Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year.
Every month, like millions of Americans, Colbert juggled her costs. Pay rent or swim team fees for one of her three kids. Rent or school supplies. Rent or groceries. Colbert, a social worker who helps people stay financially afloat, would often arrive home to notices giving her 30 days to pay rent and a late fee or face eviction.
“Every month you just gotta budget and then you still fall short,” she said, adding what became a monthly refrain: “Well, this month at least we have $13 left.”
Millions of Americans, especially people of color, are facing those same, painful decisions as a record number struggle with unaffordable rent increases, a crisis fueled by rising prices from inflation, a shortage of affordable housing and the end of pandemic relief.
The latest data from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, released in January, found that a record high 22.4 million renter households — or half of renters nationwide — were spending more than 30% of their income on rent in 2022. The number of affordable units — with rents under $600 — also dropped to 7.2 million that year, 2.1 million fewer than a decade earlier.
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In Congress, lawmakers are working on a bill that would expand a federal program that awards tax credits to housing developers who agree to set aside units for low-income tenants. Supporters say that could lead to the construction of 200,000 more affordable homes. Some lawmakers are also calling for more rental assistance, including a significant increase in funding for housing vouchers.
Meanwhile companies are raking in record profits, and the rich get richer. This won’t stop until the workers seize the means of production.
Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year.
In Denver, Colbert’s bathroom roof partly caved in from a leak last year, and the landlord delayed a fix even as rent went up $200 a month.
There’s a name for landlords like that: slum lords.
After failing to make a significant dent in the problem over the last decade, state and federal lawmakers across the U.S. are making housing a priority in 2024 and throwing the kitchen sink at the issue — including proposals to enact eviction protections, institute zoning reforms, cap annual rent increases and dedicate tens of billions of dollars toward building more housing.
They haven’t done anything for decades…
But we should believe them now in the run up to an election that after the next election they’ll really do something.
They’ve been saying the same thing as far back as I can remember, but as soon as their elected they go back to ignoring it.
We need to get the Republicans and neoliberals out of office if we want actual progress. Neither of them will actually fix this shit, because the people donating them money don’t want it fixed.
The most we’ll get is billions to real estate moguls to subsidize them building high end housing that doesn’t address the issue.
NYC finally did something in 2019 about the predatory renting practices, such as having the tenant pay the exorbitant broker fees (typically 2x or more of monthly rent, which is around $2600-3000/month), this was now the landlord’s responsibility… Then in 2022 they repealed it.
Get real estate developers and land lords out of the legislatures. Make it such a dirty word that being found out means your campaign is over.
Let’s not stop there. Get big corporations out of the legislature. End Citizen’s United.
If the poor folk could organize, pool money together, and spend time lobbying, we might have a chance. We suck at organizing, we’re too short on cash just trying to stay afloat, and we’ve no time to be spending lobbying, either.
Hah, I’m looking forward to not being able to afford my rent when renewal comes up in a year.
I’ll be making $110k, splitting the place with my brother, but who knows how much goes to my ex
Lawmakers are scrambling to help
Are they though?
Scrambling to make it look like you weren’t just faffing off when you were supposed to be working? Like when your boss comes in and you’ve got a video game up on your screen? Or your wife comes home from out of town, and you’re running around picking up laundry and pizza boxes? That sort of scrambling?
