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Comment

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

I have always rented, and in the past three years I have watched as rental prices skyrocketed, severely limiting the housing options in my town, especially for anyone low-income or single. My rent has been hiked, although I am pretty lucky to still be able to afford my housing. I used to be able to find housing options for friends or newcomers to Frankfort very easily - at this point I couldn't name one affordable place to rent in my neighborhood of South Frankfort. I have witnessed friends get evicted due to not being able to pay rent, and I have also seen entire buildings be bought out, only for the landlords to raise the rent so much that previous tenants can no longer afford to live there.

Landlords are raising rents at the highest rates in over 40 years; 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. This is unacceptable. 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,
Jasmine