How we gonna pay last year’s rent? the chorus implores in the song “Rent” from Jonathan Larson’s 1996 musical of the same name.
It’s the same refrain for many Americans today. A new Harvard study found that half of U.S. renter households now spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. And rent increases continue to outpace their income gains. In the wealthiest country on the planet, this is unacceptable.
Over the past decade, according to the Harvard study, most growth in renter households has come from Millennials and Gen Zers who continue to be priced out of homeownership while also paying more for a declining supply of affordable units.
Meanwhile, construction in the high-end “luxury” rental market, which drives up rents for everyone else, remains in an upward trend. And private equity firms like Blackstone, the largest landlord in the U.S., have been expanding their real estate portfolios.
International law already recognizes housing as a human right. Countries are legally obligated to respect, protect and fulfill this right by enacting relevant policies and budgets to progressively realize adequate housing for all.
What might that look like? Possibilities include rent controls, housing assistance programs, reining in corporate landlords, and creating community land trusts and housing cooperatives to build permanently affordable rental units and homes.
The housing justice movement keeps growing, thanks to the sustained advocacy of community groups across the country.
In California, legislation is being pushed that would recognize the right to housing at the state level. Colorado lawmakers are considering legislation offering tenants “just-cause” eviction protections. In Congress, the “Housing is a Human Right Act” introduced last year would provide over $300 billion for housing infrastructure and combating homelessness.
The song “Rent” concludes, “Cause everything is rent.” But it shouldn’t have to be.
Farrah Hassen, J.D., is a writer, policy analyst and adjunct professor in Cal Poly Pomona’s department of political science.
