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My name is Leanna and I am a tenant living in Burbank, CA. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

In my city, it is nearly impossible to find affordable housing. Landlords are able to charge $3,000 a month or more for a small 2 bedroom apartment, and because of the amount of profits these landlords can make, the housing market has skyrocketed. Landlords buy single family "starter" homes then fill their backyards with small ADUs (sometimes as small as 375 square feet for a unit!) and then charge thousands a month for these rental units. Not only are rentals impossibly expensive, but now it is also impossible to buy a home if that is what you want, because "investors" are grabbing them all to convert them into overpriced rentals. My husband makes a very good wage, as did I before I had to quit my job due to health reasons, and it is insane to think that we are unable to afford a rental on the monthly income we make. We've moved to a small, slightly cheaper unit (the best priced option we could find), have now run up our credit cards and borrowed against my husband's 401k twice just to be able to get by with the minimum of rent and food and utilities. We've cut every expense we can, but we still can't get by because the rent is still so high. We've worked very hard to avoid eviction or late rent payments, and unfortunately because income limits on assistance programs are usually based on federal guidelines, we don't even qualify for assistance or affordable housing programs. As we keep putting our dream of growing our family on hold due to the cost of living, it is clear that more needs to be done to control the costs of rent and housing, and make more options for all people, not just those in the top 10% of earners.

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,
Leanna