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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Christopher
    Last Name: Nunn
    Organization: Louisville Tenants Union
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AB21

  • Comment

    Dear Director Thompson and FHFA team,
    My name is Christopher and I live in Louisville, Kentucky. 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, personally, will be paying almost $1400 for an apartment in Louisville Kentucky where I would likely have been paying 800 in 2019 before Covid. That is a 75% increase in 3 years. This massive amount of price gauging is unsustainable and I would be homeless if I was not lucky enough to have a parent paying part of my rent. This is, however, the story for more and more people across the country. I am 30-years-old and I cannot even afford an apartment of my own, let alone the ability to save money to eventually purchase a home. Pair that with the fact that companies are purchasing affordable homes all over the city and turning them into expensive rental properties, and you have a perfect storm of disenfranchisement for those who are not blessed with generational wealth or a winning lottery ticket. The system is so unbelievably imbalanced that I hesitate to put my address on these forms for fear of retaliation like other citizens have received in this city (I would suggest looking up the Instagram, Facebook or Twitter accounts for the Louisville Tenants Union or the HBN Assembly for examples).

    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 Louisville Tenants Union 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,
    Christopher Nunn