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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 06/21/23
    First Name: Alexandra
    Last Name: Alvarado
    Email: Alexandra@faithinthevalley.org
    Organization Type: N/A
    Organization: Faith in the Valley

  • Comment

    My name is Alexandra and I am a homeowner living in Visalia, CA. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

    When I had to recently move me and my husband looked all over the central valley for rent which was in our price range. We found rent in some places we had previously rented, only 4 years before, that rent has gone up $400-$600. There was no way we could understand why rent had gone up so much for the exact same place we rented before. There were no upgrades or changes. Rent is taking up well over 30% of income for most renters in the central valley. It shouldn't cost this much to just live.

    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.