Oh boy…article from marketwatch below:

With rental prices rising nationwide, there has never been a better time to examine how high housing costs impact everyday Americans. The Rental Trap is a new MarketWatch column profiling tenants’ issues, including renters who spend a high portion of their income on housing.

In late July, with consumer prices soaring nationwide, tenants from across the country descended on Washington, D.C., to meet with some of the Biden administration’s top housing officials — and make them contend with the real-world impact of a painful cost-of-living crisis.

While everyday Americans have been reaching into their savings accounts or cutting back on other necessities as a result of higher prices across the board, housing is already such a substantial part of many households’ budgets that it can be difficult to adjust. So, as inflation increases — rent prices were up 6.3% in July compared to a year ago according to data released by the Labor Department Wednesday — many tenants are left to face a hard truth.

With rental prices rising nationwide, there has never been a better time to examine how high housing costs impact everyday Americans. The Rental Trap is a new MarketWatch column profiling tenants’ issues, including renters who spend a high portion of their income on housing.

In late July, with consumer prices soaring nationwide, tenants from across the country descended on Washington, D.C., to meet with some of the Biden administration’s top housing officials — and make them contend with the real-world impact of a painful cost-of-living crisis.

While everyday Americans have been reaching into their savings accounts or cutting back on other necessities as a result of higher prices across the board, housing is already such a substantial part of many households’ budgets that it can be difficult to adjust. So, as inflation increases — rent prices were up 6.3% in July compared to a year ago according to data released by the Labor Department Wednesday — many tenants are left to face a hard truth.

The renters were representative of the myriad plights currently faced by tenants as the price of shelter balloons: a disabled veteran on a fixed income who can’t afford a rent increase, a single mother who can’t find a place to live with a Section 8 voucher, a man who can’t get an affordable home due to an eviction on his record, and others.

“We basically just went to talk to them about the rent hikes. We feel like it’s rent gouging, ” Vichelle Sanders, a 59-year-old Las Vegas renter, nonprofit worker, and leader with Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada told MarketWatch of the visit to D.C. “We talked about possibly getting a meeting with President Biden so that he can become aware that inflation is more than just gas prices.”

For the most part, she said, leaders seemed receptive.

“These types of meetings, held by the types of leaders that we organized through the delegation, are nothing short of historic,” Tara Raghuveer, director of the national Homes Guarantee campaign for People’s Action, said. “It’s game-changing to have people who have been directly impacted by rent increases, COVID evictions in the room with policymakers who, frankly, really need to hear from their experience and learn from their expertise.”

Across all of the meetings, Raguveer said, the emphasis was on rent inflation and what the administration could do to combat it. While Raghuveer said they didn’t get many answers, tenants nonetheless got clarity on “how various officials across these agencies see their role, how they’re thinking about it, and how we need to continue pushing the administration to develop a very precise strategy around rent inflation that has everything to do with executive and agency-level actions to regulate rent.”

The White House did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment. A spokesperson for the CFPB, however, said that Director Rohit Chopra, and other staff members who met with the delegation appreciated the opportunity to speak with “representatives of the People’s Action Homes Guarantee campaign, to hear their stories, and to listen to their ideas,” and looked forward to “continued engagement.”

A spokesperson with FHFA said the agency “regularly engages with groups and stakeholders on the important issue of equitable, sustainable and affordable housing.” HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a tweet on July 21 that she was grateful to hear from tenant advocates, adding she was “committed to continued tenant engagement to inform decision making and meet the needs of tenants across the country.”

30% hike in rent for a substitute teacher

Some tenants need those decisions to come sooner rather than later. Another renter who went to D.C. last month, Nancy Capron, is an extremely low-income 56-year-old substitute teacher and leader with Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts living in the city of Holyoke.

She makes somewhere between $12,000 and $17,000 each year, and her landlord — whom Capron otherwise described as “more than generous” — notified her earlier this summer that her rent would increase by about 30% to $755 a month, eating up most of her income. (Capron’s landlord did not immediately respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment.)

Since costs are going up across her city, she said, she cannot find a cheaper alternative.

“In my opinion, you either regulate wages to meet the cost of living, or you regulate the cost of living to meet the wages,” Capron said. “I’m not a genius, I’m not a policy person, I’m not educated in this — I’m sure that analysis is super simplistic. But if you’re just a human being who’s trying to figure out how to live …what’s the level of displacement where Americans will be like, ‘OK, that’s not right?’” But the trip to D.C., she felt, was representative of how a democracy should work, even if the circumstances that brought tenants there were troubling.

“People were open, they were empathetic, they listened, they thought about our policy suggestions,” Capron said. “The most interesting was the folks from FHFA. They’re the numbers people, and they were very engaged in the conversation and had some ideas.”

Some of the group’s demands — which many property owners would surely balk at — were also reiterated in a memo signed by tenant unions, community organizations, and legal partners Tuesday.

The memo called on the White House and several agencies to take action, saying the FHFA should direct Fannie Mae FNMA, 0.80% and Freddie Mac FMCC, -0.66% to regulate rents imposed by borrowers of federally-backed mortgages, while the CFPB should “investigate corporate landlords using unfair tenant screening and debt collection practices to discriminate against tenants” or collect unpaid rent from the pandemic.

Paula Cino, the vice president for construction, development, and land use policy at the National Multifamily Housing Council, a landlord group, said that fewer regulations should be considered for bringing down housing costs. The group has advocated for solutions that ramp up housing supply instead.

“Really, the last thing the industry needs is more regulation,” Cino said.

Research from the NMHC and the National Association of Home Builders based on a survey of 49 developers also found nearly half would avoid building in an area with inclusionary zoning rules requiring that a certain number of their units be rented at a below-market rate. Almost 88% said they’d avoid working in cities with rent control, which, the organizations said in a statement, “translates into housing not being built in many areas where it is so desperately needed.”

Some tenant advocates, though, see rising rents as a consequence of corporate greed, too. And they’re willing to fight for change.

“A lot of the tenants in the delegation left those meetings feeling like they weren’t alone in their pain, and they aren’t alone in their vision for what needs to happen,” Raghuveer said.

"In my opinion, you either regulate wages to meet the cost of living, or you regulate the cost of living to meet the wages,” Capron said. “I’m not a genius, I’m not a policy person, I’m not educated in this — I’m sure that analysis is super simplistic."

Words from the horses' mouth. Your typical "poor" tenant who has an opinion. An opinion that has been tried many times and has never, ever worked.

As soon as these oh-so-wise tenant group/politicians agree to fix ALL of the land lords' costs including labor, supplies, taxes, insurance, advertising, etc....then and only then would it be remotely justice to consider fixing rents.

But that's a centrally planned economy, and history is rife with examples of how horrible, inefficient, and unsustainable those are. Look at 1980s NYC rent control. Almost ever economist, even the Leftiest of the Lefties, agree rent control results in dilapidated condition of existing rental housing and no new units to replace them as they fall out of service.

The way you bring down the cost of housing is the way you bring down the cost of any other industry: increase supply! Remove regulations that limit multifamily units. Offer tax incentives to builders. Pass and enforce laws that protect private property rights. Welcome affordable housing: don't push it away!

"Remove regulations that limit multifamily units. " You can't make this one political. homeowners of all stripes push back against development.

There is a large piece of land that used to be a big box store. It has been empty for years and a developer wants to build apartment buildings. The neighbors adjacent to that land complain to city council and the rezoning is denied. that happens all . the . time.

"The neighbors adjacent to that land complain to city council "

David...the city counsel IS politics! They are elected town leaders, which means they are politicians. They are absolutely the ones who have the final say on zoning. No one else does. So yes, the is 100% politics.

Every politician has to balance the needs of the growing community (people who want cheaper housing) against the interests of those in the area (homeowners). This is no different than any other project in any other city in any other state. The homeowners are one constituency. The people who want cheaper housing are another. This can't be any clearer of an example of politics.

City counsel needs to get a spine and tell the owners if they want zoning to prohibit multifamily apartments, then they can buy the building and do whatever they want with it, including keeping everything "as is". Otherwise, the land should be sold to the developers and used to create affordable housing for the benefit of the community. The problem here is most likely cronyism and/or city counsel seeing who butters their bread. Rich homeowners are threatening to vote the city counsel members out if they fail to kow tow to their demands. Politics as usual.

Homeowners can be defeated a the ballot box, though, by the people who want affordable housing... IF they vote! Politics as usual.

Sid, I used the word "political" not "politics". You know full well what "political" means in this context. You also know the term "non-partisan" as it applies to many local offices , so if you like, consider that instead.

All right, David... I hear you. Seems like we're making a mountain out of a mole hill, arguing over semantics though.

Regardless of politics, partisanship, Righties, Lefties, etc. the solution remains the same: adding more affordable housing is the best way to bring down rent/housing costs. Regulating fails time and again. The only reason I brought up Lefties is I don't hear many folks on the Right calling for rent controls and "living wages." I hear it mostly from Dems, Socialists, Bernie Sanders, AOC, etc. So I think it's abundantly fair and non-partisan to call a spade a spade. The Left generally favors Govt programs and regulated markets. The Right generally favors competition and free markets. Exceptions exist on both sides. Yes, homeowners of all stripes yell NIMBY! They should be shushed and made to put up or shut up: buy the property if they want to control it's use instead of demanding Govt "do something". Neither the Left nor the Right seem to have the stomach to do it.

If you've got a better solution to the problem this article addresses, I'm all ears...

Sort of reminds me of what happens whenever we buy a property: while we are working on it, the neighbors start to slowly circle round, wondering what our intentions are. When we say it's a rental, they are taken aback and "had hoped someone was going to live there." (As if a tenant is not a person?) Hey, Neighbor: house was for sale for 7 years (or whatever!) Why didn't YOU buy it and put all this sweat equity into renovating it?

Have these 12K a year? Is this TANF? Have they thought about getting a 2nd job like I did (or even a 3rd one like I have done?)

Define "affordable?"

Just sitting there and saying "I should be able to make ends meet on 17K a year" is ludicrous!

To carry WMH point to action. I require per the lease that tenants keep the yards up. If they don't I will drop by have a chat as to what the problem is and if needed I will cut the grass. AND at times during routine inspections I have done the yard for free just to show the tenant what my expectations about the yard are.