{"id":350,"date":"2024-05-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filipzajac.me\/?p=350"},"modified":"2024-05-20T03:45:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-20T03:45:04","slug":"tenant-rights-organizer-sees-opportunity-amid-housing-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/filipzajac.me\/index.php\/2024\/05\/15\/tenant-rights-organizer-sees-opportunity-amid-housing-crunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenant rights organizer sees opportunity amid housing crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"
As economic forces converge on the housing market amid the highest inflation in 40 years, one tenant rights activist is seizing a moment of opportunity to pursue fundamental changes in the way the U.S. approaches affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Tara Raghuveer, founder of an influential tenants union in Kansas City and an organizer of a national tenant union federation, is working to capitalize on the social and financial pressures now squeezing the housing sector to produce what she sees as potential diamonds of public policy \u2014 effective rent caps for landlords who claim tax credits for building low-income housing units.<\/p>\n
In April, the Department of Housing and Urban Development enacted what amount to 10 percent rent increase limitations for the federal program known as the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), in part a result of aggressive organizing from Raghuveer and her colleagues as well as from other tenant-focused advocacy organizations.<\/p>\n
While the 10 percent cap is considerably higher than the 3 percent limit advocates had been seeking, Raghuveer regards the framework it establishes as a milestone among recent U.S. housing policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s precedent-setting in that it\u2019s the first time that we know of in recent history that the government has taken seriously the potential to condition federal financing on this type of protection,\u201d she told The Hill in an interview.<\/p>\n
Low-income housing advocates\u00a0cheered the effective rent caps on<\/a>,\u00a0while organizations representing\u00a0commercial builders and the real estate industry<\/a>\u00a0gritted their teeth at the change, saying it amounts to \u201c[picking] winners and losers,\u201d though they acknowledged it would likely \u201cresult in potentially smaller rent increases for some tenants.\u201d<\/p>\n As the commercial groups recognize, the design of the cap is not traditional rent regulation but\u00a0pegged to changes<\/a>\u00a0in national median income levels for a subset of LIHTC properties, conditions that make the cap \u201ca little bit wonky,\u201d in Raghuveer\u2019s estimation, and difficult for tenants to identify.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s just the beginning, Raghuveer says. She and her group, the national Tenant Union Federation, are looking beyond the $13 billion-a-year LIHTC program and toward the much larger government-sponsored mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as places to expand tenant protections within housing finance providers that are already supported by the public.<\/p>\n Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were nationalized in the form of public conservatorships in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, issued more than $100 billion in mortgages in 2023 and more than $142 billion in 2022.<\/p>\n Accounting methods for these government-sponsored enterprises, which have been both public and private at various points in their history, vary among government agencies, and the\u00a0Congressional Research Service<\/a>\u00a0even describes the final cost to U.S. taxpayers of supporting them as \u201cunknown.\u201d<\/p>\n