Homes Guarantee Campaign Demands White House Regulate Rent and Bust Rental Market Consolidation

People’s Action’s Homes Guarantee campaign today released a set of essential actions the White House must take to regulate rent and address the consolidation of the rental market by corporate landlords. 281 national and local tenant-led organizations and community groups support these actions. The demands precede an expected announcement from the White House on tenant protections that has the real estate industry concerned.

“Rent is a significant economic issue the Biden administration has the opportunity to tackle. They should take it,”People’s Action Homes Guarantee Campaign Director Tara Raghuveer said.“These actions are the essential components of any meaningful strategy to protect tenants, and they complement other White House priorities to strengthen and grow the American economy, like their work to limit market consolidation and monopoly price-setting power.”

The essential actions include directing the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of the Treasury to:

• Protect tenants from unfair, unjust, and unaffordable rent hikes, fines, and fees through rent regulation;
• Expand and enforce tenant protections by defining “good cause” eviction; and
• Address the consolidation of the rental market by corporate landlords.

“I need to know that the President is fighting for me and not corporate landlords,” Louisville Tenants Union Tenant Leader LaMonica Dickerson said. “Landlords have been hiking rents for years, and corporate real estate companies are snatching up properties making it harder and more expensive for people like me to stay in our homes. Rent is my biggest bill every single month–if the White House wants to lower costs for everyday people, they need to start with the rent.”

The Homes Guarantee campaign has advocated for the White House to take executive action over the last year through drafting a proposed executive order, organizing meetings between tenants and high-level White House officials at the National Economic Council, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA); attending a White House stakeholder meeting, holding a 100-tenant rally at the White House; and hosting a congressional briefing with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and U.S. Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., Jesús (“Chuy”) García, D-Ill., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.

Read the full set of essential actions the White House must take to protect tenants here.