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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Emma
    Last Name: R
    Organization: Youth Alliance for Housing (YAH)
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AB21

  • Comment

    Dear Director Thompson and FHFA team,

    My name is Emma and I live in New York City. 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 only 20 years old and I have moved 19 times in my life. I am currently couch surfing while dealing with health issues that limit my ability to work. Having a space to call my own where I feel safe and secure feels like a far away dream because of violent rent increases, unsafe conditions, and predatory landlords.

    I am no longer able to stay with my mother and sister, they moved due to rent increases a year and a half ago. After one year in their new apartment their rent is being increased 46%. My sister is going to graduate high-school at the end of the year, and my mom plans to move back to her home country because she cannot afford to stay in America, where she has been living for the past 34 years. They are now faced with the choice of moving again now, just to have to move again in the summer, or to cut back on spending on all other necessities.

    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 Youth Alliance for Housing (YAH) 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,
    Emma