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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/31/23
    First Name: Tiffany
    Last Name: Garcia
    Email: tiff-garcia37@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Bozeman Tenants United + Homes Guarantee Campaign

  • Comment

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

    My husband and I live in Government housing and are paying the max amount they can charge. I am currently pregnant and just picked up another job to help make ends meet. We both have lived in government housing our whole lives and one day want to transition out of our current housing to more affordable and safer housing. However, cannot do so without leaving Bozeman.

    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.

    Sincerely,
    Tiffany.