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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Adrian
    Last Name: Williams
    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 Adrian and I live in Lexington, KY. 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 Lexington at the beginning of 2020, and my partner moved here with me after she graduated from her masters program in the summer of 2020. I’d gotten a nice job, making more than double what I’d ever made, which was really exciting. What wasn’t as exciting about that time was that because my partner had half a year left of grad school down there, and was making a graduate student’s pay, I had to continue paying my half of the rent for the apartment we had back in Florida as well as the rent for the apartment that I actually lived in up here. I also had to spend money I didn’t have to move up here, and have about $13,000 in medical debt from a surgery I had last year that wasn’t fully covered by my insurance. Right now my salary is $62,400, and I take home about $3,200 a month. My rent here started off at $1,450 and has been raised to $1,580. That’s about 40% of my paycheck, not even factoring in the other things I have to pay for each month, like my medical debt, groceries, and for a period of time, a second apartment’s rent. My partner was able to get a job this past summer that made it possible for her to start helping with the rent, but before that, and even now sometimes, it was really scary to know that if something happened to me or to my job, it wouldn’t just be me that suffered, it would be my partner as well. My partner and I are able to make due and lead comfortable lives, but there are plenty of people across Lexington who aren’t able to, whose rents are being raised regardless of whether the income they put on their apartment applications reflect that they can afford the rent hikes.

    The rent is too 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 KY 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,
    Adrian