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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Heather Rose
    Last Name: Gonzales
    Organization: PLAN
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AB21

  • Comment

    Dear Director Thompson and FHFA team,

    My name is Heather Rose and I live in Las Vegas. 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.

    At one of my previous jobs during the height of the pandemic I worked for a non profit social services support organization called Nevada Ensures Support Together. One of the elders I was assigned to call for daily support was struggling with making ends meet with his increasing medical bills and increased rent. His name was Maurice and he was 82 years old at that time. He had cataract problems and he had to choose between paying for his medicals bills for his eye problems or pay rent. He said he had to prioritize his health, so that lead him to not paying his rent. I felt as if every time I called he was always crying and begging me to find a way to help him pay for his rent. My hands were tied, there were only so few organizations that could/would help at that time in the pandemic. I was reassigned to new people to support and I left with Maurice having had an eviction notice posted on his door.

    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 the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada 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,
    Heather Rose