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My name is Johanna and I am a tenant living in Washington, DC. I am a proud member of the Homes Guarantee! The rent is too damn high. When I was looking to move last winter, this was the first and only place I toured and I had to immediately sign a lease just to ensure I could get this apartment. The rental market is not built for poor and working people. I can barely afford my rent each month. Nationally, median rent has surpassed $2,000 for the first time ever. How do we fix it?

The opposite of rent gouging is rent control. 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 like mine. My building is financed by Fannie Mae. These limits should be applied to all federally backed mortgage programs.

The FHFA can do more. It should also 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.

Thank you for listening to tenants. I hope you continue to center us in any decision making and policies that will impact us.