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My name is Carol and I am a tenant living in Newton, MA. As a renter, I experience yearly anxiety that my landlord will raise the rent higher than I can afford. Although that has not yet happened, the fear of losing housing is an additional and unnecessary stress. It is very hard to find affordable housing in my area that is close enough to the city to have a reasonable commute to work. I dear having to choose between adequate housing and a commute that will not add too many hours and too much stress to my work day.

The rent is getting unsustainably high. Nationally, median rent has surpassed $2,000 for the first time ever. In 2023, there is not a single state where a worker employed full-time at the federal minimum wage can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. 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,
Carol