Comment Detail

Comment

Hello,

I am a first-time home owner in Holyoke, MA - a small city where a significant portion (I believe it is over 40%) of residents are tenants. I live in a ward where 60% of residents are tenants and I am active in my community. I have heard horror stories from my neighbors about their living conditions -- from rodent infestations, to heat that didn't work in sub-zero temperatures to water coming out of the tap that is brown and stinky -- and yet their rent keeps rising. They stay because there's not much of an alternative.

Ironically, as a homeowner, I am lower monthly payments for my mortgage than many of my neighbors pay for their monthly rent. This is because housing is being sold at a profit to renters by landlords. Like any other product integral to the health and safety of people, we need the federal government to make sure that product not causing harm and that consumers are protected, especially if the federal government is helping to fund that product (as they do with housing with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).

If we can do it with new prescription drugs, we can do it for housing. Housing is the bare essential people need for stability, health and wellbeing. We need renters to be protected from sudden hikes in rent so my neighbors can afford to keep their housing and protect their wellbeing. We need protections from evictions so my neighbors don't lose the roof over their heads for trivial reasons that could destabilize an entire family. We need to make sure housing is safe for people to live in so it doesn't compromise their health.

I can't think of anything more common sense than to enact basic federal protects for consumers of housing (ie renters) if the government is in the market of supporting the housing they live in (through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans).

Sincerely,
Mary Jones
Holyoke, MA