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Comment

Although I’m a homeowner, I’ve been a renter before, at an expensive property with a lot of maintenance issues- open ceilings, vermin infestations, etc. I know other renters experience this. In my experience, this resulted, for me, in long wait times for repairs, missed appointments from maintenance workers, people randomly entering your private space without you being there- it’s a disrespectful and disheartening position to be in. I know for so many more, it can get even worse.
For me, when issues were resolved by maintenance, and even when they didn’t resolve the issues, they left debris over on personal possessions and this, too, was frustrating. While this was a while ago, I know this is still happening. There needs to be some level of accountability involved, particularly when taxpayer funds are used to subsidize these landlords in being able to purchase these properties. If you’re a landlord and you’re taking money, you have an obligation to provide renters with a live-able space; just because a landlord is getting subsidies doesn’t alleviate them of the duty to provide habitable spaces. As these landlords use funds, the rent might go up, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of habitability and pricing people out of their homes and neighborhoods. Please consider requiring basic requirements of habitability and some semblance of rent control if you are going to use taxpayer money to subsidize the purchase of property for landlords.