NLIHC’s national HoUSed campaign – and its nearly 2,000 member organizations – have a key opportunity this year to advance a major priority in the campaign’s policy agenda: strengthening federal renter protections to address the power imbalance between landlords and renters. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has issued a Request for Input (RFI) on how the agency can create and enforce renter protections for households living in rental properties with federally backed mortgages. 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, 2023, to weigh in with FHFA to help shape strong renter protections. Advocates can advance federal renter protections in the following ways:
- 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.
- Join our weekly working group on renter protections on Wednesdays at 4 pm ET to help strengthen NLIHC’s comment letter. Register for the weekly meeting here.
- Call on advocates in your community to participate! Share this information with your networks and encourage them to demand 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 now open for 60 days 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!