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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/08/23
    First Name: KYLE
    Last Name: O'CONNOR
    Email: kyleoconnor90@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Midtown Tenant Union
  • Comment

    My name is Kyle O'Connor and I am a tenant living in Kansas City, Missouri. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.
    The rent is too damn high! The FHFA needs to 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. These protections are vital to ensuring that housing is safe, accessible, and truly affordable for all US renters. As it is now, providing huge loans to corporate landlords with none of these protections amounts to a deposit directly into the pockets of greedy executives and does nothing to reduce the rate of rent increases.

    Sincerely,
    Kyle J O'Connor, Midtown Tenant Union, KCMO