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My name is Christina and I am a tenant living in Napa, California.

It has been a difficult experience trying to find housing in Napa. Not only is it very expensive, but there is such a housing shortage that applying for rentals is very competitive. It can be very stressful finding a place that you can afford and being "first in line" for them when posted online. My husband and I first lived in a 2 bedroom apartment for 1700/month 5 years ago which increased to $2000. We had numerous issues at this place from roaches to bad plumbing and community washers and dryers were often broken and our property management did little to help us. Talking to other tenants especially ones that live in places run by property management companies they often don't take good care of their properties and tenants because "they know people have no where else to go" It was common to hear from neighbors that their ovens didn't work and were never replaced. A few years later we moved into a rental house which is privately owned and managed and our experience was much better with our landlord regarding repairs, however after living there one year our rent was raised 8.6%. This is a lot for tenants who are dealing with costs of inflation, student debt payments resuming and are not getting yearly salary raises near this high. I asked my husband if we are just supposed to deal with rent increases every year for the foreseeable future and somehow absorb the cost? We, like many Americans would like to own a home one day, but are struggling to pay our student loans, rent, and provide for our young family. High rent costs are drastically prolonging the process of us becoming debt-free and able to set aside money for a home.

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,