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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/25/23
    First Name: Elizabeth
    Last Name: Raphael
    Email: elibraphael@gmail.com
    Organization Type: N/A
    Organization: Homes Guarantee Campaign

  • Comment

    I'm Eli and I am a tenant living in Philadelphia, PA. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

    In the last three years, my rent has been raised more than $200 per year. That means that over 3 years, I've experienced a rent increase of $600, or 50%. I had to take on an additional 2 jobs in order to continue to pay for rent, food, and the cost of my medicine. The stress of juggling three jobs caused my autoimmune disorder to flare, and I've been sick now for 2 years with no end in sight.

    But there's nowhere else affordable to rent. I've already moved cities, from a very HCOL place to an ostensibly LCOL place. Rent is still ridiculously unaffordable. And that's with working 3 jobs! I can't imagine how people are making do with only one.

    Rent is out of control. I am asking the Federal Housing Finance Agency to 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,
    Eli Raphael