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

I’ve been living on my own since 2020 and the housing market is in short terms DIFFICULT. Not only is housing extremely hard to find, but it’s also heavily expensive which leaves us working class people with even LESS options to live. Rent is too high, landlords are greedy and untrustworthy, and every day I fear of having to leave the town I grew up in because the city wants to care for the tourists that don’t live or work here. During my time at Montana State University, I had to share an apartment with 3 other people and pay over $700/month for rent. The apartment was cheaply built, had no safety measures put in place (no security cameras in the stairwells or parking lots) and was never upkept by the leasing office. My room was never cleaned or inspected when I first moved in (room was damaged and broken) and I was paying for recreational features that were NEVER available for our enjoyment. Other tenants would destroy the property and it took months to barely fix the damage. Landscaping and snow removal were never done. This same apartment now, is charging over $1,000/month per person for the SAME UNIT with very little positive change to the complex. I was working a part time job whilst going to school and was struggling to pay for both. Now, after graduating and working full time, it is still very difficult to live in Bozeman. If I didn’t have friends that needed a roommate for their apartment, I would’ve been forced to leave Bozeman. Even working full time, I could never afford to pay for a one bedroom or studio apartment here. It also doesn’t help that every new apartment complex being built is charging $2,000/month for their one bedrooms. I and many others are angry. If things don’t change, this town will become vacant.

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,
Gabrielle"