we cannot afford an extra $300 a month in rent.

    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 Girardeau 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,
    Skyler