The rent is too damn high

This is a national emergency, and something’s gotta give. The solution to rent gouging? Rent caps.

Rent caps are sound economic policy, and the only solution that meets the urgency and scale of the crisis that millions of tenants endure every month.

The Tenant Union Federation is organizing to win federal rent caps, growing from work our unions and partners have led for years.

The role of the government

Our government is in business with our landlords. The nation’s biggest “affordable housing” programs, like the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), funnel public financing to the private market. The government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do $150 billion in annual business with landlords, financing their loans on sweet terms, with limited requirements.

Use the Tenant Union Federation database to look up federally financed properties where you live →

Our campaign

We believe that every dollar of public subsidy or financing should come with strings attached, including tenant protections like rent caps.

Since 2021 tenants have organized around this demand. Tenants are starting to win, but we're not there yet. Our next step: escalate the crisis. More information soon.

September 2021

Tenant unions sent a delegation of tenants who had been evicted during the pandemic to fight for a stronger eviction moratorium. The delegation met with the White House, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Deputy Secretary of Treasury, and the House Financial Services Committee.

Learn more

November 2022

Tenant unions held a Congressional briefing on rent inflation, attended (and disrupted) a White House convening on tenant protections, and wrote an Executive Order on federal actions to regulate rent.

Learn more

January 2023

Tenant unions won the first White House directives on tenant protections, including a directive for the nation's top housing regulator to pursue rent caps.

Learn more

July 2023

Tenant unions submitted thousands of tenant comments to the government and organized members of Congress, economists, and local elected leaders to call for federal rent caps.

Learn more

December 2023

100 tenant leaders held a Congressional briefing and direct actions targeting corporate landlords.

Learn more

March 2023-May 2024

Tenant unions hosted the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Sandra Thompson, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac in Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Learn more