Housing rights activists and tenants protest against evictions and the poor condition of their apartments outside the offices the owner Broadway Capital in Chelsea, Massachusetts on April 25, 2022.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
The Biden administration announced on Wednesday recent actions to guard renters across the U.S., including attempting to curb practices that prevent people from accessing housing and curtailing exorbitant rent increases in certain properties with government-backed mortgages.
A “Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights” was included within the announcement. It lays out a set of principles for the federal government and other entities to take motion on, including “access to protected, quality, accessible and reasonably priced housing” and “clear and fair leases.”
“Having the federal government and the White House talk in regards to the need for and endorse a renters’ bill of rights is basically significant,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
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Over 44 million households, or roughly 35% the U.S. population, live in rental housing, based on the White House.
While the coronavirus pandemic led to a wave of latest renter protections and aid measures, including a historic pot of rental assistance for many who’d fallen behind, most of that help has dried up by now.
Advocates have long called on the federal government to reply to an affordability crisis facing renters. Nearly half of renter households within the U.S. direct greater than 30% of their income to rent and utilities every month, and 900,000 evictions occurred annually prior to the general public health crisis.
Possibly curbing ‘egregious rent increases’
As a part of Wednesday’s announcement, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and federal mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say they’ll look into possibly establishing tenant protections that limit “egregious rent increases” at properties backed by certain federal mortgages.
Greater than 28% of the national stock of rental units are federally financed, according to a calculation by the Urban Institute in 2020.
Rent protections on such properties “can be probably the most significant motion the federal government could take,” Yentel said.
As a part of the White House actions, the Federal Trade Commission said it would look into ways to expand its authority to take motion against practices that “unfairly prevent consumers from obtaining and retaining housing.”
The persistence of eviction information on certain background reports, in addition to high application fees and security deposits, are a few of these practices, Yentel said.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also said it would move toward requiring certain rental property owners to supply at the least 30 days notice in the event that they plan to terminate the lease of a tenant attributable to nonpayment of rent. The agency will award $20 million for the Eviction Protection Grant Program, which is able to fund nonprofits and government agencies to supply legal assistance to low-income tenants susceptible to eviction.
Bob Pinnegar, president and CEO of trade group the National Apartment Association, said the industry opposed expanded federal involvement within the landlord-tenant relationship.
“Complex housing policy is a state and native issue and the most effective solutions utilize carrots over sticks,” Pinnegar said.
‘Aggressive administrative motion is so essential’
Although the steps announced by the Biden administration are historic, they will not resolve the U.S. housing crisis, Yentel said.
What’s needed to handle the deep issues, she said, is constructing cheaper housing, creating everlasting emergency and universal rental assistance, and establishing robust tenant protections.
Nevertheless, Yentel added, because it’s “hard to see where the opportunities for those investments will come from this Congress, aggressive administrative motion is so essential.”
