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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/31/23
    First Name: Lou
    Last Name: Marchese
    Email: loumarchese1@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Bozeman Tenants United + Homes Guarantee Campaign

  • Comment

    My name is Lou and I am a member of Bozeman Tenants United and the Homes Guarantee Campaign and I am a tenant living in Bozeman Montana.

    I have moved 4 times in 3 years. With every move has brought higher rent, worse maintenance, and no accountability. I need the FHFA to be bold.

    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.