Comment Detail

Comment

Request for Input: FHFA Tenant Protections
REQUEST FOR INPUT:

LIMITS ON RENT HIKES + TENANT PROTECTIONS

BACKGROUND

The government is in business with many landlords, offering them favorable loan terms to finance their businesses. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also known as the “Government Sponsored Enterprises,” work with banks to offer $150 billion to landlords in financing every year, without any strings attached.

As a result of tenant organizing, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which regulates Fannie and Freddie, is now deciding whether to condition government-backed loans on a set of tenant protections. These protections could include regulations on rent hikes and evictions, housing safety requirements, bans on discrimination, and more. If enacted, they could benefit over 12.4 million rental homes across the country.

The FHFA is now seeking comments from tenants and advocates to inform this decision.

SUBMIT A COMMENT ON TENANT PROTECTIONS BY JULY 31, 2023.

WHAT SHOULD I INCLUDE?

If you are a tenant, you should share your experiences trying to find safe and affordable housing AND what you want to see the federal government do about it. Your comment will be publicly available. Do not share anything you want to keep private or confidential.

COMMENT TEMPLATE

NOTE: It is important to make this comment unique by adding in your experience and changing words to make it sound more like you! The government does not count comments that are too similar.

My name is Angelica and I am a tenant living in Elizabethtown, KY. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

My partner and I live at a property funded by one of these taxpayer loans. The entire property run down, safety hazards to be found everywhere, the property stairs are covered in latex paint so when it rains all of the water pools up and creates a slip and fall risk. My partner has fallen, my neighbors have fallen, and I have sustained serious injury and cannot work due to slipping and falling on these stairs. Since I can't work and can't receive disability because of the long drawn out process insurance takes to affirm that I do infact need an MRI, I cannot pay rent.

Many requests to fix safety hazards by MANY tennant's have been ignored over years time, the previous owners were impossible to get ahold of, and even worse I'm paying the RENT to live here and my tax money as well.

The rent is too 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,

Angelica