Comment Detail

Comment

My name is Miranda and I am a Lexington, Kentucky resident. I am a member of the Kentucky Tenants union.

I rented in Lexington for nine years before being able to afford purchasing a home with my partner last year. On my nonprofit paraprofessional salary, I always had to rent with 1-3 housemates in order to afford rent and I often worked two jobs. My second floor apartment of four years always had mice and my landlord refused to fix the holes that the mice were able to enter through. My apartment prior to that was sold out from under me and I was forced to find new housing within 30 days during the holidays.

Median rents in the U.S. have risen nearly 20% in the last two years alone (Arnold, Chris. June 2022. “Rents across U.S. rise above $2,000 a month for the first time ever.” National Public Radio.). I stand with tenants in acknowledging that 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,
Miranda Brown