The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has received more than 1,300 comments in response to its Request for Input (RFI) regarding the creation of tenant protections at multifamily properties with FHFA-backed mortgages (see Memo, 6/5). National organizations and tenant leaders are calling for a robust response to the RFI, as any renter protections created by FHFA could cover a significant share of renters across the nation. Advocates have until July 31 to weigh in with FHFA to help shape strong renter protections. NLIHC has several opportunities for tenant leaders and other advocates to engage in this process, including a sample comment letter for individual comments, an organizational sign-on letter in support of strong tenant protections, and a weekly renter protections working group to inform NLIHC’s comment letter.
Landlords and business interests have submitted dozens of comments against tenant protections. Now, it is up to tenants and advocates to voice their strong support for federal renter protections, like source-of-income protections, just cause eviction standards, and anti-rent gouging measures. Submit your comments and learn more about other tenant protections at www.tenantcomment.org. Organizations involved with NLIHC’s HoUSed campaign may be particularly interested in signing NLIHC’s organizational sign-on letter, which focuses on a major priority in the HoUSed campaign’s policy agenda: strengthening federal renter protections. NLIHC’s renter protections working group will meet twice again this month – on July 19 and again on July 26, in both cases at 4 pm ET – to finalize NLIHC’s comment letter. NLIHC urges all organizations – local, state, and national – to join efforts to support federal renter protections by taking action.
Take Action!
NLIHC urges tenant leaders and other advocates to respond to relevant questions in the RFI; you do not need to respond to every RFI question, just those that you have some experience with or have ideas about. In addition to responding to the RFI questions, you can offer other suggestions for providing strong tenant protections. Remember: comments will be made public on FHFA’s website, so please do not include personal identifying information.
Take action by:
- Submitting your own comments by July 31. It is crucial that FHFA hear from you and as many tenant leaders and other advocates as possible in support of renter protections. Use NLIHC’s sample comment letter and resources from www.tenantcomment.org to craft your comments and submit them using a direct portal here.
- Signing your organization on to NLIHC’s national support letter calling on FHFA to create strong federal renter protections.
- Joining our weekly working group on renter protections on July 19 and July 26 at 4 pm ET to help inform and strengthen NLIHC’s comment letter. Register for the weekly meeting here.
Read more about the Federal Housing Finance Agency and NLIHC’s opportunities for engagement at: https://tinyurl.com/mr473235
Read submitted comments on FHFA’s website (choose “Tenant Protections” in the drop-down menu): https://www.fhfa.gov/AboutUs/Contact/Pages/input-submissions.aspx