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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 06/07/23
    First Name: Rabbi Bonnie
    Last Name: MARGULIS
    Email: wifaithvoices4justice@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice

  • Comment

    The Honorable Sandra Thompson
    Federal Housing Finance Agency
    Washington, D.C.
    Director Thompson,
    Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)
    Request for Information on federal rental protections. I am Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, Executive Director of Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice. We are a statewide nonpartisan nonprofit working through clergy and congregations of all faiths to advocate for social and economic justice. Affordable housing is one of our core issues. We believe housing is a human right.

    Wisconsin is facing an affordable housing crisis. Our state legislature has enacted a series of laws over the last few years that have unjustly favored landlords over tenant rights. We look to our federal government to enact protections our state government refuses to do.

    Among our programs, we run the Dane Sanctuary Coalition, working for immigration justice and providing assistance to our immigrant and asylum-seeking siblings. Affordable housing is an enormous issue for this population. Working low-wage jobs, it is nearly impossible to find affordable housing. We often resort to placing families in motels for weeks at a time, because the shelters are full and housing is unattainable. Landlords are reluctant to rent to people without a credit history, with language barriers, and sometimes without papers.

    We also work as allies to low-wage and essential workers, to those returning from incarceration, and the LGBTQ+ community. These are all communities that struggle to find affordable housing and are often discriminated against by landlords.

    We need protections that only our federal government can provide:
    -- laws that prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to someone based on immigration status, gender identity or sexual orientation, history of incarceration
    -- robust enforcement of laws requiring landlords to provide safe and livable housing, to make all repairs in a timely and appropriate way
    -- funding and requirement for legal assistance in eviction court, expungement of eviction records - particularly when a judgement was made in favor of the renter and no eviction took place - and translation aid in eviction court
    -- laws prohibiting price gauging, so a landlord cannot unfairly raise the rent beyond a reasonable increase
    -- laws requiring landlords to rent to anyone who can pay, regardless of whether they are paying from their own funds or through a Section 8 voucher or other supports
    -- landlords should not be able to evict someone on a whim, or because of the bad acts of an abusive partner, or because the renter had to call 911

    Above all, funding to build more affordable housing and incentives for developers to build housing for low and moderate-income renters is essential.

    Thank you for your consideration of these issues.

    Rabbi Bonnie Margulis
    Executive Director
    Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice