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My name is Rhodes Conover and I am a tenant living in Olathe, Kansas]. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

I became involved in local tenant organizing around two years ago because I was seeing first hand so many people I cared about struggling to have a place to stay and live safely. Landlords would hike rents, not respond to maintenance requests, and generally make it impossible for tenants to navigate their housing situation. I joined my local tenants union and became involved on the Hotline team, acting as an assistant to folks calling our organization experiencing housing crisis through the Kansas City metro area (over 2 million people). Since joining the hotline, I've spoken to over 2,000 tenants in crisis in this city on the phone. The thing that has become overwhelmingly clear to me is that I am a lucky one, and when my maintenance requests get dealt with in three weeks as opposed to three months, I should be grateful. The landlords throughout this city act with impunity. They operate as though they have no responsibility or decency. The stories I have heard from tenants are shocking and heartbreaking. I've heard stories of elderly women being evicted from their homes without any notice. I've heard of young women having their landlords enter their home at 3am, claiming to be there to "provide maintenance," but instead making unwanted advances. One tenant got a housing voucher from the local government, were evicted without cause, notice, or formal process, and then when they attempted to move into a new apartment using a voucher several months later, were informed that their previous landlord (who had evicted them) was still cashing the checks on the previous vouchers. I heard of a tenant who had their rent increased from $600/month to $1900/month! It's just not right.

In all of these cases, I've done what I can to emotionally support these folks and to point them towards resources to resolve these issues. But when the issues are this widespread, there isn't much that I can do. Police have not helped and in some cases hurt some of the issues I've engaged with. Some social work organizations have been helpful, but are merely a drop in an ocean. The same can be said of local churches that engage in this space: good, but not enough. All the amazing work that people in this city have done is not enough to account for the reality: 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,
Rhodes Conover