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  • Comment Detail

  • Date: 07/31/23
    First Name: Carlos
    Last Name: Meneses
    Email: cMeneses.08.29@gmail.com
    Organization Type: other
    Organization: Bozeman Tenants United + Homes Guarantee Campaign

  • Comment

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

    I am a construction worker in Bozeman and everyday I build condos that I could never afford to live in. Then I go home to my family where we feel the squeeze of the housing crisis everyday. I personally know 5 people who have been displaced this year by the housing crisis. We need tenant protects and we need rent control now.

    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,
    Carlos