Skip to main content

  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 08/11/22
    First Name: Don
    Last Name: Chaney
    Email: dchaney2@outlook.com
    Organization Type: N/A
    Organization: Self

  • Comment

    August 11, 2022

    Mr. Adam Russell
    Federal Housing Finance Agency
    Capital Center
    400 7th Street, SW
    Washington, DC

    Subject: Tenant Rent

    Dear Mr. Russell,

    I am writing against tenant rent controls. Eviction and rent control plans like the proposed American Rescue Plan are not the solution for high rents. These type programs unfairly place the nation’s responsibility to provide affordable housing squarely on the shoulders of owners of real estate housing when it should be on the shoulders of government agencies.

    A reason rents are high is that housing costs are soaring and there just are not enough homes. The United States needs an additional 1.5 million to five million housing units, according to a broad range of economic estimates. The Housing Supply Action Plan needs an accelerated schedule and more funding. A short-term solution is to revive, extend and increase The Emergency Rental Assistance Program. The Treasury Department cash infusions worked well.

    There is not a shortage of shortage of labor or material. Apartments that encompass entire square blocks and are 4 and 5 stories tall are under construction in major cities. Builders are constructing expensive apartments because they cannot make as good a return on low cost properties. The FHA Housing program must be updated to be more attractive to developers.

    Even if there were plenty of homes to purchase, many say that buyers are locked out because of inflation. This is political rhetoric to pin the blame on Biden. Americans historically have purchased many millions of homes with interest rates at 4% to 5%. Push back on this false narrative.

    Additionally, many of these rent regulation initiatives come from groups in expensive real estate regions. For example, most Americans cannot afford to live in Washington, DC or Orange County, Florida. A messaging program might be helpful. People are not entitled to live where they want, and employers are not entitled to have a supply of minimum wage workers.

    Rent regulation programs should be off the table. The federal government should not force a distinct group, owners of housing, to shoulder a national problem. Any legislated rent regulation is effectively providing free subsidies major corporations such as the banks, big box retail, manufacturing, tourism, and other industries that hire a large number of low wage earners.

    Property owners did not create the problem and property owners should not be the solution.

    Sincerely,

    Don Chaney
    2827 Village Dale Ave.
    Houston, TX 77059
    Email: dchaney2@outlook.com
    Phone: 713-898-5292