Skip to main content

  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/25/23
    First Name: Meghan
    Last Name: Whitlock
    Email: whitlock.meghan@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Homes Guarantee Campaign

  • Comment

    My name is Meghan Whitlock and I am a tenant living in Seattle WA. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

    My partner and I have had our rent increased from $775-1775 in the time we have lived in this apartment, we have had to downsize to a smaller unit just to stay in our community. This situation is not supporting our businesses and we are constantly having to find ways to make ends meet. Renting is no longer creating a path to homeownership. It is locking us into a perpetual poverty cycle.

    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,
    Meghan