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My name is Brendan Holly and I am a tenant living in Blacksburg, Virginia.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency should protect tenants by limiting annual rent hikes to 3% in properties with federally backed mortgages. As major corporations and investment groups continue to buy up rental stock, projected to increase to as much as 40% of all rental units by 2030 according to MetLife Investment management (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/21/how-wall-street-bought-single-family-ho…), the government should be doing more to protect tenants from unmanageable and unexpected rent increases. The toll of eviction on our citizens's lives and livelihoods should not be prioritized over inflationary rent increases when the government is backing these homes with low-interest, stable loans. This action is a piece of low hanging fruit to attempt to ensure that the affordable housing crisis in many parts of our country is not driven out of control thanks to federally-backed home loans.

In addition to limits on rent hikes, the FHFA should prohibit evictions without good cause and expand existing protections against discrimination, as well as adding additional requirements on livable conditions, and the creation of an Office of Tenant Protections to enforce these rights in all properties with federally backed mortgages.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Brendan