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This comment was submitted as part of a public housing justice campaign by Debt Collective and the Homes Guarantee Campaign. I am not affiliated or employed with this organization, simply participating as an individual advocate.

Landlords are raising rents at the highest rates in over 40 years, wedian rents in the U.S. rising nearly 20% in the last two years alone, and the national median rent has surpassed $2,000 for the first time ever. As a result, as of 2023, there is not a single state where a worker employed full-time at the federal minimum wage can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

As current statistics show, the rent is too 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.

I also call on the FHFA to do everything in its power to limit the often-adverse impact of credit checks and application fees on tenants, both of which can diminish a tenant's chances of approval for any rental over time. I have personally witnessed how non-refundable credit check and application fees can add up quickly, sometimes reaching well over $100 for a household of 4 tenants, and I have seen tenants present once-stellar credit histories that were blemished by all the mandatory hard checks landlords demanded of them. Tenants should not have to pay through the nose or suffer penalties for less-than-perfect credit just to find a place to live, especially if they're moving from one state to another.