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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/28/23
    First Name: Reed
    Last Name: Floarea
    Email: reed.floarea@startmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Homes Guarantee Campaign

  • Comment

    My name is Reed Floarea and I am a tenant living in Brooklyn, NY. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

    I can barely afford my rent and when it goes up again next year, I won't be able to afford it. There are too few affordable places in the city already. Across the country, landlords are raising rents at the highest rates seen in over 40 years, and this is on the heels of a pandemic! Median rents in the US have surpassed $2,000 for the first time EVER! I'm far from alone in barely making ends meet. There isn't a single state right now where a full-time worker paid the federal minimum wage can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

    It doesn't have to be like this. 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,
    Reed