Page 206 - Demo

2945 Redefining Americaearn a decent rate of return. Must they? How do we know?We need more housing; no one can deny that. But rents have jumped even in cities with plenty of apartments to go around. At the end of 2021, almost 19 percent of rental units in Birmingham, Ala., sat vacant, as did 12 percent of those in Syracuse, N.Y. Yet rent in those areas increased by roughly 14 percent and 8 percent, respectively, over the previous two years. National data also show that rental revenues have far outpaced property owners%u2019 expenses in recent years, especially for multifamily properties in poor neighborhoods. . . .A study I published with Nathan Wilmers found that after accounting for all costs, landlords operating in poor neighborhoods typically take in profits that are double those of landlords operating in affluent communities. If down-market landlords make more, it%u2019s because their regular expenses (especially their mortgages and property-tax bills) are considerably lower than those in upscale neighborhoods. But in many cities with average or below-average housing costs%u2014think Buffalo, not Boston%u2014rents in the poorest neighborhoods are not drastically lower than rents in the middle-class sections of town. From 2015 to 2019, median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Indianapolis metropolitan area was $991; it was $816 in neighborhoods with poverty rates above 40 percent, just around 17 percent less. Rents are lower in extremely poor neighborhoods, but not by as much as you would think.Yet where else can poor families live? They are shut out of homeownership because banks are disinclined to issue small-dollar mortgages, 15%u00a9 Stephen Shames/Polaris ImagesThese two photographs, which accompanied Desmond%u2019s article when it was first published, show a steelworker striking against mistreatment on the job in 1992 and Amazon employees protesting low pay and increased surveillance in 2022.How would Desmond explain the lack of progress in securing better pay and work conditions over the thirty years that separate these photographs?Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesPoor Americans aren%u2019t just exploited in the labor market. They face consumer exploitation in the housing and financial markets as well.There is a long history of slum exploitation in America. Money made slums because slums made money. Rent has more than doubled over the past two decades, rising much faster than renters%u2019 incomes. Median rent rose from $483 in 2000 to $1,216 in 2021. Why have rents shot up so fast? Experts tend to offer the same rote answers to this question. There%u2019s not enough housing supply, they say, and too much demand. Landlords must charge more just to Copyright %u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.