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Comment

My name is Gillian and I am a tenant living in Lexington, Kentucky. I am a member of the homes guarantee campaign.

In the midst of egregious interest rates, inflated grocery and necessity prices, and wages that refuse to keep up, my rent went up this month by $200, which, with everything mentioned above, only adds more strain to my already paycheck-to-paycheck budget. Because of this rent hike- I’m going to pick up a part time job for when I am not working at my full-time job. With what I do, 40 hours is already exhausting, and I know 15 more hours will burn me out. But I have no choice.

The rent is too 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, for properties that have federally backed mortgages. These limits should be applied universally as a requirement to all federally backed mortgage programs.

In 2023, there is not a single state where a worker employed full-time at the federal minimum wage can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

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,
Gillian