Comment Detail

Comment

The Honorable Sandra Thompson
Federal Housing Finance Agency
Washington, D.C.

Director Thompson,

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)
Request for Information on tenant protections. My name is Nancy Ashworth and I am a tenant in Eugene, Oregon.
I am wring to share my rental experience and to urge FHFA to take bold action to create clear, strong, and enforceable renter protections for households living in rental properties with federally
backed mortgages as well as all Property Companies Given the broad reach of FHFA’s work, any renter protections created by FHFA should
cover a significant share of renters across the nation and put America on a pathway towards stronger
protections for all renters.
Federal renter protections are crucially needed to address the power imbalance between landlords and
renters that puts renters at greater risk of housing instability, harassment, and homelessness and fuels racial and gender inequity.
To help ensure greater housing stability, FHFA should create new renter protections for households living
in properties with federally backed mortgages, including:
1. Source of income protections to prohibit landlords from discriminating against households
receiving rental housing assistance such as Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, or Supplemental Security Income, or local rental assistance, so that families can have greater choice about
where to live.
2. “Just cause” eviction standards, which limit the causes for which a landlord can evict a tenant or
refuse to renew a tenant’s lease when the tenant is not at fault or in violation of any law.
3. Rent gouging protections to stop landlords from dramatically and unreasonably raising rents.
4. Requirements to ensure housing is safe, decent, accessible, and healthy for renters and their families.

In my experience, I am being displaced after 20 Years of living at my current residence, my wonderful private landlady passed away earlier this year and her children had to sell her properties. The small 4 plex building I live in was the first to go. It was sold to a wealthy developer / property management company at the end of May of this year and with in 2 weeks, I and all the other tenants here were promptly given 90 day Vacate termination notices. This new owner cited renovations as the reason to throw us out. They have been very cruel since giving the notices , such as removing our dumpster for several days and destroying the upstairs apartment balconies while tenants still lived in those units making it very unsafe. It has been very stressful trying to find another place to move to because I can’t afford much and afraid of being homeless. I am 62 years old and live on social security disability and work part time. I do not have the earning power to pay the exorbitant rents, deposits, application fees that landlords demand and to also pay other sky rocketing bills such as food, medicine, utilities and insurance. The ordinary citizen CANNOT MAKE ENDS MEET. This is why we have thousands and thousand of homeless across the country! Also, since I am NOT homeless yet, I am ineligible for any programs to get help. I have to lose everything in order to qualify for help it seems. Which is so wrong! The government must create new programs to help people like me. We must have communities with strong, enforceable tenant laws and protections!

These protections– along with to large-scale, sustained investments and an-racist reforms – are necessary to ensure that everyone,
including the lowest-income and most marginalized renters, have a safe, quality, affordable, and accessible place to call home.

Sincerely,
Nancy Ashworth
Eugene, Oregon,
Eugene Tenant Alliance