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Comment

I understand that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is now deciding whether to condition government-backed loans on a set of tenant protections and are asking for public comment on this. The answer to this is: Yes!

Landlords - often absentee corporations - have too much power over our lives and our homes. We live in an environment where, absurdly and inhumanely, "affordable" housing is an exception that we have to fight to even carve out. This is wrong, and it can destroy lives.

Some solutions I can suggest:

-Rent regulations: Protect tenants from and limit egregious rent hikes.

-Good cause eviction: Prohibit evictions without good cause, ensuring every tenant has the right to a lease renewal. Good cause is defined as serious and repeated lease violations provable in a court of law.

-Ban source of income discrimination: Prohibit landlords from discriminating against tenants based on their source of income including federal housing assistance (i.e., vouchers).

-Freedom from discrimination: Enforce existing laws that prohibit landlords from denying a tenant rental housing based on race, physical or mental ability, and family make-up, and expand protections to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, immigration status, conviction and/or arrest history, bankruptcy history, eviction history, or credit score.

-Safe, quality, accessible housing standards: Require all landlords to keep their properties in good condition, and to ensure homes are accessible for people with disabilities. No renter should have to live in an inaccessible home or in housing conditions that put their health and safety at risk.

-Landlord registry: Tenants should have access to information about their landlord including their name and phone number.

-Tenant right to organize: Tenants have the right to form tenants’ unions or resident councils free from fear of retaliation from the landlord or managing agent. Ownership and management representatives must not interfere with the creation or actions of tenant organizations.

-Fair leases: Landlords must use standardized and clearly defined leases free of abusive terms.

-Office of Tenant Protections: A team charged with protecting tenants and enforcing their rights in properties with federally backed mortgages.

Some principles that I can suggest FHFA follow:

-Tenant Leadership: The FHFA must continue to engage with and follow the leadership of tenants and people directly impacted by the rental market.

-Equity: Racial and social equity must be explicit goals of all regulations.

-Mandatory Requirements: Tenant protections should be applied to all landlords with a federally backed-mortgage and all rental properties, including larger multifamily properties and smaller one-to-four-unit properties. Tenant protections should not be incentivized or volunteer based.

-Enforcement: Landlords who violate FHFA’s tenant protections should be found to be in technical default and should not be eligible for future loans.

Thank you for your attention. Please do this.