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Hello! I'm Anabelle, a tenant living in charleston, sc. I'm a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign, and i found out about this form through some of the left-wing advocacy groups that I am a member of.

During the spring and fall, i attend College of Charleston, persuing a compsci degree. CofC is on the charleston peninsula, and this makes it difficult to find housing. Most adults live in west ashley, a five minute drive away, but there’s no safe way to bike from there to the peninsula. I could drive to CofC, but there’s almost no parking spots because the campus is tiny. This forces me to live on the peninsula, which comes at a huge financial cost.

There is a huge demand for affordable housing units on the peninsula. I recently toured a subletted bedroom that was listed on Facebook marketplace for $1000. The current tennant told me that over 120 people reached out in a span of twenty-four hours, with some offering 30% over asking price.

Unfortunatley, developers have responded to this demand by building more luxury appartmnets. These buildings sport pretentious names like “The Caroline”, or “Summit Place”, and come with a wide array of amenities that exist solely to justify the higher price.

If the peninsula were filled with giant banking towers, then I’d be somewhat understanding of this. But the people working jobs in Charleston are foodservice workers, retail employees, tourist guides, and nurses. It’s infuriating to me that the people who keep the lights on in charleston are unable to afford a flat at their place of work.

I strongly agree with my fellow activists in demanding that the Federal Housing Finance Agency protect tenants by limiting annual rent hikes to 1.5 times the Consumer Price Index or a flat rate of 3%, (whichever is lower) in properties with federally backed mortgages. Making this a requirement for all federally backed mortgage programs would lower costs and improve housing security for so many Americans.

The united nations high commission on human rights describes “The Right to Adequate Housing” as a human right established in international law. Market-based solutions are failing to deliver affordable housing to the thousands of people who work and/or study on the charleston peninsula. In the face of these inequities, I strongly urge the FHFA to follow the demands of the homes guarentee campagin: namely:

1) prohibit evictions without good cause,
2) ban source of income discrimination
3) enforce and expand existing protections against discrimination,
4) require safe and accessible housing conditions,
5) create a landlord registry,
6) require fair and standardized leases,
7) ensure tenants have the right to organize, and
8) create an Office of Tenant Protections to enforce these rights in all properties with federally backed mortgages.

If you are to accomplish just one of these goals, please establish a national landlord registry. Having a centralized database will help renters understand the cost of housing in different cities, and allow for the housing authority to better understand the affordability of housing in america’s cities.

If you have any questions, please reach out to me at vandenburghba@g.cofc.edu, or leave me a voicemail at 504 810 8773

Thank you,
Anabelle