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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/21/23
    First Name: Ryan
    Last Name: O
    Email: ryanryanryan@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Former Tenant

  • Comment

    My name is Ryan O and I am a former tenant living in Chicago, IL.

    I am a lucky person in that I was finally able to stop renting and get into a mortgage, but it wasn't easy and it was mostly based on luck. I had to leave my community and neighborhood I loved to afford something. Rents kept going up and up and up, and I finally had to leave. Again, I am insanely lucky. So many others are not.

    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,
    Ryan O