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My name is Jaida and I am a tenant living in Brooklyn, NY. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

Before the pandemic, I was saving money to move out of abusive housing. Since 2020 I’ve moved 4 times and ended up moving back in to toxic housing in late 2021 due to the rent spike. I faced another abusive incident only 5 months later. Rent spikes continually put those in domestic abusive situations in increasing danger with no means of resources to be provided with the help we truly need, like affordable and safe housing.

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.

Sincerely,
Jaida