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Good day,

My name is Kari Vadakkan and I am a renter living in Phoenix, AZ. I am writing to comment on your decision whether to condition government-backed loans on a set of tenant protections.

As a working class person, I've seen first hand how expensive it is to rent, both on a single full time time income, as well as two full time incomes. My landlord continues to raise rent while my income stays stagnant. Inflation doesn't help, and I am trying to stay afloat while dealing with buying groceries, paying utility bills and upcoming student loan debt payments. It's not sustainable and not fair to do this to hard working people. Everyone needs an affordable place to live.

I implore the Federal Housing Finance Agency to protect tenants by limiting annual rent hikes in properties with federally backed mortgages. In addition to limits on rent hikes, the Federal Housing Finance Agency 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.

You have a chance to help make the United States a more fair place to live, and it is your duty to do so as a fellow human being.

Sincerely,

Kari Vadakkan