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My name is Gabe and I am a tenant living in Kansas City, Missouri. I am born and raised in KC, and have been a tenant on my own for 11 years in the same neighborhood. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

I love KC with every cell in my body, but the way things are going I am worried that if things keep going the way they are I won't be able to afford to live in the city I grew up in, let alone recognize it. I've been displaced multiple times in the city I was born and raised in. I've never been late on rent before, but I've been forced to vacate my home with just a 30 days notice, all so that my landlord could turn around and double the rent. It went from $950 to $1800 with no upgrades or new amenities. My stability should not be determined by the market. Rent continues to sky rocket in my neighborhood, but our wages have remained the same. Minimum wage in KC is $12hr while affordable rent is defined as $1200 for a 1BR - it simply doesn't add up!

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.

Thanks, Gabe