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Hello,

My name is Adrian Silbernagel. I live in Louisville, Kentucky. The last apartment I lived was managed by a large corporate management company and financed by Fannie Mae. This was the only "affordable" apartment that was available at the time that was in relatively close vicinity to my work. The rent was $565 before utilities. My building had termites that would nest each year, and the only way to contain them when the eggs hatched was to seal off the bathroom door (luckily they only lived in the walls of my the bathroom) and wait for them to die. Multiple maintenance requests were submitted for this issue by multiple tenants, along with other issues like clogged drains and screen doors that were falling apart, which never got a response.

One day in the early months of COVID, long before vaccines were available in Kentucky, my neighbors and I had a note posted to our doors giving us "48 hours notice" that the building had been sold and that management would be doing showings of our units. In reality we were given only 24 hours notice. Shortly thereafter we received letters informing us that the new owners would be doing a full remodel of the building, and that every tenant would be vacated. Construction was to start immediately (on the unit that was vacant) but we would be given at least a months notice to vacate. No other timeline was given. My neighbors and I immediately began the apartment hunt, unfortunately Louisville was effectively in lockdown due to the pandemic, so nobody was moving. Even after expanding my search to neighborhoods further out, I literally could not find a single apartment - studios included - for under $800. A person who was in my life at the time who worked in real estate informed me that mortgage interest rates and home values were at all time low, due, again, to the city being in lockdown. Thanks to a steady job history, the worker shortage, hazard pay, and a reasonably decent credit score, and the market being frozen, I was able to get approved for a 30 yr fixed mortgage with 3% interest, and with a monthly payment that was the exact amount of the unit I was being vacated from. My mortgage is also owned owned by Fannie Mae. If I stopped being able to make payments, I would lose everything. If the slumlord I rented had decided to stop, the most they would have lost is one among hundreds of properties. If these entities are being allowed to make millions in passive income by exploiting people who have next to nothing, the very least they can do is treat our homes for mold, not hike up the rent in a recession, and not evict folks in the middle of a pandemic (or not evict folks, period). There is no reason - besides greed and corruption - why this is even up for debate.

The value of my home has risen something like 25k since I bought it less than 2.5 years ago. You would think I would be thrilled by this, but in fact it infuriates me. Why? Because it means the vast majority of my friends and loved ones are 25k further away from housing security. This situation is even more dire for the transgender community, which I'm a part of, and Black folks in Louisville who were already being priced out of their homes and displaced from the neighborhoods their families have lived in for generations.

Several people who I love are currently unhoused, some of them chronically. Included among these are a queer Black man, a disabled transgender veteran, and a Black single mother. Queer youth are 2.2x more likely than other youth to experience houselessness. Trans youth ar 7.6 times more likely than other kids to attempt suicide. These numbers are only getting worse as the legislative war on trans people takes out more and more of us.

I try not to make assumptions. But if you are in a position to be reading this comment, I imagine you don't love paycheck to paycheck, that you've never had your power go out because you couldn't afford your electric bill, that you've never had to live in a mold or bedbug infested home. If this is the case, it is understandably difficult to imagine the toll that living with these realities every day - for years or decades - or generations - takes on a person's mental and physical health, relationships, and quality of life. I hope that visiting some of the apartments that the FHFA finances, and seeing the truly despicable conditions that families and individuals, young and old, are being forced to live in has awakened your empathy and sense of justice enough to take action. This decision is an opportunity to save countless lives, and improve countless more.

Please use your power for good. It is the bare minimum that we are asking.

Adrian