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My name is Donald Potter and I am a tenant living in North Charleston, SC. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

I am a renter here in North Charleston, SC and have been faced with potential eviction due to lack of work during the pandemic. Just by changing jobs for better pay, I've been put in a position were I was AFRAID I would lose my home. My partner and I are both Food and Beverage/Hospitality workers here in Charleston. I have been in the industry for the past 4 years I have lived here and my partner has been in it for 16 years, the same industry, in the same city. Working in this field that long, you get to learn some things, not just about your coworkers, friends, families, but about your city. How it's ran, where resources are going, who is considered "worthy" of investment in, etc. Needless to say, it's people like us who keep this entire city funded. We base our entire economic system off of tourism and the fact that I have to worry about my housing situation being jeopardized by outside circumstances that are TRULY is out of our control is unacceptable. We don't have kids, we aren't frivolous spenders, and yet we still struggle to pay our rising rent sometimes. We are tired and we are out of time to solve this situation. More 40-50hrs/wk people will continue to be pushed out of their homes due to rent increases, as median rent has increased 20% over the last TWO years, gentrification (even if you work in a gentrified area, funny how that works) and lack of livable wages is coming for all working class people.

The rent is too damn high. The Federal Housing Finance Agency should protect tenants by limiting annual rent hikes to 1.5 times the Consumer Price Index or 3%, whichever is lower, in properties with federally backed mortgages. These limits should be applied universally as a requirement to all federally backed mortgage programs.

In addition to limits on rent hikes, the FHFA should prohibit evictions without good cause, ban source of income discrimination, enforce and expand existing protections against discrimination, require safe and accessible housing conditions, create a landlord registry, require fair and standardized leases, ensure tenants have the right to organize, and create an Office of Tenant Protections to enforce these rights in all properties with federally backed mortgages.

Sincerely,
Donald K. Potter III