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My name is Wilson and I am a tenant living in Kansas City, Missouri.

I have been priced out of every home I have ever lived in. Each time it has forced me into crisis not of my own making. The crisis came from a landlord whose priority was to make a profit over my ability to have safe shelter, and a government and financial system that allowed it to happen. In Kansas City, rent is going up and long-time residents like myself have nowhere to go. There is a deficit of tens of thousands of housing units at rates most tenants here can afford (30% AMI) and yet there has been no public intervention.

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,
Wilson Vance