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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Ben
    Last Name: Iness
    Organization: Nevada Housing Justice Alliance
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AB21

  • Comment

    Dear Director Thompson and FHFA team,

    My name is Ben Iness and I live in Reno, Nevada. 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.

    Northern Nevada is one of the most severely impacted communities when it comes to our country's housing crisis. There is an alarmingly disproportionate relationship between the housing needs of Washoe County community members and the massive deficit of rental units that are affordable and available. As rents continue to dramatically skyrocket, countless Nevadans become increasingly vulnerable to displacement and being forced to forgo their most fundamental needs. I have seen my own rent go up $100 each year over the last seven years despite not moving. I am fortunate to not have been displaced yet, though high rents paired with crushing student loan debt, unaffordable health plans, and other increases in cost of living means that something will soon break amongst these tenuous threads.

    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 [INSERT YOUR ORG NAME] 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,
    [INSERT FIRST NAME]