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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Eli
    Last Name: Berkowitz
    Organization: Community Voices Heard
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AB21

  • Comment

    Dear Director Thompson and FHFA team,

    My name is Eli and I live in Hudson, NY. 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.

    After having to leave our long-time affordable rental due to pervasive mold problems, my partner and I struggled for the last year to find adequate housing for our family that we could afford. Prior to the pandemic, real estate and rental prices in Hudson were rising fast due to gentrification-driven speculation; during the pandemic they’ve gone through the roof. Even as a two-income family with both of us making decent salaries we’ve been through countless searches and applications trying to find a rental we could actually afford.

    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 Community Voices Heard 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,
    Eli