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2 years in a row now, my landlord has jacked the rent over 15% ($300+), despite the first lease I signed saying rent would not increase more than 3% annually. My landlord constantly holds the lease renewal hostage after we sign it and refuses to sign it herself until she’s made random demands that we have to meet. She has threatened to evict us before and is currently doing the same thing simply because I stood up to her and cited Montana statute because she did something illegal. The extreme rent increases the last 2 years have made things that much more difficult. Having to scrounge money wherever I can to make up for it. THIS TOWN DOES NOT OFFER ENOUGH TO CHARGE WHAT IT’S TRYING TO CHARGE. I’ve lived here almost 2 decades and it’s disgusting to see how greed is ruining everything about it. I no longer love this town. I resent it.

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.