The Congressional Progressive Caucus released its executive action priorities for the Biden administration, which include provisions to protect renters from price-gouging and excessive rent increases, discrimination, and unfair evictions through a variety of rulemaking and enforcement actions by federal agencies.
The actions include:
- New Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations defining excessive rent increases as unfairly affecting commerce and enforcing action against unfair rent-gouging practices.
- New Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) renter protections for individuals residing in multi-unit properties financed with government-backed mortgages, including anti-price-gouging protections, just-cause eviction standards, habitability standards, and protections against source-of-income discrimination.
- Encouraging the U.S. Departments of Transportation and Commerce to use all available tools to condition disbursals of funding to jurisdictions on their success in reforming land use and zoning regulations to encourage more affordable housing development.
- Supporting Public Housing Authorities to use all flexibilities available to help reduce costs other than rent, such as security deposits and moving expenses.
- Deploying HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule to issue guidance to entitlement jurisdictions to mitigate cost burdens and adopt anti-rent-gouging measures.
- Encouraging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice and HUD, to investigate instances of corporate landlords discriminating against tenants unlawfully, including through unfair tenant screening, source-of-income discrimination, or predatory debt collecting practices.
- Activating FEMA resources to help move people experiencing homelessness into permanent, affordable homes and provide longer-term rental assistance to help keep renters stably housed.
Explore the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s priorities here.