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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 06/16/23
    First Name: Jessica
    Last Name: Bellamy
    Email: bellamy.jessica@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Louisville Tenants Union

  • Comment

    My name is Jessica Bellamy and I am a tenant living in the city of Louisville, KY. I am a member of the Louisville Tenants Union and Homes Guarantee Campaign.

    I’ve had landlords who have increased my rent without making any improvements to the property. I’ve also consistently paid my rent on time and still had to suffer without regular access to a fridge, stove, or actual shower. My shower was a hose in a women’s restroom and I never missed a rent payment. When I was forced to move because the landlord wasn’t in compliance with the law I was pushed out into homelessness. I lost so many things I owned and was forced to live on the kindness of friends. My housing insecurity destabilized my life and that impacted my mental and physical health. I inevitably attempted suicide at my lowest point but I did not succeed in ending my life. When a friend took me to the hospital I was refused treatment because I could not provide an address on the admission form. I was told that if I couldn’t fill out the form that I couldn’t receive treatment. My friend and I stayed together to make sure I would make it through the night and that is a situation that I wouldn’t even wish on my worst enemy. No one should be denied services because they don’t have an address and homes should be guaranteed not used to make profit for the few.

    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,
    Jessica Bellamy