like the economy is troubled because they are still adjusting to higher prices after a global pandemic, and that helps to explain President Joe Biden’s dismal poll numbers as he seeks reelection in November.of people making less than $50,000 a year were living paycheck to paycheck, along with 4 in 10 workers making more than $100,000 a year., and it’s difficult to put a positive spin on the economy when you’re struggling to pay rent and the landlord ignores your calls to fix the plumbing.
“As long as landlords have the power to price gouge or inflate rents at whatever rate they so choose, they will,” White said.that it’s all about power. Landlords leverage access to a basic human need that costs many people a significant chunk of their income. When housing markets are tight and lower-income tenants have few or no options, landlords can continue raising the rent even as inflation cools and simply evict tenants who can’t afford to pay.
President Biden knows that the affordable housing shortage and rent prices are problems for millions of voters — and for him politically. Administration officials met with the Homes Guarantee campaign and housing justice activists from across the country last summer, and Biden pledged to crack down on price-gouging “big landlords” in his State of the Union speech last week.filed by tenants against RealPage, a real estate website accused to colluding with landlords to inflate rent prices.
After two years of organizing by the Housing Guarantee campaign and its allies, the Federal Housing Finance Agency agreed to take public comments on proposals for enhancing protections for tenants renting from landlords with federally backed mortgages. White said any new regulations would apply to about 12 million homes nationwide, and the goal is to restore some balance of power between tenants and landlords.
Source: Financial Digest (financialdigest.net)