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Comment

My name is Mark and I am a tenant living in Kansas City, MO. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

I am writing to ask that the FHFA limit rent hikes, refuse landlords to discriminate income sources, and require that homes be kept up to code and in good, working maintenance for tenants. My fiancé spent a year living in Mac Apartments in KC, a company who has received $71.5 million in FHFA loans. Her home was expensive and water poured through her ceiling. They did not fix it for months. Meanwhile, black mold grew. When she asked for money back at the end of her time as a tenant, since they did not fulfill their contract, they refused. Briana (my fiancé) worked multiple jobs to pay for her rent. Yet Mac refused to do their job, despite being paid on time by Briana, and receiving $71.5 million in loans from taxpayer money.

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,
Mark