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My name is Jess and I am a former tenant, new homeowner, living in Lexington, Kentucky. I am a member of the Kentucky Tenants Union.

Rent in Lexington has had one of the most dramatic year over year rises in the country - so much so that we had to take extreme measures to secure a loan to get out of that game in early 2022. Before that, I shared our rental with three other roommates to help afford it. We are privileged enough to now use our mortgage as, functionally, rent control. The places I've had to see younger friends rent in order to keep living near their work get worse and worse, with landlords who don't care.

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,
Jess Estridge