The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued a Request for Input (RFI) about needed renter protections in FHFA-financed properties. Any renter protections created by FHFA could cover a significant share of renters across the nation and put the U.S. on a path towards enacting stronger protections for all renters. Advocates have until July 31 to weigh in with FHFA about renter protections by submitting a public comment. Use NLIHC’s sample comment letter to craft your comment and submit it using the direct portal here. Advocates can also participate in the comment process in other ways, including by helping NLIHC strengthen its comment letter by registering for our July 26 working group on renter protections and by signing on to NLIHC’s national support letter calling on FHFA to create strong federal renter protections.
Background
Strengthening and enforcing renter protections is a key pillar of NLIHC’s national HoUSed campaign to advance the anti-racist policies and achieve the large-scale, sustained investments necessary to ensure renters with the lowest incomes have an affordable place to call home. Federal renter protections are needed to address the power imbalance between renters and landlords that puts renters at greater risk of housing instability, harassment, and homelessness and fuels racial inequity.
FHFA agreed to consider renter protections as part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, which was released in January 2023 after a months-long effort to gather input from stakeholders. In meetings with senior White House officials, NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel and NLIHC’s Tenant Leader Cohort urged the administration to take decisive action, including actions to establish renter protections for households living in properties with federally backed mortgages.
NLIHC’s top priorities for federal renter protections include:
- Source-of-income protections to prohibit landlords from discriminating against households receiving housing assistance and to give families greater choice about where to live.
- “Just cause” eviction standards and the right to renew leases to help protect renters from housing instability.
- Anti-rent gouging protections to stop landlords from dramatically raising rents.
- Requirements to ensure housing is safe, decent, accessible, and healthy for renters and their families.
At a minimum, any renter protections established by FHFA should be:
- Informed through continued engagement with renters and directly impacted people.
- Focused on racial and social equity as an explicit goal.
- Mandatory for all landlords and all rental properties, including multifamily and one-to-four-unit properties with an existing or future federally backed mortgage.
- Paired with strong enforcement. Landlords who violate renter protections should be found to be in technical default and should not be eligible for future loans.
The public comment period is open for advocates to weigh in with FHFA to demand strong renter protections. Landlords and business interests will come out in full force to try to stop FHFA from protecting renters, so it is critical that advocates take action and make their voices heard in the following ways:
- Join our working group on renter protections on July 26 at 4 pm ET to help strengthen NLIHC’s comment letter. Register for the meeting here.
- Submit a public comment by July 31. It is critical that FHFA hear from you and as many advocates as possible in support of renter protections! Use NLIHC’s sample comment letter to craft your comment and submit it using a direct portal here.
- Sign on to NLIHC’s national support letter calling on FHFA to create strong federal renter protections.
- Call on advocates in your community to participate! Share this information with your networks and encourage them to demand federal renter protections.