A federal agency has initiated the next step toward the Biden Administration’s efforts to create a national renters bill of rights announced earlier this year that calls for more federal action on housing affordability across the country.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is seeking comments from the public on tenant experiences and stakeholder perspectives through July 31 on properties with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government enterprises that are a major lending source for apartments. FHFA also wants ideas on improving data collection to be able to quantify the size and scope of issues tenants are dealing with.
A goal for seeking public comments is to find ways that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can better meet their mission on affordable housing. “The enterprises have a responsibility to not only ensure liquidity is available for affordable rental housing, but also to address challenges faced by tenants and property owners in the multifamily housing market,” Sandra L. Thompson, the agency’s director, said in a statement.
Gathering comments marks one of the steps President Biden announced in late January that his administration would be taking to increase fairness in the rental market that housing advocates had deemed lacking. Housing advocates across the country had been putting pressure on the administration since Biden took office to take steps at the federal level to protect renters as rents soared in 2021 and into last year and eviction moratoriums were ending.
Cities and counties across the country had been enacting tenant bill of rights that sought to give renters stronger protections in evictions and require advance notice of rent increases.
The National Apartment Association and the National Multifamily Housing Council, the two largest landlord member organizations, chaffed at greater involvement from the federal government, saying the focus should be on creating more housing.
The FHFA’s request for input comes during the same week as the deadline of another part of the Biden Administration’s proposal. Tuesday was the last day to send comments to the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Financial Protection Bureau on renter background screening issues, “including how the use of criminal and eviction records and algorithms affect tenant screening decisions and may be driving discriminatory outcomes.”