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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 10/17/22
    First Name: Paul
    Last Name: Bowers
    Organization: South Carolina Housing Justice Network
    City: N/A
    State: N/A
    Attachment: N/A
    Number: RIN-2590-AB21

  • Comment

    Dear Director Thompson and FHFA team,

    My name is Paul Bowers and I live in North Charleston, S.C. 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."

    My wife and I are a nurse and a writer, respectively. We have 3 children. We got lucky and bought a house here in 2012, before rent and home prices soared astronomically. If we were looking for a house today, we could not live anywhere near our families or our workplaces. The housing market here has been fully commodified, even “workplace” rental housing is out of reach for most working families, and my city, North Charleston, has become a national hotspot for evictions.

    We live in a state that, like most states, favors landlords over renters in the courts. On top of that, we find ourselves inside an ever-expanding bubble of real estate speculation that is pushing farther into the suburbs every month. This situation is not sustainable.

    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 Charleston Democratic Socialists of America and the S.C. Housing Justice Network, an organization working with the Homes Guarantee campaign. The Homes Guarantee campaign is led by more than 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,
    Paul