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My name is Mindy and I am a Pastor and Executive Director of services to low-income and unhoused neighbors in Kansas City, MO. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

As you know, Landlords are raising rents at the highest rates in over 40 years. Median rents in the U.S. have risen nearly 20% in the last two years alone. Nationally, median rent has surpassed $2,000 for the first time ever. In 2023, there is not a single state where a worker employed full-time at the federal minimum wage can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

We, with our partners on site, serve 500-600 neighbors every Monday night with food, clothing, free medical care, hygiene products, and various other support services. We serve 100 more weekly hot meals this year than we served this time last year. Many of our neighbors are unhoused even though they have housing vouchers in hand. Landlords have tripled the rents in our area of town over the past 10 years, driving many long-term residents to the streets and preventing low-income neighbors from finding dignified, affordable housing. Many of our neighbors are hearing from landlords that they don't accept housing vouchers, not to mention those who refuse to rent to formerly incarcerated people. One man who has no addictions and no criminal record but who has been gainfully employed for 5 months still awaits an open unit where he can be housed. That clearly points out how much harder it is for those with even more barriers in their lives. Developers continue to buy up properties, kick out current tenants, and raise the rents. I have elderly members of my church continually having to move to smaller and less dignified spaces due to the cycle of rent-hikes. I also have members living in inhumane conditions because their landlords refuse to address their responsibilities.

Our people have no place to go, and we are watching the options diminish with each passing moment. Action is needed now, but our state currently prohibits our City from enacting any rent-controls among other progressive measures. We need Federal action now before all easy and affordable options are gone.

The rent is too 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,
Rev. Mindy Fugarino