WASHINGTON, D.C.–A partnership of 11 leading housing justice organizations released the following statement in response to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) request for public input (RFI) on tenant protections and limits against egregious rent hikes:
“The FHFA’s announcement is a historic opportunity for tenants to organize together, share their stories, and help secure federal tenant protections as a condition of federal financing. We thank the tenant-led groups and their allies across the country who organized to get us here.
“In today’s housing market, tenants pay too much to rent properties that are in substandard condition. They face discrimination and are at risk of eviction for no good reason, often without recourse against their landlords. To date, the federal government has done too little to address the power imbalance between landlords and tenants. Today’s announcement, the product of tenant organizing, presents a chance to change that.
“Everyone deserves a safe, accessible, sustainable, and permanently affordable home. Every dollar of federal housing financing should come with conditions that protect tenants.
“We hope the FHFA continues to explore their role in protecting tenants, especially as a regulator of the government sponsored enterprises. Our organizations are committed to continued work with the FHFA to ensure that tenants are central to decisions that will impact their lives. We applaud the leadership at the FHFA who are prioritizing tenants in a historic way through this process.”
The FHFA announcement follows months of organizing through the White House interagency process on tenant protections, including meetings between tenants and the FHFA’s senior leadership team. The housing justice organizations today also launched a website to collect input for the FHFA process. The organizations include People’s Action Homes Guarantee, Alliance for Housing Justice, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Debt Collective, Liberation in a Generation, MH Action, National Housing Law Project, National Low Income Housing Coalition, PolicyLink, Private Equity Stakeholder Project, and Right to the City Alliance.
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People’s Action builds the power of poor and working people in urban, rural, and suburban areas to win change through issue fights and elections. We are a national network of 40 state and local grassroots power-building organizations in 29 states–united in the work of building a bigger “we.”
Contact: Johanna Kichton, press@peoplesaction.org, 202.660.0605