As the median rent spikes to $2,000 across the country, housing justice activists double down on efforts to counter price-gouging landlords.
By Eleanor J. Bader, The Progressive Magazine
When real estate giant Redfin issued its monthly rental report in June, it noted that, for the first time in history, the median monthly rent in the U.S. had surpassed $2,000, a 15 percent bump from the previous year.
Austin saw the largest increase of any metropolitan area, with rents over the past year surging by 48 percent to a median of $2,707 a month. But regardless of whether you’re a tenant in Anaheim (median: $3,400); Boston (median: $3,970); Chicago (median: $2,454); Fort Lauderdale (median: $3,157); Los Angeles (median: $3,400); Miami (median: $3,157); Newark (median: $4,008) or Seattle (median: $3,097), rents are skyrocketing everywhere.
Reverend Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign and director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, calls it “a massive housing emergency.”
Coupled with the ongoing pandemic and ever-increasing food and fuel prices, low and moderate-income people in every corner of the country are suffering—and many are losing their homes.
Recent Posts
A Hell Made for the Innocent: Of Monsters, Media, And The Gentle Language Of Genocide
Take Action Now Consider these words, from a Washington Post headline: “Gazans are dying of hunger.” That’s like saying a gunshot victim “died from…
Trump Wants To Stop Regulating Greenhouse Gases Entirely
Take Action Now The decision could have far-reaching consequences — including for the fossil fuel industry, which may find itself exposed to a flood…
‘MORAL INJURY’: Murdered In Gaza, Disappeared In America
Take Action Now It’s the concept that violence and injustice have more victims than the directly victimized. And can affect how we function and…
A Putz At Fascism, Too! Trump’s Feral, Libertarian Despotism Ordains Oligarchy, Not Centralized Dominance Or Unifying Vision
Take Action Now Trumpist extremism turns out to be a particularly noxious, authoritarian brew better called “oligarchic, authoritarian…