The White House Is Considering Broad Actions to Expand Tenant Protections
Americans are struggling to afford their homes after a years-long boom in rents. Advocates say it’s time for Biden to step up.
Crown Heights building tenant Sean Riley stages a rent strike on May 1, 2020 in New York City. Increasingly unaffordable rents have become a national concern in the US.
Photographer: Angela Weiss/AFP
The White House is weighing a range of executive actions to authorize and expand protections for renters, who pay a high share of their income toward housing nationwide and face little prospect of relief from the new Congress.
Measures being mulled by senior Biden administration officials include sealing eviction records, standardizing rental leases and promoting a right to counsel for tenants facing off with landlords in housing court. Another possibility could be a federal campaign to curb discrimination against affordable housing voucher holders based on their source of income, a practice challenged as a fair housing violation.