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My name is MAK and I am a tenant living in Kansas City. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign and Kansas City's citywide tenant union, KC Tenants.

I have been a tenant for a majority of my life. Since living in Kansas City, my rent has hiked every year. The cost of my rent and utilities is increasing at an egregious rate. Money is getting incredibly tight. I shouldn't have to decide between health care, necessary car maintenance, and my rent. Enough is enough and I am sick of the squeeze landlords are putting on tenants like me. I feel like I am about pop because of the financial stress profiteers like landlords are placing on people like me.

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,
MAK