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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/03/23
    First Name: Vanessa
    Last Name: Blais
    Email: BessBlais@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Manchester Housing Alliance

  • Comment

    The MHA is a local grassroots organization which is comprised of individuals who are concerned about the lack of safe, secure, stable, and affordable housing in the city of Manchester, NH. We are concerned with the rise in predatory landlord practices that are exploiting the most vulnerable population of our city and our contributing to the homeless crisis.

    My name is Vanessa and I am a tenant living in Manchester NH. I am a member of Manchester Housing Alliance. The MHA is a local grassroots organization which is comprised of individuals who are concerned about the lack of safe, secure, stable, and affordable housing in the city of Manchester, NH. We are concerned with the rise in predatory landlord practices that are exploiting the most vulnerable population of our city and our contributing to the homeless crisis.
    The rent in our city is beyond the financial reach of more than half of the renters. 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.
    I myself live with the knowledge that I may soon no longer be able to remain in my home, which I have lived in for the past eight years. Being that my city has a vacancy of less than 1%, this would upend my life, cause me to burden my family and possibly will cause me to no longer remain employed at my job. I currently live in what many would consider to be an unsafe building, but I am unable to find adequate housing in my city that will not be beyond my financial reach. My neighbors are also experiencing this.

    Sincerely,

    Vanessa