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My name is Carter Moon and I am a tenant in Los Angeles, California. I am a member of the Homes Guarantee Campaign.

I spent the first several years living in Los Angeles struggling to afford housing. I am a college graduate and had a full time job in the industry I received my degree in, and still I struggled to find adequate housing that wasn't plagued with black mold or that required me to commute an hour and a half to reach my office. This whole city has been unaffordable relative to median income for the entire time I've lived in Los Angeles, and it has only accelerated since the pandemic began. I currently pay 40% of my monthly income to live in a one bedroom apartment with my partner, we are two adults working full time who can barely afford to live in this city, how are families possibly supposed to survive in a place like this? It shouldn't take two full-time incomes from college graduates to be able to afford a one bedroom apartment.

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.

Thank you for your consideration,
Carter Moon