Comment Detail

Comment

I have been a renter for the last 10 yrs. Five years in Santa Fe, NM while in school and 5 years in Taos, NM. Both sets of landlords have been great. We’ve never bounced a check or been late outside the parameters of our leases (we generally pay rent early). Our lease this year increased from $1250 to $1500. He was advised to and could have raised it to $1800 this year considering how few rental properties are available, the strength of demand and that minimum quality and constructed homes and foreclosures begin in the $300,000-$400,000. If he had raised it to $1800, we would had to move. Our lease may end this spring and we may have to leave our community anyway and possibly our state in order to find a home and community we can afford and meets the criteria we need to live there. We would love to buy where we are however for a 71 yr old veteran and his now handicapped wife, it is no where even near affordable here anymore due to the steep increase in real estate values due to migration here by the affluent during the pandemic. We are fortunate in how we’ve been treated by our landlords, with respect and their meeting their responsibilities to us; however, I fear how corporations are taking over rental management, and how most renters I’ve read about and spoken with have been manipulated and bullied by their landlord and were/are living with unsafe conditions. I am angry that our 10 rental history of prompt payments is not included in our credit rating that a mortgage does. Why not??? We need as citizens and as a nation rent control, fair leasing, good cause eviction and safe housing standards. In addition, our communities need creative affordable housing designed to make us proud to live there, that include green space and community gardens that foster community and safety, that include societal structure and programs that support all inclusive families, singles, elders living together. Thank you.