The Financialization of Human Shelter: The Rental Housing Crisis in a Sunbelt City

The affordable housing crisis and its impact on a growing population is one of the most significant political and policy issues in the US and globally. The Financialization of Human Shelter examines the factors contributing to the sharp rise in rental housing costs in the US, the financialization of housing, and the consequences for tenants.

Based on a public sociology research project conducted in the Sunbelt city of Jacksonville, Florida, authors Jaffee and Renzi delve into the financialization of housing in the rental housing market involving the acquisition by corporate entities of single-family and multifamily properties that are then bundled into portfolios as asset class investment opportunities for wealthy investors. Analyzing how this business model driving this trend is organized to extract the maximum amount of income from the properties and provide a healthy return to investors through the raising of rents, adding of superfluous fees, and minimizing of maintenance costs, this study shows how tenants face rising cost burdens, unsafe conditions, housing insecurity, displacement, and homelessness. Informed by a conceptual depth and rich quantitative and qualitative data, the authors assess how policy could address the affordable rental housing crisis and the need for investment in public, non-profit, housing provision protected from market forces.

Highlighting the role of community-engaged, public sociology as a driver for addressing a pressing social issue, this is refreshing reading for those interested in alternative and critical analyzes of the rental housing system in the US, urban case studies, and the struggles of renters/tenants as an exploited class.