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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/15/23
    First Name: Elisabeth
    Last Name: Peters
    Email: elisabeth.g.peters04@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: KC Tenet Union

  • Comment

    My name is Elisabeth and I live in Shawnee Kansas. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

    I am rapidly approaching the time in my life that I will have to live independently for the first time. Soon I will need to pay rent all on my own if I want to survive. Currently, I am terrified. Having to pay for housing has forced me into situations that have destroyed my body and mind. If these protections don’t go into place, and if the rent does not come down, I do not see a future for myself and my generation.

    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,
    Elisabeth