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The US desperately needs tenant protection and rent control. I lived in the same house for 8 years, renting from Radford & Son(s)/Radford Companies in Blacksburg, Virginia. Each year this company either reduced the amount of people who they would allow to rent the house, or increased rent, all while refusing to do important repairs and maintenance (like repairing the roof after a tree fell on it on Christmas day, until water started coming through my ceiling a few months later.) While they reduced the amount of people who could live in the house from 5 to three, they raised the rent consistently by $50/month most years, until finally a 38.41% increase last year, forcing myself and the other two tenants to move out. They raised the rent 52.25% on the incoming tenants when we moved out (from $1445 per month to $2200) This is significantly more than many, if not most people in that town can afford, whether they be staff at the university, or students. While there is new construction occurring around Blacksburg, it is previously affordable units being bulldozed and replaced exclusively with luxury apartments, or small family homes in town are being demolished and replaced with $750,000 football crash-pads for jet-setters. Each year, fewer and fewer people who work at Virginia Tech can afford to live in the town they work in, myself included.

The federal government needs to act fast, act yesterday. Rent controls are painfully necessary. At the age of 40, I don't want to be renting with people who don't take care of their lodgings the same way I do, I want to own a home. Doing so within half an hour from work seems like a pipe-dream. Between crushing rent hikes and crushing student debt, the future is beyond bleak. Beyond rent controls and tenant protections to protect renters from abusive landlords and property management companies, information needs to be made readily and easily available and visible to tenants to teach us we can address issues with predatory landlords.