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Director Thompson,

History has repeatedly shown that you can't incent someone to take care of their property by curtailing their income.
Property ownership is, in most cases, not a charitable endeavor. People buy real estate to create an income flow and a legacy for their families. In an ideal world, tenants would pay reasonable rent in exchange for a quality place to live. In reality, tenants don't always pay their rent and some property owners don't invest their profits back into the property but in my 20+ years as a real estate agent who started by doing rentals exclusively, landlords who are cheap with tenants won't go the distance.
The natural economic cycle will direct renters to nicer, more well-maintained buildings. The owners will lose or sell their property and a new person will buy it and fix it up.
By imposing restrictions on the property owner and making it easy for tenants to pay lower or no rent, the average person who wants to own one or two properties to advance themselves and their family, will choose not to become landlords. Who will choose to become a landlord when there is no profit in it? No one who plans to maintain the property. No one who cares about creating a quality experience for tenants. Certainly no mom-and-pop landlords would dare to purchase a property if they couldn't reasonably expect to make a profit. Who's left? The same slum lords from whom these legislations are trying to protect tenants.
I urge you to put yourself into the shoes of a landlord who cares about their tenants and wants to create and maintain a nice home for them.
It's easy to think of landlords as evil baddies who are raking in the money while their tenants suffer, and, although people like that exist, they are in the minority and these changes will do nothing to make them go away. In fact, they will encourage the negative behavior and increase the amount of sub-par rental housing.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your Request for Input (RFI) on how the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), in its oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, can best provide affordable housing opportunities for renters. Approximately 40% of the National Association of REALTORS®'s (NAR) 1.5 million members own at least one rental housing unit, playing a vital role in providing safe, quality, and affordable housing in neighborhoods nationwide.

As the FHFA examines ways to improve access to affordable housing, it is critical to acknowledge the most significant driver of housing unaffordability is the limited supply of available housing. According to NAR data, the United States has an underproduction gap of over 5.5 million units – a key underlying reason housing costs have increased. On top of this, inflation has increased the prices of goods and services for all Americans. As housing providers strive to provide affordable housing opportunities in their communities, they also contend with rising mortgage rates and increased costs for supplies, services, and maintenance. When inflation is high, the prices of materials increase. That means it becomes exceedingly more expensive for construction teams to build new homes or renovate existing ones. Ultimately, these high costs spill into the housing market and lift home prices for new builds and existing housing.

As REALTORS®, we are committed to upholding the very specific provisions of our contracts with residents, and we often go above and beyond what is required to ensure residents have safe, quality, and affordable places to live. Rental housing is a deeply complex issue that is unique to every community. Creating additional layers of policies to a space that is already heavily regulated by state and local governments will have severe unintended consequences for renters as housing providers are leaving the market in communities where affordable housing is sorely needed.

Affordable housing is pivotal to creating paths to upward mobility for people across the country. I appreciate your commitment to ensuring we achieve this goal without impeding the creation of much-needed housing supply. Christine McCarron